"It is time to stop blaming and punishing people for being poor and start looking at the policies and systems in place responsible for creating this poverty." -Judi Vanderhaar, Kentuckians for the Commonwealth

Appalshop and CMI are using community media to document the implications of healthcare policy and welfare reform for the people of central Appalachia, and to seek ways to insert local voices into regional and national dialogues. With real unemployment reaching 60 percent in some mountain communities, the success or failure of welfare reform will be visible more rapidly here than in many other parts of the country. Kentucky is also moving from Medicaid to a managed care system that will change the way poor families and children receive healthcare.

Our goals for our health and welfare work are to collaborate with grassroots groups and develop media campaigns that support:

• Expansion of basic safety nets for families such as health care, child care and transportation
• Fair distribution of resources using state moneys for programs that will expand education, real training and skills development opportunities
• Awareness around the need for living wages and more jobs in Eastern Kentucky
• Fair welfare policies in general