|  | Greetings LiKEN Community,
As spring blossoms into summer, we are thrilled to share the latest updates, achievements, and contributions from LiKENeers and LiKEN’s partners. Spring is always a time of transformation. This year was no exception as LiKEN announced over $3 million in funding for the new Community Wealth from Healthy Rivers and Forests project, which aims to increase household incomes through non-timber forest resources.
We will be hiring new LiKENeers across Kentucky and West Virginia to support the project. In addition, we have officially launched a new and improved version of the LiKEN website, designed to make navigating LiKEN’s growing network of collaborations, projects, and resources a richer and more intuitive experience. Current and upcoming job listings can be found on the LiKEN website’s new Jobs page.
The growing number of LiKENeers and increased effectiveness of our online presence will improve our impact and reach many times over, but none of it will be possible without the support of our incredible community.
Thank you for being an essential part of the LiKEN journey! |
|  | Participants at the 12th Annual Rising Voices Workshop gathered at the NSF-National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado on May 6-8, 2024. |
| | | | | The Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange Network (LiKEN) would like to give a warm welcome to our newest LiKENeers Liz Natter and Jacob Johnson.
Liz Natter, joins us with a wealth of experience in community engagement and organizational development. Liz earned her J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center and a B.A. from Johns Hopkins University. She has over 20 years of legal experience with the Commonwealth of Kentucky, focusing on environmental law and consumer protection. Liz has also dedicated a decade to nonprofit work, improving government accountability and environmental justice. She now serves as Senior Strategic Planning Advisor for LiKEN.
Jacob Johnson, our summer intern from the University of Kentucky, is a graduate student pursuing an M.A. in History with a focus on Appalachian and Environmental History. He is interning with us through the University of Kentucky Appalachian Research Center’s “Appalachia Corps” program. Jacob is from Wheelwright in Floyd County, Ky — the one time Inland Steel company town. A proud “scholar from the holler,” his interests include mountaintop removal, the American Chestnut, commons, and the intersection of labor and civil rights movements in Appalachia. He will be conducting research on property tax delinquency and land ownership in Eastern Kentucky as part of our Land & Revenues program. |
| | We bid a heartfelt farewell to Daisy Ahlstone, who has been an invaluable member of our team. Daisy’s contributions, particularly in the Sharing Successes in Agroforestry project and on the Communications Team, have left an indelible mark. Daisy is working on their PhD in Comparative Studies at the Ohio State University and directs WiseFolk Productions, which produces the YouTube and Twitch streaming channel Folkwise. WiseFolk increases public access to communities and conversations that support the study of folklore and creative communication in everyday life through digital content creation, public education, and direct community engagement. Daisy also collaborates with other folklore-related organizations on outreach and impact projects, including the Western States Folklore Society and American Folklore Society. |
| | | | Our commitment to open dialogue and community engagement continues to drive meaningful change and foster deep connections in the communities we serve. As we move forward into an exciting new chapter in LiKEN’s history, this approach remains at the heart of our mission. We are thrilled to announce the launch of our newly redesigned website, which will enhance our ability to share stories, resources, and updates more effectively with all of you. Check out the new and improved LiKEN website at likenknowledge.org. |
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| | | The 12th Annual Rising Voices Workshop was held at the NSF-National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado, from May 6-8, 2024. The theme, "Co-creating Research, Policy, Practice, and Action: The Rising Voices of Indigenous Peoples and Partners in Earth Systems Science," brought together a diverse group of participants to learn from where we’ve been and to grow into where we’re going. The workshop brought participants together to consider: How can we work to better advance science and remove the boundaries between science and society? How can we create innovative partnerships among collaborators with diverse disciplinary and cultural backgrounds to support adaptive and resilient communities? How can we achieve culturally relevant and scientifically robust climate and weather actions?
Building on over a decade of recommendations, the event aimed to move from dialogue to actionable commitments, emphasizing relationship-building for successful collaborations. The work focused on developing adaptable guidelines and principles for place-based Earth systems science research and climate actions. The Rising Voices Workshop remains a cornerstone in weaving Indigenous knowledges and science with other Earth systems science to foster culturally relevant and scientifically robust climate and weather actions.
