For more than 40 years, MACED has worked to help build a new economy in Eastern Kentucky and Central Appalachia that is locally-based, community-driven and built upon regional talent, traditions and assets.
We are excited to share with you MACED’s most recent Impact Report highlighting a few of the enterprises and efforts we supported during our 2019 Fiscal Year.
This was another full year of providing businesses and non-profits with affordable financing, particularly those who may not have qualified for traditional financing. We also continued to expand our targeted technical assistance, which allows us to connect entrepreneurs and organizations with consultants for marketing, accounting, website development and other critical support services.
Our work in advancing the new energy economy is strengthening the region’s homes, small businesses, local governments, communities and non-profits by helping reduce energy costs and consumption, increase energy security and build resiliency. This year, our new solar financing tool has helped several enterprises switch to renewable energy, and our New Energy Intern program has retrained workers, including former coal miners, in residential and commercial energy efficiency.
We have extended our Airbnb curriculum, training community members to convert under-utilized properties into short-term rentals to support the growing Eastern Kentucky tourism sector. We supported arts entrepreneurship training through the AIR Shift program and provided support for the What’s Next EKY?! network. We also continued our work to shift the narrative about Appalachia this year through Appalachia’s New Day, a targeted story-telling campaign focused on uplifting stories about how communities are building a brighter future. We worked closely with local and national reporters, and increased our social media engagement.
MACED’s policy program, Kentucky Center for Economy Policy, continued to grow, conducting research and providing public education on important policy issues affecting the entire state. We also continued to provide fiscal sponsorship for key regional organizations as well as administrative support for our affiliate, Kentucky Natural Lands Trust.
The complete report can be found here.
To receive a physical copy of the report, please contact Communications Coordinator, Ariel Fugate, at ariel@mtassociation.org or 859-302-3868.
