Together for Hope Appalachia
In Kentucky
About
The goal of Together for Hope Appalachia is to transform persistent rural poverty in Appalachia through asset-based community development that prioritizes education, health & nutrition, housing & environment, and social enterprise. We have a vision for a world where all people have access to food, housing, education, healthcare, and meaningful work and income. Our mission is working with others to make that vision a reality, especially in the 63 counties of persistent poverty in Appalachia, with counties in Kentucky (42), West Virginia (9), Tennessee (7), Virginia (4) and Ohio (1). (find a listing of all 63 counties here: The Counties of TFH Appalachia).
While we intervene to repair homes, feed the hungry, work for better healthcare, innovate creative solutions, and advocate for just systems, we keep our focus on the big picture vision of poverty alleviation. We continue to go to the root of poverty, hunger, inadequate housing, education, and healthcare and ask why these inequities exist as we seek long-term sustainable solutions.
Keith Stillwell serves as Together for Hope Appalachia, Regional Vice President for Appalachia. Contact Keith for more information and to get involved.
Priorities of Together for Hope
Building a Coalition
We are building a coalition of groups (non-profits, government agencies, businesses, religious organizations and ministries, and individuals) who share our asset-based community development approach and our priorities of education, health & nutrition, housing & environment, and social enterprise. Perhaps your group would like to join this coalition or you know of one who would.
Get Involved
Join the Together for Hope coalition
Church partnerships, mission trips, projects
Give
Become a prayer partner for one of the counties
Become an online research partner for one of the counties
Meet Some of Our Together for Hope Partners
Scarlette Jasper
Olive Branch Ministries website
Scarlette Jasper is a Cooperative Baptist Fellowship field personnel serving with Together for Hope (A Rural Development Coalition), in the Appalachian foothills of Southern and South Central Kentucky. A longtime champion for the economically disadvantaged, Scarlette ministers within some of the poorest counties in the United States. The majority of the counties in which Scarlette serves are considered “distressed” counties on the basis of low per capita income and high rates of poverty and unemployment. Scarlette is the Director of Olive Branch Ministries, which serves individuals and families in crisis, including: Individuals experiencing homelessness, Survivors of domestic violence, and Families in financial and medical crisis.
Emma Quire Mission Center - Owsley County
Visit the Emma Quire Mission Center Website
Sponsored by First Baptist Church, Frankfort, KY
In 2003, First Baptist Church purchased the Goodman’s Motel in downtown Booneville, Kentucky to house the Emma Quire Mission Center (EQMC). The building has been completely renovated for the purpose of housing mission teams from around the country coming to Owsley County for a variety of reasons (Vacation Bible Schools, construction projects, food/clothing distribution, etc.).
First Baptist Church named the facility after Mrs. Emma Quire of Frankfort. Mrs. Quire’s name is synonymous with Kentucky Baptist mission work. A long-time member of First Baptist Church, Mrs. Quire had a heart and passion to serve anyone in need with compassion and the love of Jesus.
In the winter of 2016 the EQMC was renovated with new bathrooms, floors, linens, and various other improvements to enhance the stay of those coming to serve the citizens of Owsley County in the name of Christ.
On August 2, 2016, the EQMC became a non-profit organization (501c3) and elected its first Board of Directors. On October 16, 2016, the EQMC celebrated its 10th year anniversary and hosted a rededication service. The prayer of the new board is to continue the great ministries to Owsley through the mission teams that come to make a difference in one of the poorest counties in the country.
Appalachian Immersion experience
Appalachian Immersion Experience & Flowers Mission Wing
Sponsored by First Baptist Church, Middlesboro, KY
Appalachian Immersion is a project of First Baptist Church offering missional groups opportunities for contextual learning, service, and relationship that might change our assumptions about Southeastern Kentucky. We hope to respond to a central question, “What if we offered to serve and bless, but then discovered that our experience here changed us and blessed us?”
CBF Kentucky Churches in Appalachia
Civil Rides
Civil Rides is a series of multi-day bicycle rides that raises awareness and money for persistent rural poverty in America and the issues that stem from it. We see poverty as a modern Civil Rights issue in America. Persistent rural poverty has the most basic needs for human existence at its center: food, water, and shelter (housing). We believe that people who live in the United States should not suffer under conditions where they are simply trying to survive. All proceeds from our rides go to Together for Hope, a rural development coalition, and Out Hunger, a hunger initiative. These two organizations exemplify what it means to be agents of transformation in the area of poverty relief and development.
Plans are being made for an Appalachian Civil Rides. Contact us if you would like to be involved in the planning: kstillwell@cbf.net
