Woman Activist

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Woman Activist

• Marie Cirillo
• Poverty in the Appalachians

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What was her background?

• Born in Brooklyn, New York in Nov. 1929 (same
  month as the Stock Market Crash)
• Daughter of music teachers and spent summers with
  her grandparents in rural Kentucky
• Family didnt believe in buying goods, so they
  made everything themselves
• Moved to Ohio in 1947 and joined a group of
  missionary sisters

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What was the issue?

• While with the Missionary Sisters, she realized
  there was a need for help within the rural
  Appalachian community, Clearfork Valley
• New technology shifted from deep-mining to
  strip-mining
• Strip-mining did not require the use people, so
  many mining companies destroyed the unneeded
  miners homes.
• This left the remaining people in the mountains
  living under difficult social, economical, legal,
  and environmental conditions.

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What was the outcome?

• Started the Federation of Communities in Service
  (FOCIS)
• Formed a non-profit organization, Model Valley
  Development Corporation
• Opened industries other than coal, so the young
  generation wouldnt have to move
• Organized health clinics and day cares
• Small business enterprises
• Craft production and industrial wood pallets

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More outcomes

• Helped people take control of their own
  communities.
• Organized Mountain Womens Exchange
• Trains women in home construction and
  rehabilitation
• Had influence on regulations for strip-mining
• Helped form the Woodland Community Land
  Trust/Community Land Trust Association
  (WCLT/CLTA)
• Community members had the opportunity to obtain a
  renewable lease on land
• It took 7 years for the land to be paid off

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Will this solve the problem for the future?

• They are paying off more land year by year.
• They are trying to get more government aid
• They are working on renovating the remaining
  schoolhouse in the old coal camps
• Raising money to put a geothermal heating system
  in the center
• Reduces the use of coal and emissions from coal.

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References

• Cirillo, Marie. Impoverishment and the Mining
  Industry in the Appalachian Mountains. Mountain
  Research and Development. 26.1(2006)28-31.
• Cirillo, Marie. Stories From an Appalachian
  Community. The E.F. Schumacher Society.
  Publications. Oct. 2000 lthttp//www.schumachersoci
  ety.org/publications/cirillo_00.html gt.
• Garland, Ann. Women Activists. New York Talman
  Company, 1988.