We are a community non-profit in Harlan County, Kentucky that looks to traditional folkways to create innovative solutions to Appalachia's challenges, while inviting in the broader world to engage and connect to our natural and cultural heritage.
Our Mission
Pine Mountain Settlement School enriches lives and fosters community by offering experiential education focused on environmental literacy, sustainable agriculture, and Appalachia’s diverse people, art, and culture.
Our Strategy
In carrying out our mission, we take a holistic approach to the stewardship of our natural, agricultural, human and built environment through community development, environmental education, sustainability, and Appalachian cultures and heritage.
Our Values
Authenticity - We draw upon our deep Appalachian roots to engage with the present and shape the future of the region.
Simplicity - We model a simplicity in living that emphasizes relationships with people and nature over material things.
Learning by doing - We promote learning through inquiry and experiential education using our unique natural and built environment as a classroom.
Wonder - We foster a sense of wonder and personal growth by being a place where bodies, hearts, and imaginations thrive.
Social Responsibility -We promote social responsibility through our day-to-day activities and programming.
Inclusivity - We build bridges among people of diverse backgrounds by encouraging an exchange of ideas, perspectives, and visions for the world that generates mutual respect and understanding.
Collaboration - We foster connections, collaboration, and shared expertise, recognizing that all parties have something to contribute.
Stewardship - We care for and protect our built and natural environment.
Environmental Education
We preserve the 350-acre Bickford State Nature Preserve, including removing invasive species and protecting our hemlock trees against woolly adelgid. But we also teach more than 3,000 children each year about our natural resources and how we can better steward them through our daily interactions and choices. We are developing the next generation of conservationists.
Sustainability and Farm
Each year over 80 participants--feeding more than 300 family members--participate in our Farm Institute. Through more than a dozen free workshops, our participants gain organic seeds and gardening supplies as well as practical knowledge on how to maintain their gardens and extend their season. We also helped to launch the first-ever Harlan County Farmer's Market, had the first honey harvest in over 50 years at Pine Mountain, participated in Kentucky's hemp pilot, and have egg-producing chickens in the barn below the Chapel.
“Pine Mountain Settlement School is creating solutions for the most critical issues facing Eastern Kentucky and Central Appalachia. Solutions which are thoughtfully purposed to develop and leverage our incredible assets — people, culture, and nature.”