The Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) is a United States federal–state partnership that works with the people of Appalachia to create opportunities for self-sustaining economic development and improved quality of life. Congress established ARC to bring the region into socioeconomic parity with the rest of the nation.The Appalachian Region, as defined by Congress, includes all of West Virginia and portions of 12 other states: Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. ARC serves 420 counties that encompass roughly 205,000 square miles (530,000 km2), with a population of more than 25 million people.The Appalachian Regional Commission has 14 members: the governors of the 13 Appalachian states and a federal co-chair, who is appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. A professional staff carries out the work of the Commission.The current federal co-chair is Gayle Conelly Manchin. Manchin was appointed by President Joe Biden and confirmed by the Senate on April 29, 2021 by voice vote. The 2021 states' co-chair was Virginia Governor Ralph Northam prior to the expiration of his term following the 2021 election. Grassroots participation is provided through 73 local development districts, which are multi-county organizations with boards made up of elected officials, business people, and other local leaders. The ARC is a planning, research, advocacy, and funding organization. It does not have any governing power within the region..
Across the nation, and within Appalachia, communities that struggle economically experience greater health challenges, with disparities observed across leading causes of death. Within our region, these disparities are particularly notable across diseases of despair.
The Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) has long addressed issues of substance abuse through funded community-based interventions, research, and sponsored conferences. Recently, the opioid crisis created a new urgency for cross-sector collaboration among various partners and funders dealing with this issue. This commentary provides an overview of recent efforts by the ARC to convene stakeholders to focus on assisting individuals with substance abuse disorder to access recovery services while pursuing education and training necessary to reenter the workforce and gain employment. Two papers have been prepared to describe this year-long effort. One paper focuses on the participatory methods used to gather ideas and turn them into regional intervention programs. The second paper describes and analyzes the wealth of ideas collected through the process. Both are intended to inform policymakers, researchers, and local leaders in ways to strengthen the substance abuse recovery ecosystem in their own communities.
Climate change has far-reaching effects on human and ecological systems, requiring collaboration across sectors and disciplines to determine effective responses. To inform regional responses to climate change, decision-makers need credible and relevant information representing a wide swath of knowledge and perspectives. The southeastern U. S. State of Georgia is a valuable focal area for study because it contains multiple ecological zones that vary greatly in land use and economic activities, and it is vulnerable to diverse climate change impacts. We identified 40 important research questions that, if answered, could lay the groundwork for effective, science-based climate action in Georgia. Top research priorities were identified through a broad solicitation of candidate research questions (180 were received). A group of experts across sectors and disciplines gathered for a workshop to categorize, prioritize, and filter the candidate questions, identify missing topics, and rewrite questions. Participants then collectively chose the 40 most important questions. This cross-sectoral effort ensured the inclusion of a diversity of topics and questions (e.g., coastal hazards, agricultural production, ecosystem functioning, urban infrastructure, and human health) likely to be important to Georgia policy-makers, practitioners, and scientists. Several cross-cutting themes emerged, including the need for long-term data collection and consideration of at-risk Georgia citizens and communities. Workshop participants defined effective responses as those that take economic cost, environmental impacts, and social justice into consideration. Our research highlights the importance of collaborators across disciplines and sectors, and discussing challenges and opportunities that will require transdisciplinary solutions.
Currently, among other intelligent transportation system applications, there is an increased interest in using an “in-vehicle warning system” to mitigate truck-rollover crashes on interchange ramps. Because the cost of installing the system in an entire truck fleet would be significant, a basic question is how large a safety problem is addressed. This study was an attempt to estimate the annual national frequency and cost of large-truck accidents on interchange ramps that result in rollovers. Using tabular analysis of a five-state database, the estimate was that approximately 11 percent of total truck involvements are on interchange ramps and that between 44 and 52 percent of the incidents result in rollovers. Both urban and rural locations present significant problems that could be addressed by an in-vehicle warning system. Combining this information with General Estimates System figures for total national truck crashes, it is estimated that there are between 4,400 and 5,000 truck rollovers on ramps each year nationwide. The annual economic cost of these rollovers is between $405 million and $460 million. These data provide both information to safety engineers on the size of a significant truck safety problem and a base for a meaningful cost-benefit analysis of installing the in-vehicle warning system. Although available data do not allow a detailed cost-benefit analysis, a simplified analysis of “breakeven costs” indicates that such a device is highly dependent on the level of effectiveness, ranging from approximately $300 per truck to $3,200 per truck.
In May of 1974, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration launched its Applied Technology Satellite Number 6 (ATS-6). Among the jobs planned for ATS-6 was the large-scale delivery of educational and health services, a concept previously untried with communications satellites. Sponsored by the National Institute of Education, education projects were developed for Alaska, Appalachia and the Rocky Mountain region. This paper describes the activities and outcomes of the Appalachian Education Satellite Project (AESP).
