Sustaining economic progress in a region fighting to end poverty

CDFIs are working to maintain Appalachia’s decades-long revival — and provide greater economic opportunity throughout the areas’ local communities

Voice of Donna Gambrell

President & CEO, Appalachian Community Capital

Appalachia has 420 counties, 13 states, 25 million people. It's a pretty vast region.

There are a lot of reasons why the region has certainly seen a lot of under investment and disinvestment. And this has been going on for decades. An extraction of natural resources, out-migration, challenges related to health, to the economy. Investors assume that there is not a lot to invest into the region, and yet that is so much of a myth.

In spite of the challenges, what you have is a very resilient population. People in the region who are looking at ways to diversify the economy. There's a richness and a robustness to this region that warrants an investment.

Appalachian Community Capital, a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), was created to increase small business lending and provide underserved communities with new sources of capital.

Since 2015, Appalachian Community Capital has helped create or retain over 2,000 jobs.

The industries, the sectors, that are certainly priorities are small manufacturing, agriculture, ecotourism. We really do keep our ear to the ground and listen to what those CDFIs are saying in terms of what their greatest priority needs are as well.

Small businesses really are the backbone of any economy. They create jobs. They create stability in the community.

I would encourage anyone who hasn't visited Appalachia to come to the region, to see for yourselves, to talk to the people. They see a future, not only for themselves, but for their children and for the generations that come behind them. And they want to make sure that there is stability, that there is productivity, that there is creativity and innovation that will go on for many, many years to come.

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The Appalachia cultural region, which is part of the larger Appalachian Mountain range, stretches from southern New York to Northern Alabama. It is rich in natural resources and geographically close to major economic engines on the Eastern Seaboard. While the region has historically suffered from unemployment and below-average incomes, the past two decades have produced steady economic growth that has halved the area’s poverty rate.^footnote1

In the above video, Appalachian Community Capital (ACC) President and Chief Executive Officer Donna Gambrell discusses the role Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) play in fostering Appalachia’s economic growth.

CDFIs provide underserved communities, often minority or impoverished, access to capital that encourages small business ownership. They’ve been crucial to supporting the Appalachia region’s economic progress. ACC, working in partnership with CDFIs across region, has financed nearly 100 small business loans and helped create or retain over 2,000 jobs—more than half of them going to low-income workers—since its founding.

“I’m optimistic about the future of this region and the resilience of our economy,” Gambrell says. “There’s a growing recognition that we must do things differently—we’ve got to keep working to debunk the notion that this region doesn’t hold great opportunity.”

Bank of America operates a $1.6 billion CDFI portfolio with 250 partner CDFIs to provide access to capital to individuals and small businesses who do not qualify through traditional lenders learn more about how Bank of America is helping CDFIs play a critical role in creating economic opportunity.

https://www.arc.gov/appalachian_region/AppalachiasEconomy.asp

Originally published on 04/08/2021.

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