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  • About STAY
    • What is STAY?
    • We Know This To Be True
    • Our Work
    • Staff & Steering Committee
    • Central Appalachia
    • Partners
  • Programs
    • STAY Summer Institute >
      • 2020 Virtual STAY Summer Institute
      • What is SSI?
      • Previous Years >
        • SSI 2018: Celebrating 10 Years of STAY
        • SSI 2017
        • SSI 2016 Photos
    • Black Appalachian Young & Rising >
      • What is Black Appalachian Young & Rising?
      • Fund Black Appalachian Futures
    • Appalchian Love Story >
      • About Appalachian Love Stories
      • Appalachian Love Stories Blog
      • Appalachian Love Week
      • Appalachian Love Fest!
  • Get Involved
    • Be a STAY Member
    • Calendar
  • Resources
    • COVID-19 >
      • COVID-19 INFORMATION
      • MUTUAL AID
    • Member Support Fund
  • STAY in the News
    • Newsletter
  • Donate
  • STAY Project Zine

STAY In The NEws

Say Hello to Our New STAY Project Co-Coordinator!

8/26/2020

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STAY Project Family,

We are overjoyed to announce that at the beginning of August we hired Mekyah Davis, 24, of Big Stone Gap, VA to be our STAY Project Co-Coordinator! Mekyah will work alongside our current coordinator, Lou Murrey, to move STAY’s work and grow the Black Appalachian Young & Rising program. This hiring marks a moment of growth and transition for the STAY Project that the steering committee has been thinking very intentionally about for many months.

Back in January, when we began thinking about Lou’s transition out of STAY in 2021, the Steering Committee and current STAY Project Coordinator discussed several options for transitioning staff. We utilized consensus practice throughout the process, each sharing what we imagined ‘living our values’ would mean and look like in a hiring process. The Steering Committee decided that hiring a Black co-coordinator who could hold the work of Black Appalachian Young and Rising (BAYR) and increase the STAY Project’s staff capacity would be the best option to increase the sustainability of our work and to live into our commitment of supporting Black youth leadership in Appalachia.

After discussing the possibilities of releasing a job description, calling for applications, and assembling a separate hiring committee the Steering Committee decided that these processes did not align with our values, that these strategies rely on the myth of meritocracy to be “fair” when we know that most processes of hiring and resource distribution are based on relationships and connections.

Because we believe that young people in Appalachia who have demonstrated commitment to cultivating and leading liberatory work should be supported, flanked, and paid for their labor, the Steering Committee decided to hire Mekyah Davis as a STAY Project co-coordinator. Through his commitment to the STAY Project Steering Committee and as a founding member of Black Appalachian Young and Rising Mekyah Davis has demonstrated again and again that he is the leader we should support.

Finally, it was important to us that we not only hire Mekyah as co-coordinator but also make sure he has every tool and resource available for him to step into his power as a leader. We have been intentional about creating a model for staff transition that sets young people up to succeed. Over the next year Lou and Mekyah will work together to develop the co-coordinator positions and Lou will have time to pass along the experience and knowledge they gained over the last three years to Mekyah before they transition out of STAY next year.

We are excited for the ways Lou and Mekyah will work with STAY’s steering committee and members to respond to our political and cultural moment while fostering resiliency and relationships with young people in Appalachia for the long haul.

Solidarity & kinship,

Jules, Aria, Mabel, FJ, Nina, Sav, Brad, Mekyah, & Lou


A Message from the STAY Project Co-Coordinators:

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A note from Mekyah on their new position as Co-Coordinator: 

When Lou took the position as Coordinator, one of their priorities and a strategic priority for STAY that was named was the need to uplift and flank Black youth. Throughout the past two years, they have worked tirelessly to live into that commitment. I am thankful for the friendship that Lou and I have developed but more than that, I am thankful to be working with someone who has shown to me their deep commitment to fighting for youth and making space for young leaders to step up into their ability. I am honored to be assuming the role as Co-Coordinator of STAY. As long as I am in this position, I am committed to building a beautiful community with the young people within our region. I am committed to the process of building up strong leaders and transitioning leadership. Though I don’t have the same shared identity as all of our members, I will always uplift, support, and fight with and for young black women and LGBTQIA+ youth. Lastly and most importantly, I am a commitment to making space for black youth and prioritizing our joy, fire, and collective voices while we work on transforming our worlds. - Mekyah

A note from Lou about hiring Mekyah:
 

I am so excited to welcome Mekyah Davis to work alongside me as the STAY Project Co-coordinator.  From the time I met Mekyah at a Huddle House in Big Stone Gap, through his tenure on the STAY Project steering committee, I have witnessed his hunger for knowledge, his love for his people, and his commitment to liberation shape him into an incredible young leader. I know that he will carry the responsibility of this position with the fire, grace, and humility it requires. In this year of uncertainty and uprising when it is more important than ever to know who your people are, I am honored to call Mekyah my co-conspirator and my friend.  I feel immensely lucky that I have this opportunity to work alongside him during my last year with STAY to create life-giving spaces for young people in Appalachia. - Lou

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June 2020 Newsletter

6/25/2020

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Our amazing poster was designed by STAY Project Member Ashlyn Kittrell!

Hey STAY Project & Black Appalachian Young & Rising fam-– we see you.

 

Y’all who are on the front lines, organizing your communities, gathering your people, turning up in the streets, we see you. Y’all who are grieving, fighting to take care of yourselves and your people, who are deep in heartbreak, just making it through day by day, we see you. Y’all who are angry, raging, or ready to, and looking to channel that righteous indignation into liberatory action, we see you. Y’all who are feeling the isolation, unsure of how to move or who to move with, looking for comrades, for community, for connection, for a political home, we see you. Y’all who are ready to build, ready to fight and to love, ready to learn and to share, to gather and to organize, ready to vision, cultivate, and practice a transformed world, we see you.

 

We are feeling all of it too, holding it all every day, and y’all should definitely come be our friends so we can hold it all, feel it all, build with it, and move together. We are inviting you to join our 2020 Virtual STAY Summer Institute which will be held throughout the month of July.