The "Learning from Indigenous NCA Authors & Future Involvement Opportunities" webinar held on May 28, 2024, hosted by the Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals (ITEP), in collaboration with Rising Voices, LiKEN, and the US Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), included about 90 participants in attendance. Allyza Lustig (USGCRP) gave an overview of NCA6 and announcements about upcoming opportunities, including the Call for Authors and Public Comments on the Draft Prospectus. Dr. Kyle Whyte (Univ. of Michigan, NCA5 Indigenous Peoples chapter lead author) shared about the history of engagement and Indigenous Peoples’ leadership in previous NCAs. Melissa Watkinson-Schutten (Lotus Innovations & Rising Voices, NCA5 Social Systems & Justice chapter author) presented on the first tribal consultation in the context of an NCA and her experience as an author. Nikki Cooley (ITEP, NCA5 Human Health chapter author) shared about her authorship experience and challenges and recommendations for diverse author recruitment. LiKENeer Dr. Julie Maldonado (NCA5 Human Health chapter author) joined the group to share about visions for NCA6, including building off storytelling work done for NCA5, featuring video-interviews with Louisiana Tribal leaders working to uphold sovereignty and self-determination in their climate adaptation actions following hurricane damage.
The event fostered robust dialogue and engagement, including opportunities for participants to ask questions and engage with the speakers on their contributions to the National Climate Assessment and opportunities for involvement in NCA6.
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| | | | LiKEN’s proposal “Community Wealth from Healthy Rivers and Forests” was awarded 3.1 million dollars from the Inflation Reduction program by the U.S. Forest Service. In Partnership with two watershed organizations, Friends of the Tug Fork and Kentucky Riverkeeper, LiKEN will facilitate community-led ecological restoration at the headwaters in 26 coalfield counties on the Kentucky-West Virginia border. The grant will fund several more Community-Engagement Coordinators (CECs) based in the service area along with a director for LiKEN’s Forest Farming Program. Initial listening sessions convened by CECs will document collective memories of species and habitats that have traditionally supported local livelihoods, and that could be incorporated into restoration planning that is economically, ecologically, and culturally regenerative. Over a period of three years, communities will work with LiKEN to design and implement forest farming plans that connect communities with emerging markets. Ethnographers on LiKEN’s staff will train CECs in ethnographic and documentary practices that can facilitate storytelling that collectively models, and reflects on, historical interactions with the region’s “mixed mesophytic forest” habitats. How can emerging markets for non-timber forest products and carbon-sequestering woodlands support livelihoods based on traditional knowledge and skills found throughout headwater communities?
Kevin Slovinsky represented LiKEN at the Eastern Kentucky Farmers Conference organized by Community Farm Alliance. He met with leaders in agroforestry technical assistance and educational programming. With presentations from the University of Kentucky and Kentucky State University Cooperative Extension Services, Grow Appalachia, Community Farm Alliance, the Kentucky Center for Agriculture and Rural Development, and more. The conference connected farmers to service and grant-providing organizations.
The case studies and scenarios resulting from LiKEN’s Sharing Successes in Agroforestry project were published to LiKEN’s website, along with a video produced by Daisy Ahlstone and Mary Hufford on Ruby Daniels’ Afrolachian Agroforestry practice in Lanark, WV. Mary Hufford attended “Gather to Grow,” the Appalachian Forest Farmer Coalition conference in Roanoke, at which many of LiKEN’s partners in agroforestry presented. Participants from emerging forest farming networks throughout the U.S. worked in regional groups to inaugurate what conferees agreed is now the American Forest Farming movement. A mighty context within which Central Appalachian Forest Farming may flourish. |
|  | LiKEN partner, Ruby Daniels, founder and proprietor of Creasy Jane’s Herbal Remedies, presenting at the Gather to Grow Forest Farming Conference in March. |
| | | | LiKEN completed a strategic planning process for its Stories of Place program, directed by Mary Hufford. The program consists of five initiatives, including County-based Story Catching projects, for which Martin County Stories of Place, directed by Karen Rignall, is a model. The other four initiatives include: Communities Telling Their Stories Through Art; Naturecultures and Ecologies of Care; Revitalizing Green Infrastructures, and Collaborative Reworlding in the wake of disaster. Details will soon be posted to the Stories of Place web pages, now under reconstruction.
