Our Mission

Home Our Mission

Our Mission

The Alliance for Appalachia promotes a healthy, just Appalachia by supporting our member organizations in communities impacted by destructive resource extraction.

Our work is founded on these core beliefs, which guide our vision:

  • Mountain people are experts in their own lives.
  • All people should have a seat at the table in determining the future of their communities.
  • Regional collaboration strengthens political power built locally.
  • Systemic change is necessary to achieve justice in our region.

Our Vision

We believe that our campaign to abolish mountaintop removal mining is an important element of the national effort for progressive, systemic change in our nation’s economic, energy, and environmental policies. By working in coalition to highlight and organize against the dangers and true costs of our dependence on coal, we can help move the nation toward a new ethic of whole and healthy communities and away from our current extraction economy.

Our coalition was founded in 2006 and includes some of the most experienced and accomplished organizations in Appalachia. From the beginning, local organizations and leaders have come together with a shared vision to strengthen the fight against mountaintop removal coal mining and to work towards a healthier future for our region. Individuals from money-poor backgrounds worked to found The Alliance for Appalachia and they remain the majority of our leadership and volunteers today.

What We Value
We value clean water & healthy ecosystems as fundamental human rights.
The Appalachian region is home to some of the oldest and most biologically diverse mountains in the world. We believe in and value the interdependence of ecological and social well-being. We work to protect and preserve a clean and bio-diverse environment by working for stronger regulations and enforcement.
We value leadership from youth and elders.
We seek to foster an intergenerational culture of mutual learning and shared leadership. We value input from people new to the movement and from those full of experience. Through training and work sharing, we support people in developing the skills and perspectives necessary for productive participation so that all voices are heard in reaching strategic and tactical decisions.
In fighting for our communities we fight for all communities.
We believe that by building power in communities and connecting people of all backgrounds and identities from geographically and culturally disparate places that we grow in strength. We commit to creating supportive spaces, and to meeting people where they are in their process of growth and understanding the forces of oppression on marginalized communities.
The Alliance for Appalachia is non-partisan.
We believe that partisan politics polarize communities, emphasizing that which divides us over our common interests. The Alliance for Appalachia seeks to unite the region for the common good.