We will kick off on July 1st at 7:30pm EST/6:30pmCST onInstagram live! Then throughout the month we will have workshops led for and by youth with topics including: Imagining our Communities without Police, Community Organizing 101, Sexy Sex Ed, and more! We will have virtual gathering space for LGBTQIA youth, trans & nonbinary youth, and Black youth to connect with each other across Appalachia. AND we will have space to just chill! You can share your knowledge and skills by submitting a workshop or show off your mad talents during our virtual talent show!

 

The Stay Together Appalachian Youth Project (STAY) has been out here holding radical youth led space, connecting a network of young folks across the hills, hollers, and hoods of Appalachia, caring for each other, making political home, dreaming of, visioning, and practicing liberation, and doing the work to make our communities places we can and want to STAY.

 

We miss y'all so Register for the STAY Virtual Summer Institute so we can be connected during this revolutionary moment.

 

Don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions!

 

kinship & solidarity,

 

The STAY Project and Staff & Steering Committee

Register for the 2020 Virtual STAY Summer Institute
STAY Connected & STAY Informed
These are unprecedented times, and young people are at the forefront of a grassroots movement for racial justice and community transformation, during a pandemic in which we are at home caring for our families, experiencing high unemployment and neglected by our government. all over appalachia youth are leading protests from hollers to hoods, and developing meaningful mutual aid networks to keep each other safe. we want to document these experiences because we know that we are making history right now. send us your poems, prose, drawings, photography, cartoons, collages—let’s put this movement to paper as we collect our communities in grief, rage, hope, healing and the pursuit of equity and justice. the appalachian youth revolution zine is coming. Appalachian youth up to age 30 can submit at stayproject@gmail.com with subject line “zine submission,” along with your name, age, and where you’re from.
Mental Health Resources for Black Youth
  • Black Emotional and Mental Health Collective - A collective of advocates, yoga teachers, artists, therapists, lawyers, religious leaders, teachers, psychologists and activists committed to the emotional/mental health and healing of Black communities. Provides a Black Virtual Therapy Directory and Resource.
  • Therapy for Black Girls - Podcast & Website. Dr. Joy Harden Bradford is a licensed psychologist, speaker and the host of the wildly popular mental health podcast, Therapy for Black Girls. Her work focuses on making mental health topics more relevant and accessible for Black women and she delights in using pop culture to illustrate psychological concepts.
  • NAMI (National Alliance for Mental Illness)
We have been able to disperse $20,000 to youth throughout Appalachia to date. We encourage folks to apply as needed and will continue to disperse funds as we have them.  Please donate so we can continue to support youth in crisis.
Donate to the COVID-19 Youth Mutual Aid Fund
Request COVID-19 Mutual Aid

Join our Appalachian Youth Movement!


Wanna join the STAY Project? We’ve added a membership form to our website! If you are between the ages of 14-30 and living in Appalachia and want to be a member of the STAY Project, head on over to our membership page and fill out the form.

If you are a current member go ahead and fill out the form to update your information.

Be a part of a movement for youth and by youth that is working towards a just, sustainable, and equitable Appalachia!
Did y'all hear that STAY is now offering financial support to members who are organizing projects/events in their communities? We are able to offer up to $200 to support members’ projects that align with our mission and core beliefs. Specifically, we are hoping to support projects/events that further STAY’s work of providing space for young Appalachians to gather, learn with/from, create, and work together. To learn more and to request support, fill out this form!
When you give to the STAY Project you are nourishing a grassroots movement by youth and for youth in Appalachia. We could not do our work without the support of a community that believes in us. Thank you for believing in us!
Donate to the STAY Project!
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Highlights from around the region with Haydyn Foulke

5/19/2020

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Dear STAY Family,

We are excited to introduce the first of our summer newsletter series from Haydyn Foulke a STAY Project member from Southwest Virginia who is currently a Community and Justice studies major at Guilford College in NC. Haydyn has been interviewing young people in our region about how COVID-19 is impacting their lives and will be writing about it for our newsletter! We are excited to share Haydyn's work and your stories!

STAY Project Steering Committee met over zoom last Saturday and decide that we cannot in good conscious bring folks from across six states together this summer for our Summer Institute and risk the lives of our members or their communities. We are very sad that we will not get to see y'all in person but we are excited to announce that the Summer Institute will take place both virtually and in your own home/community throughout the month of July. Stay tuned for more information on how to participate, if you are interested in getting involved with the planning of this new Summer Institute experience, email us or dm us on instagram.

Finally, we want to share our full-throated support and solidarity with the freedom fighters in Minneapolis rioting against state sanctioned murder of George Floyd. Rioting is a refusal to accept the system and institutions that say it is acceptable cops to murder Black people. We honor our rage and grief by refusing to be complicit in systemic violence against marginalized people. To support the freedom fighters in Minneapolis you can donate here.

To the young Black folks in our membership–– we love you so much, take care of yourself and your mental health, all of the feelings you are having are real and valid. If you need resources for your mental health, we have made a list available in this email.

 

Solidarity, health, & kinship,

The STAY Project staff & steering committee 


Visit our Resource Page on our website for information resources on COVID-19.

If you need funds for organizing a response in your community please apply to our
member support fund

Donate to theKSEC/STAY Mutual Aid Fund

COVID-19 and Appalachian Youth

As the COVID-19 pandemic rages on, existing inequalities are thrust into public consciousness.  Currently, young people in Appalachia are feeling the effects: missed graduations, trouble accessing the internet, significant layoffs, and lack of COVID testing. Health disparities in Appalachia have existed for decades, and many fear that when rural areas get hit, they will get hit hard. Jesse, a young person living in western North Carolina says, “that’s what terrifies me, is that we’re rural, so we’re going to see our peak after the cities do.” Not everyone, however, is concerned, as we’ve seen people ignoring health guidelines and gathering in public demonstrations to open the economy. Jesse fears the repercussions of opening back up; “People already aren’t listening: they are tired of the stay at home order.”