Hufford gave the closing keynote at the "Appalachia, Betwixt and Between: Folkloristic Perspectives on a Region in Flux" conference, held in April at Harvard University. The conference convened folklorists whose research is focused on the Appalachian region. Hufford’s talk, entitled “Appalachian Forest Farming, Then and Now,” explored the relationship between the historical practice of forest farming in the coalfields and the present day forest farming movement. Historically, in coalfield communities, the integration of field and forest in an annual round of gardening, fishing, hunting, and foraging ensured access to forest commonables by many who did not own land. A crucial legacy of that commons-based forest farming system survives in living collective memories of forest composition and cycles of succession and renewal. In the present time of post-industrial transition, Hufford asked, how might folkloristic perspectives support community-led documentation of collective memory to guide ecological restoration and planning for sustainable livelihoods in Central Appalachia’s headwater communities? |
|  | Left-to-right: LiKENeers Karen Rignall, Madison Mooney, McKensi Gilliam, and Jamari Turner worked with around 90 students during LiKEN’s Stories of Place residency at Martin County High School in April 2024. |
| LiKEN Community Engagement Coordinators Madison Mooney and McKensi Gilliam worked with around 90 students at Martin County High School during their normal school day for a weeklong Stories of Place residency. Dr. Karen Rignall and research assistant Jamari Turner joined the first day. During the residency, Madison led a program adapting George Ella Lyon's "Where I'm From" poem, resulting in 88 unique poems reflecting the students' connections to their home, Martin County. The team is now compiling these poems into a book, which Jamari is typesetting for publication. Copies will be available in the high school library and the LiKEN office in Martin County. |
| | | | Under LiKEN’s Water Climate Equity project, we are analyzing and synthesizing lessons learned from stakeholder listening sessions, using LiKEN’s Collaborative Coding & Analysis Dance, developed by our Commons Governance Fellow, Dr. Maria Bareli and other LiKENeers. Along with Community Engagement Coordinator Madison Mooney, Maria present this ‘dance’ to Dr. Julie Maldonado’s class “Social Research for Social Change” at Future Generations University. This was a wonderful opportunity to inspire graduate students and open them up to the strengths and challenges of coding and analyzing as a collective ‘hive mind’. Our partners at Rural Community Assistance Partnerships (RCAP) and Pacific Institute (PI) presented our findings at the AWWA ACE conference June 10-13, 2024. Community Engagement Coordinators, McKensi and Madison, created a video to introduce and explain our new Community Engagement Guide for the conference that will soon be available online.
The Mountain Drinking Water Project continues to collect samples from community scientists in Martin and Letcher counties. The sample collection period for the community scientists will come to a close in November 2024. The next goal of the Mountain Drinking Water Team is to work on individual report backs for the community members who have been collecting samples, along with full community report backs for each county. |
|  | Community partner Nina McCoy took this photo of the Crum Reservoir in Martin County while testing its quality in June 2024. |
| | | | Kevin Slovinsky and Madison Mooney presented the results of LiKEN’s research for a collaborative project led by the Southern Rural Development Center at Mississippi State University focused on heirs’ property in the American South. LiKEN’s Community Engagement Coordinators conducted semi-structured interviews of heirs’ property owners and local leaders (lawyers, property valuation administrators, surveyors, etc.) in Harlan, Martin, and Letcher counties. Kevin Slovinsky, Madison Mooney, and Deborah Thompson analyzed the interviews to determine how heirs’ property owners and their communities understand their own personal and communal wealth as well as the opportunities and barriers to building wealth. They found that both the cause and effects of heirs’ property are conflated by the historic and contemporary domination of extractive industries in eastern Kentucky. You can view the slides for our presentation, titled “Family-Land and Love Amidst Extraction: Perspectives on Heirs' Property in Eastern Kentucky,” on the Resources page on our website here.
