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The height of beauty, the depths of poverty
How can a region so rich in natural resources be so poor?
You can't build factories on mountainsides. You can't plant crops. And for more than a hundred years, large corporations have extracted natural resources while putting little back in the form of taxes or community support.
The result is that jobs are few and far between. For many of these families, their modest houses-handed down from generation to generation-are the only real possession they have. But houses need maintenance. And when you don't even have money to put shoes on your kids' feet, fixing a hole in the roof is a low priority.
As a result, the homes are crumbling. Walls buckle. Roofs leak. And sagging floors pose hazards to the elderly and the very young.
Into this bleak environment, ASP shines a ray of hope. With help from volunteers like you, we repair more homes than any agency working in Appalachia.
We like to say that our goal is to make homes "warmer, safer and drier." And for more than 40 years, we've done exactly that for 14,000 families.
Yet for all that, we are only able to serve one in ten families who apply to us for help. We need many, many more volunteers to make a lasting dent in Appalachian poverty.
In other words, we need you.
Your volunteer work will give a special family some financial breathing room to concentrate on more important things. Like feeding their kids. Looking for work. And making plans for the future.
Best of all, your presence will touch their lives and remind them that compassion knows no boundaries. And that not even the highest hills and deepest hollows can separate them from God's love.
In the Central Appalachian region we serve...
- Poverty is more than double the national average
- One in four lives below the poverty level-105,000 children, 195,000 adults, and 35,000 elderly
- 62,500 homes are substandard
- 19,000 homes lack adequate kitchens
- 21,000 homes lack complete plumbing
- Nearly half of the families have annual household incomes below $20,000