 

Jesse and his wife Sierra Asheworth, are both high risk for the virus. Sierra, a public health student, is extremely concerned about the lasting health implications of COVID-19, as research shows it could affect the body in unexpected ways like blood clots and permanently damage organs like the kidneys and lungs. The concern for their health and the health of their loved ones is palpable, even as we chat over zoom, as they discuss their preexisting conditions and family health history.

 

Sierra has lost her mother and aunt to cancer, and is potentially high risk herself. Jesse’s grandfather worked in a coal mine in West Virginia, and suffered from black lung. Jesse lives with both asthma and Ehler’s Danlos disease, a chronic illness that targets joints. The common national narrative is that COVID-19 only puts older folks at risk for getting sick, but the reality is many young people, especially in Appalachia, have preexisting health conditions that give this virus potential to cause serious damage to the body. Sierra says it all started to feel real to her when her childhood best friend, whom she grew up with, passed away from COVID-19 just a few weeks ago.

 

Young people across Appalachia are being effected by this, especially graduating high school and college seniors who no longer able to attend a graduation ceremony. Laura Helayne, a high school senior in rural Kentucky, is feeling the unique challenges of trying to stay connected with loved ones over the internet, taking care of older relatives, and missing out on a graduation ceremony. She knows that in her community, especially for people who won’t continue their education past high school, that celebration caried a heavy significance. Laura remarks, “And I’m the only person in my household who has actually graduated from highschool, so to not have that graduation really sucks.” Many high schools and colleges are having modified graduation ceremonies to awknowldege and celebrate the hard work of so many students.

STAY Connected & STAY Informed
Mental Health Resources for Black Youth
  • Black Emotional and Mental Health Collective - A collective of advocates, yoga teachers, artists, therapists, lawyers, religious leaders, teachers, psychologists and activists committed to the emotional/mental health and healing of Black communities. Provides a Black Virtual Therapy Directory and Resource.
  • Therapy for Black Girls - Podcast & Website. Dr. Joy Harden Bradford is a licensed psychologist, speaker and the host of the wildly popular mental health podcast, Therapy for Black Girls. Her work focuses on making mental health topics more relevant and accessible for Black women and she delights in using pop culture to illustrate psychological concepts.
  • NAMI (National Alliance for Mental Illness)
We have been able to disperse $15,000 to youth throughout Appalachia to date. We encourage folks to apply as needed and will continue to disperse funds as we have them.  Please donate so we can continue to support youth in crisis.
Donate to the COVID-19 Youth Mutual Aid Fund
Regional Happenings

Southern Spring 2020 is 90 days of action across the South to resist injustice and build power.

Southern movements are ready for this moment. With vision. With plans. With experience on every frontline and rooted in our communities. Members of the Southern Movement Assembly are organizing actions and mutual aid projects from April 1 - June 30, 2020 to engage our people, deepen our connections, and exercise our power during this critical moment . . . and we start today.

Actions are being planned from April 1st - June 30th.

Submit your actions & projects HERE
 

Several of the Southern Movement Assembly’s Governance Council members are anchoring one of the following dates, and invite you to join or plan your own actions on these dates.

  • April 1 - #SouthCounts2020 Census Actions COMPLETED!
  • April 20-22 - BP10 & EarthDay50 Actions COMPLETED!
  • May 1 - Mayday Actions to Protect & Defend Healthcare Workers COMPLETED!
  • June 19 - Juneteenth Actions to Resist Displacement & Build Mutual Aid
  • June 20 - World Refugee Day Actions to Resist ICE & Build Community Safety Systems

Planning your actions. We are stronger when we are able to learn from each other and align our work. Stay connected during #SouthernSpring2020:

  • Share your plans by completing this form. 
  • Join action planning calls to connect weekly with organizers. 
  • Use the hashtags #SouthernPeople’sPower #SouthernSpring2020
  • Join monthly calls to learn about key actions coming up 

For more info, email info@southtosouth.org

Join our Appalachian Youth Movement!


Wanna join the STAY Project? We’ve added a membership form to our website! If you are between the ages of 14-30 and living in Appalachia and want to be a member of the STAY Project, head on over to our membership page and fill out the form.

If you are a current member go ahead and fill out the form to update your information.

Be a part of a movement for youth and by youth that is working towards a just, sustainable, and equitable Appalachia!
Did y'all hear that STAY is now offering financial support to members who are organizing projects/events in their communities? We are able to offer up to $200 to support members’ projects that align with our mission and core beliefs. Specifically, we are hoping to support projects/events that further STAY’s work of providing space for young Appalachians to gather, learn with/from, create, and work together. To learn more and to request support, fill out this form!
When you give to the STAY Project you are nourishing a grassroots movement by youth and for youth in Appalachia. We could not do our work without the support of a community that believes in us. Thank you for believing in us!
Donate to the STAY Project!
Share Share
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April 2019: Southern Spring

4/15/2020

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Dear STAY Family,

How are you all holding up during these trying times? What even is time at this point? Wherever you are geographically, we hope you are safe, healthy, and taking care of yourselves. Over the past few weeks, much of Appalachia and the South have been hit with deadly Easter storms that wreaked havoc on communities and left over 70,000 people without power for days.

Coupled with the growing threat of COVID-19, state representatives eager to rollback social distancing measures, and a critical lack of healthcare infrastructure, we know this is going to be a critical time for young people in our region. But despite the conditions of our current political climate, our strength is our ability to continue to show up for one another, to keep checking in to make sure we have what we need to make it through this.


The unpredictability of the future makes it hard to say what is to come over the next few months. While we weather this storm, we will continue to STAY connected to our members and supporters, provide mutual aid support to young people in Appalachia, and stay true to our mission of working to make the Appalachian region a place young people can and want to stay.

Finally, be sure to check out ourinstagram stories this week to see Sav Miles give gardening tips and download the recording of the unemployment workshop that we held at the beginning of April. Black Appalachian Young & Rising will be hosting a call just for Black youth living in Appalachia on Wednesday May 6th @ 7:00pm.


Until we are able to gather again, wash your hands, check on your friends and neighbors– we are in this together!
 

