Mode of Program Participation
Community Organizing and Educational Programming
Participation Type
Workshop
Session Title
Case Studies and Principles for Organizing 1980-2016
Session Abstract or Summary
Case Studies and Principles for Organizing 1980-2016:
- Buncombe County, NC: 2016
- Madison, Haywood, Mitchell and Yancey Counties: 1990-2000
- Montrouis, Haiti: 2006-present
This presentation draws principles from a half-century of learning, field work and organizing in Appalachia, and how these principles have been employed not only in the Southern Mountains, but also in the mountains of Haiti.
The first case study recounts how citizens successfully organized to stop a New York-funded developer from encroaching upon a small mountain town’s heavily used public park and nearby homes in Buncombe County, NC, in 2016.
The second case study is a Kellogg Foundation-funded pilot project to engage citizens in North Carolina’s poorest Appalachian county in community-directed health initiatives. Its success led to duplicate projects in surrounding counties in subsequent years.
The experience gained in the above projects was later applied by Appalachian medical provider and lay volunteers to Haitian communities, where a combination of malnutrition and intestinal parasites were killing children. Over the past decade, cross-cultural dialogue and training have enabled Haitians to mix their own knowledge with skills brought from Western North Carolina to vastly reduce morbidity and mortality, and begin sustainable nutrition programs in the coastal town of Montrouis, and surrounding mountain villages.
My preference would be to do this as a workshop. A second possibility would be a poster session, utilizing photographs and other graphics from the three case studies.
Presentation #1 Title
Case Studies and Principles for Organizing 1980-2016
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
Case Studies and Principles for Organizing 1980-2016:
- Buncombe County, NC: 2016
- Madison, Haywood, Mitchell and Yancey Counties: 1990-2000
- Montrouis, Haiti: 2006-present
This presentation draws principles from a half-century of learning, field work and organizing in Appalachia, and how these principles have been employed not only in the Southern Mountains, but also in the mountains of Haiti.
The first case study recounts how citizens successfully organized to stop a New York-funded developer from encroaching upon a small mountain town’s heavily used public park and nearby homes in Buncombe County, NC, in 2016.
The second case study is a Kellogg Foundation-funded pilot project to engage citizens in North Carolina’s poorest Appalachian county in community-directed health initiatives. Its success led to duplicate projects in surrounding counties in subsequent years.
The experience gained in the above projects was later applied by Appalachian medical provider and lay volunteers to Haitian communities, where a combination of malnutrition and intestinal parasites were killing children. Over the past decade, cross-cultural dialogue and training have enabled Haitians to mix their own knowledge with skills brought from Western North Carolina to vastly reduce morbidity and mortality, and begin sustainable nutrition programs in the coastal town of Montrouis, and surrounding mountain villages.
My preference would be to do this as a workshop. A second possibility would be a poster session, utilizing photographs and other graphics from the three case studies.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Tom Plaut is president of the Lake Louise Preservation Assocition and a co-coordinator for Appalachian Regional Studies at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at UNC-Asheville. He is a former ASA president and recipient of the Cratis D. Williams/James S. Brown Service Award.
Case Studies and Principles for Organizing 1980-2016
Case Studies and Principles for Organizing 1980-2016:
- Buncombe County, NC: 2016
- Madison, Haywood, Mitchell and Yancey Counties: 1990-2000
- Montrouis, Haiti: 2006-present
This presentation draws principles from a half-century of learning, field work and organizing in Appalachia, and how these principles have been employed not only in the Southern Mountains, but also in the mountains of Haiti.
The first case study recounts how citizens successfully organized to stop a New York-funded developer from encroaching upon a small mountain town’s heavily used public park and nearby homes in Buncombe County, NC, in 2016.
The second case study is a Kellogg Foundation-funded pilot project to engage citizens in North Carolina’s poorest Appalachian county in community-directed health initiatives. Its success led to duplicate projects in surrounding counties in subsequent years.
The experience gained in the above projects was later applied by Appalachian medical provider and lay volunteers to Haitian communities, where a combination of malnutrition and intestinal parasites were killing children. Over the past decade, cross-cultural dialogue and training have enabled Haitians to mix their own knowledge with skills brought from Western North Carolina to vastly reduce morbidity and mortality, and begin sustainable nutrition programs in the coastal town of Montrouis, and surrounding mountain villages.
My preference would be to do this as a workshop. A second possibility would be a poster session, utilizing photographs and other graphics from the three case studies.
