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Vision for a Sustainable Future
by Mary Steinmaus (Columbia 68-71)
There are many voices of Appalachian Ohio. There are many roads to
achieving a goal. We base our work on the visions and wishes of the
community. We have found that we are many things to many people. Our
interest lies in building a sustainable culture for the benefit of all.
We live and work here on solutions that endure. It is a place called home.
Vision Statement of the
Rural Action Network
More than four years ago, a number of interested citizens and community
activists decided to embark upon a process that would culminate in a
publication of Sustainability Indicators for the Southeast Ohio region
of Appalachia. It was a long process that would eventually involve
hundreds of people living in the region.
Carol Kuhre, executive director of Rural Action, described the process
in a piece she wrote for Building Healthy Communities, the publication
about sustainability indicators.
In 1994 Rural Action, the Corporation for National Service, and the
Stanley Foundation brought together 75 people at Lake Hope Lodge in
Vinton County. Since then, people have gathered in small groups, at
conferences, luncheons, and in action research teams, to understand the
impact of human activity on our region. Our inquiry is part of a
world-wide sustainability movement
Our region, rich in natural resources and hard-working people, has long
been used as a seedbed to profit outside development interests. Those
interests have brought more than a century of economic boom and bust,
and the resulting environmental degradation. Today, there is evidence
of uneven development. Larger towns and cities thrive while smaller
farm and mining communities barely survive; super-highways move people
and goods through the region but local citizens have little or no
public transportation; new superstores and malls ring our towns while
downtown merchants struggle to survive.
To move away from that cycle, weve asked one another what can we do to
ensure that our children and grandchildren are able to have satisfying
lives while staying in this region. We need a long-range plan if there
is to be enough good, affordable housing, transportation, and medical
care. We need to meet the educational needs of future generations and
ensure safe water, adequate sewer systems, and healthy recreational
activities. These are inadequacies even now, so its clear that we must
work hard to turn in the right direction. Answers and solutions to
these questions must come from local residents who are most concerned
about the quality of community life.
At the first conference at Lake Hope, participants decided to gather
information under the themes of land use, basic human needs,
environmental health, sustainable economic development and the
local/global connection. VISTAs assigned to Rural Action organized
grassroots citizens committees in five counties for information
gathering and planning. Those committees sponsored four conferences
titled Sustainable Land Use, Meeting Basic Human Needs, Sustainable
Economic Development Alternatives, and Environmental Health and our
Bioregion. They also organized luncheons to discuss Agenda 21 and
linked with local universities for survey and library research.
As a sustainability indicators document, Building Healthy Communities
is just a beginning. It describes the steps local citizens and
organizations have taken towards building sustainable communities in
southern Ohio.
The document is also a call to action. The indicators are a vision that
serve as an invitation to individuals and groups to sustainable examine
their use of natural resources and how they can make a positive and
tangible impact on the future of the planet. Maureen Hart, of Hart
Environmental Data, says the following about Sustainable Community
indicators; We are what we measure. Its time to measure what we want
to be.
Additional information about the indicators project Building Healthy
Communities and the Rural Action Network are available at their
offices, P.O. Box 157, Trimble, Ohio 45782.
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