Solidarity & kinship,

Mekyah Davis, on behalf of the STAY Project staff & steering committee 


Visit our Resource Page on our website for information resources on COVID-19.

If you need funds for organizing a response in your community please apply to our
member support fund

Donate to theKSEC/STAY Mutual Aid Fund
STAY Connected & STAY Informed
Black Appalachian Young & Rising Call
Black Appalachian Young and Rising is hosting a call just for Black youth between the ages of 14-30 living in Appalachia.

This will be a space to connect with each other, talk about how COVID19 is impacting us, and how we will move forward and support each other when we are unable to gather in person. Join us Wednesday, May 6th @ 7:00pm EST/6:00PM CST as we catch up and discuss how we will continue to keep our fire going together!
Register for the BAYR Call!
We have been able to disperse $7,300 to youth throughout Appalachia to date. We encourage folks to apply as needed and will continue to disperse funds as we have them.  However, we are currently low on funds so please donate to the fund if you can!
Donate to the COVID-19 Youth Mutual Aid Fund
Over the past 5 weeks, 26 million Americans have filed for unemployment and counting. You know they ain't about to make it an easy process to collect the money we need to take care of ourselves. Thankfully, steering committee member Aria Taibi hosted a workshop on the basics of applying for unemployment. Check out the recording of the call and the unemployment resources they put together.
Regional Happenings
In the midst of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Old Dominion Power has managed to sneak in a rate increase that will directly affect residents in Southwest Virginia. You can check out the article by our friends at Appalachian Voices here.
STAY Project steering committee member, Nina Morgan has been working with a coalition in Birmingham, AL on the #EarthMonth2020 Campaign. They are calling out the "Elephants in the Room" when it comes to the institutions that intersect, overlap, and evolve to create and maintain environmental and climate injustice in our communities.

Throughout Earth Month, they will be hosting a writing series calling out these elephants in the room—the people, places, and things that actively try to prevent our people from living autonomous, healthy, and sustainable lives. They'll also be spotlighting the local and regional efforts to RESIST environmental injustice and its underlying causes (racism and anti-Blackness, patriarchy, capitalism) in favor of mutual aid, food sovereignty, and abolitionism. You can check out that work here.

Southern Spring 2020 is 90 days of action across the South to resist injustice and build power.

Southern movements are ready for this moment. With vision. With plans. With experience on every frontline and rooted in our communities. Members of the Southern Movement Assembly are organizing actions and mutual aid projects from April 1 - June 30, 2020 to engage our people, deepen our connections, and exercise our power during this critical moment . . . and we start today.

Actions are being planned from April 1st - June 30th.

Submit your actions & projects HERE
 

Several of the Southern Movement Assembly’s Governance Council members are anchoring one of the following dates, and invite you to join or plan your own actions on these dates.

  • April 1 - #SouthCounts2020 Census Actions COMPLETED!
  • April 20-22 - BP10 & EarthDay50 Actions COMPLETED!
  • May 1 - Mayday Actions to Protect & Defend Healthcare Workers
  • June 19 - Juneteenth Actions to Resist Displacement & Build Mutual Aid
  • June 20 - World Refugee Day Actions to Resist ICE & Build Community Safety Systems

Planning your actions. We are stronger when we are able to learn from each other and align our work. Stay connected during #SouthernSpring2020:

  • Share your plans by completing this form. 
  • Join action planning calls to connect weekly with organizers. 
  • Use the hashtags #SouthernPeople’sPower #SouthernSpring2020
  • Join monthly calls to learn about key actions coming up 

For more info, email info@southtosouth.org

Join our Appalachian Youth Movement!


Wanna join the STAY Project? We’ve added a membership form to our website! If you are between the ages of 14-30 and living in Appalachia and want to be a member of the STAY Project, head on over to our membership page and fill out the form.

If you are a current member go ahead and fill out the form to update your information.

Be a part of a movement for youth and by youth that is working towards a just, sustainable, and equitable Appalachia!
Did y'all hear that STAY is now offering financial support to members who are organizing projects/events in their communities? We are able to offer up to $200 to support members’ projects that align with our mission and core beliefs. Specifically, we are hoping to support projects/events that further STAY’s work of providing space for young Appalachians to gather, learn with/from, create, and work together. To learn more and to request support, fill out this form!
When you give to the STAY Project you are nourishing a grassroots movement by youth and for youth in Appalachia. We could not do our work without the support of a community that believes in us. Thank you for believing in us!
Donate to the STAY Project!
Share Share
Tweet Tweet
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We Belong to Each Other: STAYing connected through the pandemic

3/18/2020

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Dear STAY Project Fam,

How are you feeling? Have you taken a deep breath? Have you gone outside to feel the sun on your face? 

We know the last week has been difficult and scary. Many of us have been uprooted from our schools, our routines, our jobs, and for some of us, the places where we finally felt safe.

The future is uncertain, but what has come into clear focus is that we need each other now more than ever. Individualism is a lie y’all. We belong to each other. 

Our strength is in our relationships and our kin networks that transcend state & county lines. Even when we are practicing physical distancing, we know how to show up for each other in social solidarity. We will provide strength and refuge in each other–– our resources are our relationships. We know how to invest in those relationships and build each other up as leaders.

In the coming weeks we expect young people will need support paying bills, medical care, childcare, hot-spots for internet access, etc… The STAY Project and the Kentucky Student Environmental Coalition are working on getting a mutual aid fund for young people in our networks who are being displaced and put out of work by COVID-19. This fund will prioritize Black, Indigenous, PoC. LGBTQIA, disabled, chronically-ill, and immunocompromised youth. If you are able to support this, please
donate here. 

It is important for us to stay connected and keep checking in with each other so please join us tonight– Tuesday March 17th at 7pm on our membership call so we can discuss the impact of COVID 19 on our lives as young people living in Appalachia and mobilize support, healing and connection for our community. Register at bit.ly/stayprojectcall. 

Wash your hands, check on your friends and neighbors– we ain’t gonna let this isolate us. 

Solidarity & kinship,

The STAY Project Staff & Steering Committee 


Visit our Resource Page on our website for information resources on COVID-19.

