Nothing says true love like a year’s worth of garbage pickup. This may end up being my favorite gift this year. The rest are sitting wrapped, tidy and pretty, under the tree. My garage, on the other hand, is neither tidy nor pretty. It is bursting with trash bags, busted gear and crammed recycling bins — quietly waiting (and waiting) for us to make a trip (or two) to the transfer station. Our cars, in the meantime, are relegated to the cold and snow just outside the garage doors. When I told my...Read more

In graduate school, I studied the concept of risk and resilience as it relates to the development of children and young adults. Put succinctly, the healthy development of humans is slowed by risk factors and promoted by resilience factors. Understanding these factors allows us to address risks and encourage resilience, either generally or in very specific ways. This rather academic concept was far from my mind 19 months ago when my boss, in another city and in a different capacity, called me...Read more

By Dana Bamford, ANCA 2021 Summer Fellow Having grown up in suburban Boston, it was a real change moving to northern New York. Not because of the swarming Yankees and Mets fans and not even because of the dreaded winters — those I’ve had my fair share of in Boston. The biggest change for me was the shift to a more rural lifestyle. Before moving up to the Adirondacks and working with ANCA this summer, I attended Colgate University, which is located in a pretty isolated location. At Colgate, I...Read more

"Going forward with the co-op, we're creating a new family, and it will allow this business to continue perpetually into the future. This gives us an avenue to keep it going." ~ Ward Lumber worker-owner Kevin Kennedy Ward Lumber of Jay and Malone, N.Y. has been serving local communities for over 130 years. Following a two-year process spearheaded by fourth-generation owner Jay Ward, the business is now owned by a team of employees, including Jay. By adopting an ownership model that creates...Read more

The COVD-19 Era is not the first time a large crisis spurred an affordable housing shortage in the North Country. From pandemics to terrorist attacks, communities across the Adirondack Park have felt the economic shockwaves of global events. As a region, as long as we remain passive towards the issue of accessible housing and the negative impacts it has on our workforce, we will always be one crisis away from crumbling our economy. Why is housing on my mind? I am one of the many individuals who...Read more

By guest contributor Chitra Kumar , Senior Fellow with Aspen Institute 's Community Strategies Group and Thrive Rural Published with permission of the author and The Hill . Rural communities are integral to our nation’s economy, culture, history, and ecological health — and our future. Yet, our public policies often either treat rural America as an afterthought or make sweeping assumptions about rural people’s values, particularly when it comes to environmental sustainability. Depressingly, we...Read more

January 20, 2021 WHEREAS, the nation has just celebrated and honored the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and prepares to inaugurate the 46th president and vice president of the United States, Joseph R. Biden and Kamala D. Harris, and WHEREAS, the nation and world collectively witnessed the violence and fear that was engendered on January 6, 2021 at the U.S. Capitol, underscoring the importance of the principles of finding common ground to solve problems, working together in good faith to...Read more

We at ANCA are struggling (as we imagine many of you are ) to comprehend, process and heal from the deep divisions that are happening in the U.S. today. Sometimes it can feel like our work is such a small drop in a large ocean of economic and social troubles flooding our region and our country. It can feel isolating. It can feel insurmountable. Of course, it is nothing compared to the weight that minoritized individuals feel in experiencing the same burnt, torn landscape of our nation in this...Read more

The 2020 holiday season will most certainly look and feel different. These are stressful times for many of us: financially, emotionally, mentally. If the weight of this year’s hardships are getting you down over the holidays, there are professionals and resources available. We’ve provided a list of several state and regional organizations that can help at the bottom of this page. Despite this year's challenges and limitations, this holiday season also gives us a unique opportunity to feel and...Read more

It’s so easy to go to a huge online retailer, order everything I need, and have it show up at my door. Especially now when I don’t really want to go into stores in person. I can’t tell you how many times over the last few weeks I’ve loaded up my online shopping cart, only to abandon it again... Because. BECAUSE. They don’t need my money. You know who does. I know you know. Who doesn’t love a small business? I think we all want them to be here in the future. Many local businesses have new ways...Read more