WHAT IS STAY?
WHAT WE DO:
Youth Leadership Development, Political Education, and Movement Building
We are building a movement that is FOR youth living in Appalachia and BY youth living in Appalachia which recognizes and resources the brilliance of our own leadership potential. We center the leadership of young folks under 18, Black youth, youth of color, queer and trans youth, poor youth, and disabled youth.
Recognize that there are young leaders in Appalachia who are already experts of their experiences organizing and creating change;
Facilitate Appalachian youth to identify their own issues and ask each other what they want and need to stay in their home communities;
Connect Appalachian youth with the resources, education, strategies, tools, and peer-to-peer community to fight for and build their visions for Appalachia;
Create spaces to connect youth across the diverse geographies and identities in Appalachia to build relationships, skills, political analysis, and a vision for how young people will survive and thrive in our region.
OUR VISION
We envision an economically and environmentally sustainable Central and Southern Appalachia where young people have the power to build and participate in diverse, inclusive, and healthy communities where all people have what we need to survive and thrive.
OUR MISSION
As young people from Central and Southern Appalachia, we are connecting across our region to make our home communities places we can and want to STAY.
OUR HISTORY
In 2008 at an Appalachian Studies Association Conference, youth participants from West Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee expressed that they didn’t know how to participate in movements for social change, that there were few access points for them as young people, and few opportunities to develop the skills and knowledge that would allow them to contribute to social change efforts. These young participants created the STAY Project, with the help of adult allies, particularly Elandria Williams.
The STAY Project began as a consortium supported by Appalshop’s Appalachian Media Institute in Whitesburg, Ky, High Rocks Educational Corportation in Hillsboro, WV, and the Highlander Research and Education Center in New Market, TN. Highlander still serves as STAY’s fiscal sponsor.
OUR CHALLENGE:
Central and Southern Appalachia faces an exodus of young people due in large part to the lack of economic and educational opportunities. Decision makers who are responsible for the opportunities our communities have access to prioritize profit over the health of our families and communities. Youth from this region grow up in communities that face disinvestment and socioeconomic struggle, often with our communities being abandoned, discredited, or blamed for systemic issues. Because of this, some organizations provide direct services to youth, but struggle to consistently offer basic personal and leadership development opportunities. STAY Members agreed that our escalating challenges offer the opportunity to grow the revolutionary consciousness, imagination, and strategies of young people across Appalachia. STAY members are creating revolutionary gathering space, leading electoral campaigns, expanding reproductive healthcare access, redefining sex education, pushing other formations to be sharper, supporting labor struggles, organizing and getting mutual aid resources to our people, and so much more. And we are doing all of this with the absolute bare minimum of resources.
OUR IMPACT
STAY provides critical leadership development to Appalachian youth!
STAY supports Appalachian youth to organize in their local communities through the STAY for Dinner toolkit and programming.
STAY connects youth across the region at our Summer Institute to develop a shared assessment of what we are facing and vision for the communities we deserve and are building.
The Black Appalachian Young and Rising Gathering authentically connects Black youth from across the region to resist isolation by exploring identity and articulating a youth plan of action.
STAY is connecting Appalachian youth to national & global movements for liberation, linking together common struggles and developing a strong base of youth leaders to lead the fight for our global collective future.
STAY is helping to create a stronger, thriving region by:
Investing in our young people
Fortifying Appalachian leaders through connection, education, & development
Building Appalachian youth power.
OUR CORE BELIEFS
We believe that...
The land called “Appalachia” is the unceded territory of the Osage, Cherokee, Shawnee, Catawba, Muscogee Creek, Moneton, and Tsoyaha peoples.
Youth in the region are the experts of our experiences and are capable of shaping our own narrative about the past, present, and future of Appalachia.
Everyone deserves fundamental human rights and universal access to all the things we need to survive, thrive, and live abundant lives.
We are stronger when we unite across our differences to organize and build communities where we can care for each other and thrive in all our diversity.
Black youth, Indigenous youth, queer and trans youth and all oppressed youth deserve to live in and lead self-determined and liberated communities.
Young people have the right to stay in the region and deserve access to life sustaining resources, opportunities, and livelihoods.
Despite having few avenues for community participation, leadership, and decision-making, young people in our region are already creating change and working towards making Appalachia economically and environmentally sustainable.
When young people are connected to resources, skills, and each other, we can realize our vision for change in the region.
We believe in intergenerational spaces and collaborations that prioritize the power of youth leadership and value shared learning.
The embrace and resourcing of Black youth autonomy and self-determination is critical and central to the liberation of all people
Our liberation as young people in Appalachia is bound up with the liberation of all young people everywhere around the world.
Appalachian youth can and deserve to coordinate and organize the health of our own communities.