If you need funds for organizing a response in your community please apply to our
member support fund
Donate to the COVID-19 Youth Mutual Aid Fund
Register for the Call

Join our Appalachian Youth Movement!


Wanna join the STAY Project? We’ve added a membership form to our website! If you are between the ages of 14-30 and living in Appalachia and want to be a member of the STAY Project, head on over to our membership page and fill out the form.

If you are a current member go ahead and fill out the form to update your information.

Be a part of a movement for youth and by youth that is working towards a just, sustainable, and equitable Appalachia!
Did y'all hear that STAY is now offering financial support to members who are organizing projects/events in their communities? We are able to offer up to $200 to support members’ projects that align with our mission and core beliefs. Specifically, we are hoping to support projects/events that further STAY’s work of providing space for young Appalachians to gather, learn with/from, create, and work together. To learn more and to request support, fill out this form!
When you give to the STAY Project you are nourishing a grassroots movement by youth and for youth in Appalachia. We could not do our work without the support of a community that believes in us. Thank you for believing in us!
Donate to the STAY Project!
Share Share
Tweet Tweet
Forward Forward
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Black Appalachian Young & Rising is Now an Official STAY Project Program!

2/12/2020

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Black Appalachian Young & Rising now a permanent STAY Project Program!
We announced this in our last newsletter "We Know This To Be True: The State of Youth Issues in Appalachia" last month, but we wanted to make an announce completely devoted to this news because of its importance.

The STAY Project staff and steering committee are deeply honored to announce that we are celebrating Black History in the Making Month by making Black Appalachian Young & Rising a permanent program of the Stay Together Appalachian Youth Project. We are doing this with the guidance and leadership of the Black Youth Advisory Committee as a way to deepen our commitment to Black youth leadership in Appalachia. The STAY Project knows for a fact that there is no sustainable, inclusive, healthy, and just communities in Appalachia without Black youth in leadership.

As a program of STAY, Black Appalachian Young & Rising will receive programming support, financial support, and staff time. We know that our Appalachian Youth Liberation Movement is stronger together and we are excited about how this alliance will grow and enrich our work of supporting and developing young Appalachian leaders.

Over the next few weeks the Black Youth Advisory Committee will be rolling out their vision for Black leadership in Appalachia and specific calls to action on how organizations, communities, and individuals can support Black youth in our region.

solidarity & kinship,

The Black Youth Advisory Committee & The STAY Project Staff & Steering Committee

Be sure to check out the article about their work from Expatalachians,Appalachian Ascendant: The Next Generation of Black Regional Activism
Donate to Support Black Appalachian Young & Rising
Appalachian Love Week & Appalachian Love Fest
Earlier this month we celebrated Appalachian Love Week, be sure to check out the radio story about Love Week from WUOT in Knoxville!  Thank you to everyone who donated and shared their #AppalachianLoveStory with us. We plan to keep your love stories in our monthly newsletters!   
Earlier this month we celebrated Appalachian Love Week where we asked our members and supporters to make us their Valentine by either making a donation or sharing their #AppalachianLoveStory. Thank you to everyone who donated and shared their love stories with us. We plan to keep your love stories in our monthly newsletters!

We closed out Appalachian Love Week with our first Appalachian Love Fest and it was a rousing success, we ere even able to raise $100 for flood relief in Harlan County! Thank you so much to all the artists and vendors who came and shared their incredible talents with us in Harlan last weekend! Thank you to Appalachian Impact Fund, MACED, and Appalshop for sponsoring us! Finally, thank you to the youth from Harlan and from all over Appalachia who came to support youth art and music— thank you for making art, thank you for questioning authority, thank you for taking care each other, thank you for existing! We love you so much! Keep fighting with us for an Appalachia that supports and nurtures young people!


Visit our website to see more photos from Love Fest!
Donate to the STAY Project
Regional Happenings
Sexy Sex Ed-- The traveling sex-education workshop that teaches about consent and anatomy in rural Appalachia has created a unique new online map that shows the locations of reproductive-justice-related organizations and health-care providers in the region. The map is online at sexysexed.org
People all over the world are mobilizing to combat the climate crisis. It's time to build skills and take action!
Join us for 10 days of learning, training, and taking direct action to disrupt the systems that are destroying our climate. We will come together to build on Appalachia's rich history of direct action against extractive industries, which has included tree sits, blockades, and walk-ons to resist mountaintop removal, fracking, and fossil fuel pipelines. After fighting the Mountain Valley Pipeline for over two years, we aim to grow the resistance to fossil fuel exploitation and take power out of the hands of corporations and politicians that are threatening our collective future.
We are inviting community members, activists, students, and families to learn the skills needed to execute a variety of actions that disrupt the power structures wrecking the environment and contributing to climate change.  The Appalachian Climate Action Camp will be an all ages event hosted in West Virginia along the path of the Mountain Valley Pipeline for 10 days. There will be both camping space, as well as limited beds and accommodations available on an as needed basis.  Food will be provided and there will be childcare. If you are interested in coming to camp and joining the resistance please email appclimateactioncamp@protonmail.com. Location and more event details to follow upon registration!
Southern Connected Communities Project has opened a Cyber Cafe in the Clearfork Valley!

Need to print something? Have research to do?  Want to scroll the internet? Need to submit an application? Have a paper to write?
Come see us at Clearfork Community Institute (the old Eagan School)

Free services available; Scan, copy, print, and laptops

Staff available for basic computer assistance 

Coffee, lattes, cappuccino and snacks will be sold

Beginning August 6, 2019 hours will be Tuesdays and Thursdays 

9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Call 423-784-0095 for more information

Get Involved with The STAY Project!

Join our Appalachian Youth Movement!


Wanna join the STAY Project? We’ve added a membership form to our website! If you are between the ages of 14-30 and living in Appalachia and want to be a member of the STAY Project, head on over to our membership page and fill out the form.

If you are a current member go ahead and fill out the form to update your information.

