Introduction
The eastern Kentucky coalfield has experienced out-migration several times since the mid twentieth century due to sporadic downturns in the coal industry causing many to seek employment opportunities outside the region. CEDAR proposes to provide our youth an alternative to leaving the region, in order to seek economic opportunities, by offering educational instruction and experiences encouraging and preparing them to become innovators and entrepreneurs in helping build an ecosystem that will be better balanced with small to medium sized enterprises.
With the established respect and credibility of the CEDAR brand within our region’s primary, secondary and post-secondary levels, which has been developed over the past twenty-seven years of providing Coal Education programing, CEDAR is in position to deliver such programs built around antifragile strategies that teach students the conditions necessary for a healthy ecosystem and how to embrace innovation and entrepreneurship as a way to bring about positive change within their community. Once learned, these lessons will equip students with the skills needed in building a sustainable economy, thus enabling them to remain in Appalachia, helping to make it a destination rather than an exit point.
In order to accomplish this, CEDAR has created and developed the CEDAR Future of Work in Appalachia (FWA) Education Initiative, which will be delivered in three separate programs, with each being aligned with the KY Education Academic Standards, as well as the SOAR Blueprint, and having an emphasis on innovation and entrepreneurship. Thus, the program will provide an alternative way for teachers to meet their academic requirements, while engaging students in the SOAR Initiative, providing them the opportunity to have a role in helping to shape how the future of work in Appalachia will need to look in order to attain economic sustainability in our region. The FWA Initiative will be delivered through the following programs:
Teacher Study Unit Program (Grades K-12)
Teachers are invited to create, develop and implement a Unit of Study that will address at least one of the seven Pillars of the SOAR Blueprint. They will submit their Unit Proposal along with a Grant Request, to purchase any needed materials/supplies, both having to comply with the established Program Guidelines in order to be approved for participation. Teachers will be competing for thirteen individual cash prizes totaling $4,000.
Student Fair (Grades K-12)
Student products will be produced through the Study Unit Program and by addressing one of the seven pillars will be eligible for entry in the FWA Regional Fair where they will be entered in one of the following seven subject categories: Science, Math, English/Literature, Art, Music, Technology/Multi-Media, or Social Studies. Students will be competing for a total of sixty-four individual cash prizes totaling $7,000. Judging will be conducted in each of the seven categories and separated in the three different grade-levels of: K-4th, 5th-8th, and 9th-12th.
Entrepreneurial Coal Lands Redevelopment Program (ECLRP) (Grades 9-12)
Teams consisting of two to five students will create a business idea that will either solve a problem or take advantage of an opportunity that would provide benefit to the community. They will then choose either a Previously Mined Site, or a Coal Camp Site/Community to repurpose or revitalize by using it as the location for their new business. Each team will produce a Site Profile Report that will include information relative to the historical context of their Site, as well as benefits the Site provided the community through its years of mining activity. The teams will then develop a Business Plan, followed by constructing a Physical Model that will depict their business’s footprint on their selected Site. The Model will be used in the Oral Presentation part of the Regional Challenge where teams will be competing for the following cash prizes. First Place team members will receive $1,000 each, Second Place $750 each, and third Place $500 each, for a total of $11,250 which is based on each team consisting of five members each.