In July, the U.S. government declared the fight against poverty, for “successfully” and “as good as finished”. For the people in former industrial regions, this sounds like a bad joke. From Kentucky Michael Knigge.
Harlan County is wedged in a beautiful place, in a valley between two wooded mountains in the Appalachian mountains of Kentucky. But he is also one of the poorest districts in the United States. A place that people have relied for decades.
In its high phase, more than 75,000 people lived here. That was in 1940, as a coal-mining bot still a lot of work. Since then, the population trend reflects the steady decline of the coal industry. Today, only about 27,000 people live here. Also, you could have been a long move, in the face of poverty and unemployment rates that are twice as high as the national average. Many of those who remain, barely make ends meet.
Chelsei Barr’s originally from Florida, but she couldn’t be happier to now live in Harlan County. Four weeks ago, she moved here with her fiancé, who comes from the area – in order to make a fresh start after it was run for the two in Michigan. Barr’s quickly found a new Job in a branch of a national Fast-Food chain and is now looking for an apartment.
Chelsei Barr’s like their new home
“At first I thought it might be a bit difficult, because I’m not a local, and because I’m colored. I thought I would stick out like a sore thumb, but honestly behave in a nobody,” says the African-American. “I was always treated nice.”
Negative Image
The Appalachian Region, which is largely populated rural, and of White, was shown for a long time in American pop culture and the media in a negative light – as the home of mostly unskilled, unemployed and suspicious people. Most of them voted in the presidential election campaign for Donald Trump, because this promised the coal industry back on its feet, brought them and their plight a bit of national attention. It helped but just to refute these prejudices.
Also, Barr’s was initially worried, especially because she and her white fiancee in Michigan were always pushed back on racism. But it came different. “A lot of people here the sweet, are most people you’ll ever meet. Us services were offered, after which we once had, people we didn’t even know about. This is unique in this city.”
From Harvard to Harlan
Geoff Marietta is from rural Minnesota, holds a PhD from Harvard and founded in Boston a successful Software Startup. His Background is significantly different from the Barr’s, but he came as an outsider to Harlan County and was pleasantly surprised.
Geoff Marietta wants to invest in Harlan County
“The people in Harlan County are the hardest working people in America,” he says. “You continue to work, even if they are hardly satisfied.” Marietta, whose wife Kentucky comes from the East, discovered this work ethic, as he was still in Boston – some culture-sensitive software developer for Anti-bullying-video games, investigated, produced by his company. Instead of developers to hire from Vietnam, suggested that friends of the family, people from Eastern Kentucky.
“I said: ‘Cool, let’s try it.’ That is why we have launched in 2013 a pilot project, and four freshly-baked High School graduates for six months set, which should take over a part of the software development. And you have done a phenomenal Job. And I realized: ‘Oh, my God, the people here are working incredibly hard’.”
Two years later, Marietta sold his Software company and moved with his wife and two sons from Boston to Harlan County. A decision, which found many of his Harvard-crazy colleagues. A reason for the move is the fact that Marietta and his wife did not want to pay Others to educate their children, while they themselves worked 80 hours a week in Boston. But the other reason was, says the Marietta, that he has seen as an entrepreneur a lot of Potential in this Region.
Marietta was finally Director of the Pine Mountain Settlement School, a 105-year-old national landmark in a picturesque and extremely remote part of Harlan County. The school was originally established as a boarding school for mountain children established.
Many people suffer
Marietta has rocked the school and sees her now as a model for a diverse economy in Eastern Kentucky. With its environmental education program, he attracted students from all over the country, excursions to the Ecology and culture of the Appalachian mountains. Marietta also helped in the process of Mountain Tech Media, a media services company for Eastern Kentucky, that relies on local talent as employees. And at the end of last year, he has been the President of the chamber of Commerce of Harlan County selected.
Marietta is optimistic when it comes to the long-term perspective for Harlan County. Blue-eyed he is not. “To say that the fight against poverty is over, is almost a cruel joke,” he says, referring to a report by the White house in July, explaining that the fight against poverty largely was over and a success. “The people are suffering,” says Marietta.
The decline in coal production has cost many jobs
And the unemployment and the poverty would not contribute, he adds, but also the Opioid epidemic, the community is looking for since years. “Clinton, Bush, Obama and now Trump – they all have failed. And the Congress also.”
Too little work, too many drugs
With 54 deaths per 100,000 population, the risk to die of a drug Overdose is, in Harlan County is more than twice as high as the national average (20). At the same time, the Per capita income is not even half as high as the national average. While it was in the year 2016 across the country for around 40,000 US dollars, were in Harlan County just to 12,500 dollars.