Be a part of a movement for youth and by youth that is working towards a just, sustainable, and equitable Appalachia!
Did y'all hear that STAY is now offering financial support to members who are organizing projects/events in their communities? We are able to offer up to $200 to support members’ projects that align with our mission and core beliefs. Specifically, we are hoping to support projects/events that further STAY’s work of providing space for young Appalachians to gather, learn with/from, create, and work together. To learn more and to request support, fill out this form!
When you give to the STAY Project you are nourishing a grassroots movement by youth and for youth in Appalachia. We could not do our work without the support of a community that believes in us. Thank you for believing in us!
Donate to the STAY Project!
Share Share
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We Know This to Be True: The State of Youth Issues in Appalachia and a Plan of Action

1/22/2020

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We Know This To Be True
The state of youth issues in the Appalachian Region and a plan of action
Dear STAY Project kin & comrades,

Over the last year, the STAY Project devoted our time to and outside of our regional gatherings; to strengthening our relationships with other young people in Appalachia, to deepening and building out our analysis of our economic, environmental, social, and political conditions in the region by clarifying what we need to fully actualize a just and sustainable Appalachia for all people; and continued to identify what work we can do to get us to liberation. As young people living in Appalachia, we are experts of our own experiences. Here is what we know to be true heading into in 2020:

Young people living in Appalachia are struggling to thrive under the economic and social legacy of extractive industries like coal, gas, logging, tourism, etc. Those jobs broke people’s bodies and/or left and pharmaceutical companies flooded our region with opioids. Our local, state, and federal governments are trying to sell us prisons, small business, tourism, and downtown revitalization as the solution. We’ve got high rent and low wages because opportunities for youth are few, and often look like low-paid positions like Americorp/VISTA that exploit the labor of young people. We know that these are false solutions that rely on able-bodied workforces to work long/seasonal hours with low pay, little to no benefits, and that it will only replicate our current conditions and cause suffering, while lining the pockets of politicians and corporations. 

The economic and environmental issues we face are compounded by acts of homophobia, transphobia, sexism, and racism, from members of our own communities. Trying to survive and just be young under compounding oppressions, while living with the legacy of extraction, takes a toll on our mental and physical health. Not to mention our access to healthcare is disappearing with the closing of rural hospitals and absurd medical costs. Instead of real transformative solutions, we get policing by cops and ICE in our schools, our hills, our hoods, and our hollers.

We know that culture doesn't shift in a day or even an election cycle, and that come November, no matter who is the president, we will still have to fight for justice. We are in this for the long haul. We know that no one industry is going to save us, and that it will in fact take many people using a diversity of tactics in coordination across the region operating under shared principles to realize our vision of safe, sustainable, engaging, and inclusive Appalachian communities.

In 2020, the STAY Project is going to keep creating spaces to connect youth across urban and rural divides in Appalachia to build relationships, skills, political analysis, and a vision for how young people are gonna survive and thrive in our region. Our opportunities are in our relationships and our kin networks that transcend state & county lines. We know how to show up for each other. We are providing strength and refuge in each other–– our resources are our relationships. We know how to invest in those relationships and build each other up as leaders. 

In 2020, the STAY Project is solidifying our commitment to invest in Black youth leadership in our region. At the recommendation of the Black Youth Advisory Committee, we are making Black Appalachian Young & Rising a permanent program of the STAY Project. 

WE STAN THE CULTURAL AND CREATIVE POWER OF YOUNG PEOPLE. STAY members are out here making music, creating art, and celebrating despite the challenges. We are using our cultural and creative powers to inspire and live out a vision of just and sustainable communities in Appalachia. In 2020, the STAY Project is providing platforms for young people to share their talent with our first ever Appalachian Love Fest.

We know that young people have already been out here in these hills doing the work. STAY members are creating revolutionary gathering space, leading electoral campaigns, expanding reproductive healthcare access, redefining sex education, pushing other work to be better, supporting labor struggles, organizing and getting resources to our people, etc. And y'all are doing this with the absolute bare minimum. In 2020, the STAY Project is going to keep connecting y'all with opportunities to grow as leaders and resources through our gatherings, and through our member support fund.

We know that we do not have all the answers and that we are not the first to do this work. In 2020, the STAY Project is asking our community, our members, our alumni, and our elders to hold us accountable and give us guidance and support. We are in this for the long haul.

We love y'all so much. 

STAY tuned.  

solidarity & kinship,

The STAY Project staff & steering committee

Photos from our January steering committee meeting in Big Stone Gap, VA and at the Country Queers Extravaganza in Whitesburg, KY. Thank you so much to Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards  for letting us use your office <3
Donate to the STAY Project
Upcoming STAY Project Events & Calls to Action!

We're hosting a festival for music, arts and activism this year for Appalachian Love Week, y'all!

Appalachian Love Fest is February 15th in Harlan Kentucky, and will feature some of the best young musicians and artists that Appalachia has to offer!

If you would like to volunteer for Appalachian Love Fest please fill out this form.

Regional Happenings
People all over the world are mobilizing to combat the climate crisis. It's time to build skills and take action!
Join us for 10 days of learning, training, and taking direct action to disrupt the systems that are destroying our climate. We will come together to build on Appalachia's rich history of direct action against extractive industries, which has included tree sits, blockades, and walk-ons to resist mountaintop removal, fracking, and fossil fuel pipelines. After fighting the Mountain Valley Pipeline for over two years, we aim to grow the resistance to fossil fuel exploitation and take power out of the hands of corporations and politicians that are threatening our collective future.
We are inviting community members, activists, students, and families to learn the skills needed to execute a variety of actions that disrupt the power structures wrecking the environment and contributing to climate change.  The Appalachian Climate Action Camp will be an all ages event hosted in West Virginia along the path of the Mountain Valley Pipeline for 10 days. There will be both camping space, as well as limited beds and accommodations available on an as needed basis.  Food will be provided and there will be childcare. If you are interested in coming to camp and joining the resistance please email appclimateactioncamp@protonmail.com. Location and more event details to follow upon registration!
Southern Connected Communities Project has opened a Cyber Cafe in the Clearfork Valley!

