HEARTS OF APPALACHIA PROJECT

How the Human Animal Bond Supports Healing Loneliness, illness, and long days inside medical facilities are realities many Appalachian families know well. In places where community once filled the gaps, isolation can creep in quietly. Sometimes, what makes the greatest difference isn’t a treatment plan or a tightly scheduled program, but the steady presence of another living being and the simple feeling of being seen. One such program is HABIT, a volunteer-based initiative th

Some people speak about Appalachia from the outside. Others speak from within it, shaped by the roads they’ve driven, the communities they’ve raised families in, and the places they intend to stay. Christopher Allen of Appalachia Insider  speaks from that inside place. Christopher Allen, owner and co-founder of Appalachia Insider , belongs firmly in the second group. Christopher created Appalachia Insider out of a growing frustration with how his home region was being portray

These memories are shared with us by members of our communities. We’ve gently expanded it into story form while keeping the heart, details, and intention true to what was told. These memories help preserve the way Christmas once felt in the mountains, and we share them with gratitude. Three Little Cowboys in Kirktown (1955 or ’56) Shared with permission from Dan DeLaney Back in Kirktown, sometime around ’55 or ’56, Christmas morning came with a dusting of snow and three boys

Hope for the Hungry Food Pantry officially began in 2019, but the story started long before that. The church had tried more than once to launch a food program, and each time it simply never got off the ground. The desire was there. The need was there. But sometimes good work has to wait for the right moment. As a church, they had always believed deeply in the commission given in Matthew: to clothe the naked, visit the imprisoned, and feed the hungry. Those words weren’t abstr