The gloomy Figures explain why the downtown area of Harlan County consists mostly of a collection of age, with boards zugenagelter the window. The only building with a lively inlet are the churches and the pawnshops. This will help to understand why 85 percent of the residents of Harlan County in 2016, gave Trump their voice, says Marietta: “Because you lost, and feel hurt because they are desperate and hungry, because they suffer and die.” And certainly in the sense of the word: children born in 2014 in Harlan County, have seven to eight years lower life expectancy than the U.S. average, according to a study by the University of Washington.
Many of the shops in the centre are empty
In the choice between Hillary Clinton, the Era seemed to many like a continuation of the Obama – and the majority of residents did not notice any improvement, and “some impudent guy who was involved in some scandals, the recognized but at least the suffering of the people and promised to make the carbon strong again”, was the decision for the most people, says Marietta. “Would you go with the guy.”
Coal is not the future
However, the jobs in coal mining have been lost over the decades, have not been to Eastern Kentucky returned – despite trump’s promise. And hardly anyone here believes that you will ever do.
Dan Mosley is a Democrat, and Harlan County’s chief administrative officer. His father was a miner. This is also why Mosley is happy to be here Recently, a Mine was opened and 150 people. But he also believes that the future of the municipality lies in the extraction of raw materials.
Dan Mosley – from the Banker to the district Manager
Mosley led a comfortable life as a Banker before he decided four years ago to help his city. “I had customers who came to the Bank, threw down her keys and said: ‘I must, I can’t stay longer, I can’t pay my mortgage, I can pay for my car, I need to find somewhere to work. I will offer my house up for sale, if it is to see someone, would you show it to him?’ I said to myself, I can’t sit here anymore and do nothing about it.”
Since Mosley was elected to the district Manager, he has created a public authority for the promotion of economic development to develop a Plan for how you can win companies that do not originate from the mining, to invest in the Region.
Invest in the Appalachians
“Our biggest Problem is that there has never been a diversification of the economy,” says Mosley. But in order to attract business, need a Harlan County, above all, more investment in transport infrastructure.
The main road through Harlan County, the U.S. 119, to drive a two-lane highway, which makes it for use on Trucks is difficult and time-consuming, there. For most of the coal enterprises, the need to deliver your product only from the mine by rail to the power station, it is not a Problem for most of the other sectors of the industry.
But Mosley believes that the people of Harlan County, whose whole life and their whole culture has been made over generations to coal mining, all other professions could change if you had the opportunity?
“Think about it: you crawl into a mountain, and the days never to see the light, to provide for their families. Imagine what you could do for a company, the times and social services pays you a decent wage with decent work. These people are hardworking people and businesses make through their work ethic,” says Mosley. “The best investment opportunity in America, in the Appalachians.”
While that sounds like a politician who is proud of his community, to be re-elected, believes Colby Kirk, that it is actually true. He recently started to work for the Region as a business developer and shall Pay the zeifgen that Harlan County is an attractive place for investment.
Professionals without a certificate
The biggest Problem of the Region with a reputation for having a largely unskilled labour force. But that is not true, says Kirk, and refers to a recent study.
Colby Kirk believes in the people of Harlan County
“From a pure data point of view, it looks as if we are unskilled and uneducated work forces have,” says Kirk. “But the reality is that many people exercise for years, skilled work, without the appropriate certificates. This is one of the exciting new findings that will change my opinion of the Situation in Eastern Kentucky.”
The goal was to certify these people in fast programs, and to let the company know that you are here. With a booming economy and many companies in the US, which would struggle to find staff, according to Kirk, this area is one of the few in America with available and qualified workers. “Our Region has never been marketed in this way. But here we have, for example, eight times as many welders and machinists as the Rest of the country.”
More people are in need of support
The future may look for Harlan County promising, but the present remains bleak. In a warehouse building next to the train tracks, just a stone’s throw from downtown Harlan’s station, to prepare Bryan’s Great and a Team of volunteers daily meals for the Hungry. Great Christian’s Hands, has been operating a non-profit Christian organization that has set up a panel and part of a nationwide food distribution network. That night, about two dozen men came over, to provide themselves with a regular meal. And the Problem is in the last few years, not better, but worse – if you look at the number of people he and his group operated, so Great.
Bryan is Great concern at the growing number of people who do not have enough to eat
“It will be really more and more. Earlier, we had people who came here to help and to donate, and now you can’t do it because they need the help. In the distribution network that we have, there are between 700 and 5,000 food boxes per month, just in Harlan County.”
Great, grew up in Harlan County as the son of Christian missionaries from Indiana, has no ideas on how to tackle the poverty crisis in Harlan County and Eastern Kentucky. Instead, he tries to help as many people as possible – one after the other. “The people here are nice, you are wonderful,” he says.