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Areas included within the Appalachian Regional Commission's charter
Areas included within the Appalachian Regional Commission's charter

The Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) is a United States federal-state partnership that works with the people of Appalachia to create opportunities for self-sustaining economic development and improved quality of life. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Appalachia is a term used to describe a region in the eastern United States that stretches from southern New York state to northern Alabama, An economy is the realized social system of production exchange distribution and consumption of goods and services of a country or other area The Commission is a partnership of 406 counties and the governors of West Virginia, Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia, and a presidential appointee representing the federal government. A county is a Land area of Regional Government within a larger State. A governor is a governing official usually the executive (at least nominally to different degrees also politically and administratively of a non-sovereign level of government West Virginia ( is a state in the Appalachian Upland South, and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States, bordered by Alabama (formally the State of Alabama;) is a State located in the southern region of the United States of America. The State of Georgia ( is a state in the United States and was one of the original Thirteen Colonies that revolted against British rule The Commonwealth of Kentucky ( is a state located in the East Central United States of America. Mississippi ( is a state located in the Deep South of the United States New York ( is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous North Carolina ( is a state located on the Atlantic Seaboard in the southeastern United States Ohio ( is a Midwestern state of the United States. As part of the Great Lakes region, Ohio has long been a cultural and geographical crossroads The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania ( often colloquially referred to as PA (its abbreviation by natives and Northeasterners is a state located in the Northeastern South Carolina ( is a state in the southern region ( Deep South) of the United States of America. Tennessee ( is a state located in the Southern United States. The Commonwealth of Virginia ( is an American state Grassroots participation is provided through local development districts, which are multi-county organizations with boards made up of elected officials, businesspeople, and other local leaders. For other meanings see Grass roots (disambiguation. A grassroots movement (often referenced in the context of a Political movement The mission of ARC is to be a strategic partner and advocate for sustainable community and economic development in Appalachia. The ARC is a planning, research, advocacy and funding organization; it does not have any governing powers within the region.

Contents

Origins

Beginning in about 1960, the Council of Appalachian Governors, an ad hoc group of the nine governors of the Appalachian states of Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia, united to seek federal government assistance for the mountainous portions of their states, which lagged behind the rest of the United States in income, education, health care, and transportation. During the 1960 Presidential campaign, candidate John F. Kennedy met with the governors to hear their concerns and observed living conditions in West Virginia that convinced him of the need for federal assistance to address the region's problems. John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy (May 29 1917&ndashNovember 22 1963 often referred to by his initials JFK, was the thirty-fifth President of [1]

Another catalyst that helped lead to the creation of the ARC was the 1962 book by Harry M. Caudill on the poverty and history of the Cumberland area of Appalachia, predominantly in Kentucky. Harry M Caudill (b Whitesburg, Kentucky, May 3, 1922; died November 29, 1990) was an American author historian The Cumberland Mountains are a mountain range in the southeastern section of the Appalachian Mountains. The Commonwealth of Kentucky ( is a state located in the East Central United States of America. This book brought the situation in Appalachia to national attention. [2]

In 1963 President Kennedy formed the President's Appalachian Regional Commission to assist in advancing legislation to bring federal dollars to Appalachia. This legislation, the Appalachian Redevelopment Act, was enacted by Congress in 1965, creating the ARC as a federal agency. The United States Congress is the bicameral Legislature of the federal government of the United States of America, consisting of two houses [3]

The ARC's geographic range of coverage was defined broadly to cover as many economically underdeveloped areas as possible; as a result, it extends beyond the geographic area usually thought of as "Appalachia". For instance, parts of Mississippi were included in the commission because of similar problems with unemployment and poverty. The ARC's wide scope also grew out of the "pork barrel" phenomenon as politicians from outside the traditional Appalachian area saw a new way to bring home federal money to their areas. In United States Politics, the term " pork barrel " refers to the appropriation of government spending for projects that are intended primarily [4]

ARC projects

ARC undertakes projects that address the four goals identified by ARC in its strategic plan:

To meet these goals, ARC helps fund such projects as education and workforce training programs, highway construction, water and sewer system construction, small business start-ups and expansions, and development of health care resources. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Before adding any more images to this * * page please do carefully consider * * whether they would be mere decoration * * or actually improve Health care is the prevention treatment and management of illness and the preservation of mental health through the services offered by the medical, Nursing

How ARC works

Each year Congress appropriates funds, which ARC allocates among its member states. The Appalachian governors submit to ARC their state spending plans for the year, which include lists of projects they recommend for funding. The spending plans are reviewed and approved at a meeting of all the governors and the federal co-chair.

The next step is approval of individual projects by the ARC federal co-chair. After the states submit project applications to ARC, each project is reviewed by ARC program analysts. The process is completed when the federal co-chair reviews a project and formally approves it.

Notes

  1. ^ Appalachian Regional Commission in the Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture
  2. ^ McKinney, Gordon B. , review of "Extracting Appalachia: Images of the Consolidation Coal Company, 1910-1945", and "To Move a Mountain: Fighting the Global Economy in Appalachia" in Enterprise & Society, Volume 5, Number 4, December 2004, pp. 721-724.

    "For Appalachian scholars in all disciplines, the domination of the region's economy by outside interests is a well-established fact. This historical development was welcomed by local elites in the period after the Civil War as a way to revive the moribund regional economy. With the collapse of the Appalachian economy in the 1920s, the advent of the Great Depression, and the War on Poverty in the 1960s, the early industrialists later seemed more like villains than saviors. This latter attitude was given voice by Harry M. Caudill, a lawyer from eastern Kentucky. In 1962, he published Night Comes to the Cumberlands that reached a broad national audience. The book's impact was considerable and is often credited with helping to create the Appalachian Regional Commission. "[1]

  3. ^ Appalachian Regional Commission in the Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture
  4. ^ Appalachia Hollow Promises

See also

Further reading

External links

The Columbus Dispatch is a daily Newspaper, based in Columbus Ohio, that serves the central portion of the state
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