Need to print something? Have research to do?  Want to scroll the internet? Need to submit an application? Have a paper to write?
Come see us at Clearfork Community Institute (the old Eagan School)

Free services available; Scan, copy, print, and laptops

Staff available for basic computer assistance 

Coffee, lattes, cappuccino and snacks will be sold

Beginning August 6, 2019 hours will be Tuesdays and Thursdays 

9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Call 423-784-0095 for more information

Get Involved with The STAY Project!

Join our Appalachian Youth Movement!


Wanna join the STAY Project? We’ve added a membership form to our website! If you are between the ages of 14-30 and living in Appalachia and want to be a member of the STAY Project, head on over to our membership page and fill out the form.

If you are a current member go ahead and fill out the form to update your information.

Be a part of a movement for youth and by youth that is working towards a just, sustainable, and equitable Appalachia!
Did y'all hear that STAY is now offering financial support to members who are organizing projects/events in their communities? We are able to offer up to $200 to support members’ projects that align with our mission and core beliefs. Specifically, we are hoping to support projects/events that further STAY’s work of providing space for young Appalachians to gather, learn with/from, create, and work together. To learn more and to request support, fill out this form!
When you give to the STAY Project you are nourishing a grassroots movement by youth and for youth in Appalachia. We could not do our work without the support of a community that believes in us. Thank you for believing in us!
Donate to the STAY Project!
Share Share
Tweet Tweet
Forward Forward
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Invest in Appalachia's Future! Make a Gift to the STAY Project!

12/18/2019

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Dear STAY Project Community, 

We hope this finds you warm and well this solstice season! We are closing in on the end of the decade, having finished out a year that has been one of the most impactful and powerful years thus far in our existence as an organization. From flanking the first-ever Black Appalachian Young & Rising gathering to creating our member support fund to building strong relationships in Alabama, in 2019 the STAY Project expanded and grew our programming and reach while remaining focused on what we do best–– creating spaces for young people to build relationships, learn, access resources and tools, and empower each other to be leaders in Appalachia.

In July, we brought youth together from across Central and Southern Appalachia in the mountains of Southwest Virginia for our 10th STAY Summer Institute.
In the heat of the late Appalachian summer we sang together, ate plenty of good food, looked at the stars, and reveled in a weekend full of laughs and love as we practiced making liberatory space
.
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This fall, we made history with the first ever regional gathering specifically for black youth in the Appalachian region. The Black Appalachian Young and Rising gathering was coordinated by and for black youth in the region to come together to celebrate the joy of coming together, to examine and discuss the black Appalachian identity, and most importantly to begin forming a strategy for addressing the critical lack of black youth leadership in our region. We are excited that this year we have been able to be true in our commitment to uplifting, supporting, and trusting the leadership of black youth.
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We are ending this year with a renewed momentum to continue our fight for liberation into a new decade. As the STAY Project looks forward into 2020, a year in which we know Appalachia will once again come into the national spotlight, we want to be ready for what comes our way.  We want to be flexible to move and change where it is necessary, we want to keep leveraging support for and flanking Black youth, we want to keep flexing our creative and cultural power through music and art, we want to keep building alliances across the South, we want to keep moving money and resources to young people trying to create change in their communities, we want to keep exercising our power to invest in ourselves, we want to keep creating revolutionary space. We cannot do this alone.
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For over a decade, the love from a community that believes in youth-led work has made the STAY Project’s work possible. Thanks to y’all’s love and support in 2019, we were able to grow in ways we had only dreamed about. In 2020 we want to sustain our growth and keep dreaming about what is possible. We are asking that you please consider making a donation of $50, $100, or whatever you can afford to help STAY continue our mission of empowering youth to make their communities places they can and want to stay, as well as continuing to provide life changing spaces and opportunities for youth throughout the Appalachian region.

Invest in Appalachia's future, invest in Appalachia's present by making a gift to STAY!


Love & kinship & solidarity,
Lou Murrey & Mekyah Davis, 

On behalf of the Stay Together Appalachian Youth Project

Donate to the STAY Project
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First ever Black Appalachian Young & Rising Gathering in Harlan County Kentucky!

11/27/2019

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Report Back from Black Appalachian Young & Rising!
Black Youth Advisory Committee: A'Nya Badger, Nina Morgan, Sydney Underwood, Geonoah Davis, Trey Lomax, & Mekyah Davis
In early November, Black youth from throughout the Appalachian region came together for the region’s first gathering specifically for black youth. The historic 2019 Black Appalachian Young and Rising Gathering brought youth together to examine the Black Appalachian identity, and build meaningful connections. Most importantly though, we began a strategic process of implementing a call to action to STAY and other organizations in the region to address the critical lack of black youth leadership. It was a beautiful, powerful weekend with lots of laughter, learning, growth, and genuine black joy. We look forward to providing y'all with a full report back  from the gathering in the coming weeks with recommendations for how STAY and other organizations can continue to uplift and support Black youth leadership in our organization and throughout Appalachia.
 
We opened up with a powerful session on Friday by grounding ourselves in some of the rich history of black folks in the Appalachian region. We were honored with invaluable contributions by Charice Starr, our consultant for the gathering, Joe Tolbert, Elandria Williams, Dr. William H. Turner, and Ron Carson. Our guests spoke on issues ranging from the history of black folks in the region as a whole to how the Black Appalachian Young and Rising gathering was in part made possible by folks who started STAY 10 years ago. We opened up Saturday with singing together and our land acknowledgment on the history of the Pine Mountain Settlement School. We spent a long time setting up our learning container and setting the tone for what we were there to do and how we were going to interact with each other throughout the weekend. This session included a reviewed of Principled Struggles and Mocktails, an exercise where black youth were able to practice active listening and talking. This proved to be one of the most valuable parts of the weekend as we were able to watch people begin to come out of their shells and step into their subjective expertise and realize they knew more than they give themselves credit for. We spent the evening leading up to lunch mapping our landscape and resources from communities. Saturday night we had a “BONDFire” where we roasted s’mores and built community over spoken word, rap battles, and general conversation while sitting around the fire. We finished up the weekend Sunday with one morning session that included, identifying the issues, our collective visioning, and action steps we can take to address the lack of black youth leadership in our region. It was an indescribable experience to be able to be surrounded by dozens of fellow black youth from throughout the region in an autonomous space designed for and by us. It was also a wake up call to how powerful and necessary it is to create space for specifically for black youth.