Kevin presented at the Dimensions of Political Ecology 2024 conference at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. The presentation explained what heirs' property is, how it affects landowners and communities in Eastern KY, and how the Appalachian Heirs' Property Coalition seeks to address it. Crossing over from analytical research to a vision of fostering economic justice in Central Appalachia, the presentation’s conclusion sketches out an organizing strategy that positions heirs’ property as the portal through which communities can build a kinship-based cooperative economy that can challenge the existing land regime in Central Appalachia. You can watch the presentation, titled “Dimensions of Political Ecology 2024,” on the Resources page on our website here.
Kevin also presented at three seminars in Ohio, Fleming, and Franklin counties for University of Kentucky and Kentucky State University cooperative extension officers. You can watch the Franklin County presentation, titled “Navigating Kentucky's Heirs' Property” on our Resource page here. These seminars were the last of “Navigating Kentucky’s Heirs’ Property,” an eight-part traveling seminar funded by Alcorn State University designed to train cooperative extension agents on heirs’ property. Participating cooperative extension agents are eligible to apply for a mini-grant offered by Kentucky State University to organize a community-level information session. Kevin has been working with participating agents in Eastern Kentucky to utilize the mini-grant to hold “Free Will-Writing Clinic and Heirs’ Property Information Sessions.”
Organized by LiKEN in collaboration with AppalReD Legal Aid and hosted by Cooperative Extension offices throughout eastern Kentucky, our Free Will-Writing Clinics offer local residents an opportunity to meet with a lawyer and write a simple will for free. Attendees can also take the time to speak with LiKENeers to learn more about heirs’ property, the Appalachian Heirs’ Property Coalition, and our other programs and partners. |
| “I have two months to live [...] I am so thankful for this event today. I feel more comfortable now with my life and passing because of this event today. I wouldn’t have been able to afford this on my own. Thank you so much for having this opportunity for our community.” -Wills Clinic Participant |
| Heirs’ property is typically created when landowners die without writing a will (intestate) or when their will does not sufficiently parse the property into separate parcels for their children. By offering a free will-writing service in collaboration with AppalReD Legal Aid and other volunteer attorneys, LiKEN is preventing the creation of heirs’ property and the fractionalization of existing heirs’ property in Eastern Kentucky. Moreover, each clinic and its concurrent information session provide residents with an opportunity to start a conversation about heirs’ property in their community, the steps they can take to acquire a clear title, and how the Appalachian Heirs’ Property Coalition can assist them along their title clearing journey. Kevin has prepared a PowerPoint that runs continuously throughout the event that provides attendees with straightforward answers to their most common questions about heirs’ property. You can find that resource, titled “Heirs’ Property in Eastern Kentucky: Services & Mythbusting,” on our Resource page here.
At the time of writing, LiKEN has organized three Free Will-Writing Clinic and Heirs’ Property Information sessions. We held a clinic in Harlan County in March, Martin County in May, and Leslie County in June. We have helped dozens of local residents acquire a will for free and are looking forward to holding monthly clinics across Eastern Kentucky. Check out our schedule below! |
|  |  | From left to right: Jana Miller, Meredith Duff, Jaryd Crum, Kevin Slovinsky, Joe Childers, and Madison Mooney at the Martin County Wills Clinic in May. |
| | | | Below is a list of educational products and publications mentioned in this newsletter: |
| | | |  | The LiKEN Network diagram shows a broad overview of the programs, projects, and partners that are brought together by the LiKEN link-tank. Click to see the full diagram. |
| As a link-tank, LiKEN could not function without the immeasurable support of its partners. From national foundations to local community organizations to individuals like you, we cannot thank you enough for your support or dedication to building a better future. |
| | | | As we reflect on the transformative achievements of this spring, we are reminded of the strength and resilience that define the LiKEN community. Each initiative and story within this newsletter underscores our commitment to sustainable and equitable solutions for the challenges we face. Your support and participation in our network are vital to our success, and we eagerly look forward to the continued progress we can achieve together.
With gratitude and anticipation for the future,
The LiKEN Team |
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