Dialogue + Design, in partnership with Downstream Strategies and Pennsylvania State University, conducted the Strengthening Economic Resilience in Appalachia project, sponsored by the Appalachian Regional Commission. The project explores and documents strategies and policies local leaders can use to enhance the future economic prospects of coal-impacted communities throughout the Appalachian Region. Dialogue + Design spearheaded the qualitative outreach for this project, which explores and documents strategies and policies local leaders can use to enhance the future economic prospects of coal-impacted communities throughout the Appalachian Region. The four key components to this research project, including developing a comprehensive, quantitative framework to explore economic resilience; identifying a series of best-practice strategies for strengthening local economic resilience; conducting up to 10 in-depth case studies; and developing a guidebook that interprets and integrates findings of the research for local economic development practitioners.
The study was done as part of ARC’s POWER Initiative. POWER, which stands for Partnerships for Opportunity and Workforce and Economic Revitalization, aims to help areas suffering from coal industry-related job losses by helping them diversify their economies. ARC was particularly interested in how communities demonstrate resilience in the face of dramatic economic disruptions. This interest is also reflective of ARC’s mission to innovate, partner and invest to build community capacity and strengthen economic growth in Appalachia.See the full practitioner guidebook and technical report at: www.arc.gov/resilience