Love & solidarity,

Mekyah Davis
Donate to support Black Futures in Appalachia
From Appalachia to Mississippi: The STAY Project goes to the Southern Movement Assembly
Dear STAY Project Family,

We are reporting back from Southern Movement Assembly 8 to say that the Southern People's Freedom Movement is alive and thriving and Appalachia is here for it!  Last week, 11 young people from Appalachia traveled as a STAY Project delegation to Hazlehurst, Mississippi in order to participate in a collective governing process that laid out a Southern People's Action plan for how we are going to protect and defend our people, build new social economies, and create people's democracy in 2020. From our pipeline resisters in the Shenandoah valley to our Southern Appalachia crew with the Magic City Youth Initiative– Appalachia showed up in force at the Southern Movement Assembly to build and deepen our relationships with people across the Global South–– including Puerto Rico, Congo, & Senegal. 

We are so ready for what STAY can bring to Appalachia and the South in 2020!  First though, we are going to rest up and heal from the virus we all shared after traveling for 20 hours in a van together, but then we are gonna get to getting free!

solidarity & kinship,

The STAY Project staff & steering committee

"Nobody's free 'til everybody's free" - Fannie Lou Hamer
Upcoming STAY Project Events & Calls to Action!
We are now accepting submissions for an Appalacian Love Story Zine from young people aged 30 & under who are living in Appalachia!

Theme for the Zine is: Love (not just the romantic kind), home, community, resistance, liberation, and being young in the mountains.

We are accepting: poetry, short stories, propaganda, photography, collages, drawings, paintings, etc...

Submissions are due on Jan 3rd. Please send to stayproject@gmail.com with the subject line "zine submission"
 Announcing Appalachian Love Fest: a music festival, artist and organizational showcase, and Appalachian Love Week event celebrating everything we love about Appalachia! Share the love, bring a date, find love, and save the date for February 15, 2020! Got a favorite local musician, artist friend, or rad organization you'd like to see at the fest? Let us know by filling out this short form! 
Regional Happenings
Southern Connected Communities Project has opened a Cyber Cafe in the Clearfork Valley!

Need to print something? Have research to do?  Want to scroll the internet? Need to submit an application? Have a paper to write?
Come see us at Clearfork Community Institute (the old Eagan School)

Free services available; Scan, copy, print, and laptops

Staff available for basic computer assistance 

Coffee, lattes, cappuccino and snacks will be sold

Beginning August 6, 2019 hours will be Tuesdays and Thursdays 

9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Call 423-784-0095 for more information

Get Involved with The STAY Project!

Join our Appalachian Youth Movement!


Wanna join the STAY Project? We’ve added a membership form to our website! If you are between the ages of 14-30 and living in Appalachia and want to be a member of the STAY Project, head on over to our membership page and fill out the form.

If you are a current member go ahead and fill out the form to update your information.

Be a part of a movement for youth and by youth that is working towards a just, sustainable, and equitable Appalachia!
Did y'all hear that STAY is now offering financial support to members who are organizing projects/events in their communities? We are able to offer up to $200 to support members’ projects that align with our mission and core beliefs. Specifically, we are hoping to support projects/events that further STAY’s work of providing space for young Appalachians to gather, learn with/from, create, and work together. To learn more and to request support, fill out this form!
When you give to the STAY Project you are nourishing a grassroots movement by youth and for youth in Appalachia. We could not do our work without the support of a community that believes in us. Thank you for believing in us!
Donate to the STAY Project!
Share Share
Tweet Tweet
Forward Forward
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Register for Black Appalachian Young & Rising!

10/24/2019

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The last day of registration for the Black Appalachian Young and Rising Gathering November is this Sunday, October 27th! You are not going to want to miss this historic gathering! 

The gathering will be November 8th-10th at the Pine Mountain Settlement School in Pine Mountain, KY. Black Appalachian Young & Rising will be a space for Black Appalachian youth to gather, to be in community, to define Black Appalachian joy and identity, and create a strategy for restoring Black youth leadership in Appalachia.

Additionally, Black Appalachian Young and Rising is excited to announce that we will be kicking off programming on Friday evening with dinner and a grounding session featuring four honored guests:

Charice Starr- A 2019-2020 Bertha Fellow, Black Appalachian Young & Rising Consultant, Co-Director of the Appalachian Transition Fellowship and Education team member at the Highlander Education and Research Center, and a community organizer with the Black Mamas BailOut Action (Knoxville, TN).

William H. Turner, PhD, is a semi-retired college professor and administrator (Kentucky State University - Interim President; Vice President for Diversity, University of Kentucky; and Distinguished Professor of Appalachian Studies, Berea College). He has spent most of the last half century researching and writing and serving in various ways to expand the understanding about black people in Appalachia and improving community life among the economically marginalized. Before that he was learning all about life growing up in a big extended family and vibrant black community in a town where coal was king, in Harlan County, Kentucky. Turner co-edited the groundbreaking book, Blacks in Appalachia.

Joe Tolbert, a founding STAY Project member and Founder and Lead Strategist at Art at the Intersections.

Elandria Williams - a founding member of STAY, Executive Director and Trainer at PeoplesHub. She also provides development support to cooperatives, mostly in the Southern United States, and is a co-editor of Beautiful Solutions, a project that is gathering some of the most promising and contagious stories, solutions, strategies and big questions for building a more just, democratic, and resilient world!

If you have any questions about the gathering please feel free to reach out to Mekyah Davis at mekyahdavis.stayproject@gmail.com

***This event is a free event only for Black youth between the ages of 14-30 from throughout the Central and Southern Appalachian region- if you have any questions about this please feel free to reach out to us at stayproject@gmail.com*
 
There is a $10,000 goal to cover the event and to pay the Black youth who are doing the work to make it happen. The STAY Project is asking you to invest in this important work by making a donation today.
Donate to support Black Futures in Appalachia
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