Blake Moss, founder of “Coalfields and Cobblestones”, is currently preparing for a return trip to Poland in hopes of forming partnerships between Poland and Appalachia.
Moss started the nonprofit with the goal of Poland and Appalachia learning from each other, helping one another and giving locals a chance to experience a part of the world they may never have otherwise.
“I’m going back next month, and when I go, I’ll be hitting their coal-mining areas hard,” he said. “They started their first coal mine in the mid-1600’s, and have a rich coal-mining heritage. The main focus will be Silesia and Gdansk.”
Moss said Silesia is a historic coal mining region, while Gdansk is home to the world’s largest workers’ movement.
“Silesia was the European mining center for a long time, and was under communist rule for a while, leading to worker rights issues and a lot of the same things we’ve dealt with in the coal industry,” he said. “Now, they’re a global case study about how communities can recover from extracted industries and diversify their economy.”
While in Silesia, Moss said he’ll be meeting with folks who specifically study mining and economic recovery from the mining industry.
“This is partnership development; when I originally went to Poland, I went for vacation, but I got so deep in the area,” Moss said. “This is a follow-up, and I’ll be curated by locals. They’ve been incredibly helpful and I’m very excited. We’ll be narrowing down our partners and working on a commitment to get a small group to visit us here in Appalachia.”
Moss said his trip will be from May 12 to May 26.
“I’m not going to let this not happen; I’m wanting to lay the foundation for ‘Project 2027’, when future-focused Appalachian folks (18 and older) will have the opportunity to visit Poland” he said. “This is a movement; I want to bring diplomacy to the people, to the grassroots level or ‘grass roots diplomacy.’ When we get things to where it’s people to people, instead of solely government to government, a lot of these walls we’ve put up amongst each other will fall down.”
For more information, visit the Coalfields and Cobblestones Facebook page, or, coalfieldsandcobblestones.org.