The bottom fell out of the local economy in McDowell County, West Virginia, in the 1980s. For a time, every coal mine in the county shut down. (An environmentalist’s dream, but a coal miner’s nightmare.) Huge numbers of residents fled the county on the “hillbilly highway.” Those who stayed behind struggled to survive.

In the midst of this, a small group of residents came together and formed an organization called “Big Creek People in Action.” The group bought an old school in Caretta for one dollar and began providing services to the community. It raised most of its money from private foundations. No one got paid the first four years.

Since then, Big Creek has provided the community with a wide variety of programs, some of which have lasted, some of which have not, including an early childhood development program, an education and literacy program, an after school program (one of the ones that didn’t last), a young leaders program and much more.

Big Creek’s Citizenship Program is one of its flagship activities. Big Creek has transformed several classrooms in the old school into dormitories. Church and university groups come to Big Creek, usually for a week at a time, stay in the dorms and work in the community. They fix houses, paint churches, repair porch steps…you get the idea.

My group planted a garden, initiated an Internet Blog for a young leaders group, and created a new library at the Big Creek building.

All of this is good, of course, but does it really make a difference…over the log term? Well, it’s clear that Big Creek has helped an enormous number of residents over the last 18 years. Thousands of residents have been helped in tangible ways.

It’s less clear that Big Creek has had much of an impact over the long term. McDowell County is as poor as ever. Then again, would the situation be any better without Big Creek? Doubtful.

Over the last eight years, the residents of McDowell County have faced serious challenges. Since 2000, there are have been four floods — two one-hundred-year floods and one five-hundred-year flood. One of the floods inundated Big Creek’s headquarters building. “That really changed the dynamic of Big Creek People in Action and the people it serves,” co-founder Frankie Rutherford says. “For several years, the focus of Big Creek was on survival.”

Big Creek and the community both survived but neither prospered. The group is in serious financial trouble, is struggling to fill several staff positions, and is without an executive director. Marsha Timpson, Learning Coordinator of the Citizenship Program, has stepped into the breach and provided energetic leadership to the group. Timpson says the county will never return to its glory days, but “it can be better, and we want to help make it better.”

As a reporter, I learned to be cynical about self –help groups that talk big but accomplish very little. But I’ve been very impressed with the people at Big Creek. They are battling powerful forces — globalization, a variety of social ills, the mechanization of jobs— with no guarantee or likelihood of success. Let’s hope they keep up the good fight.

Useful links:
Big Creek People In Action