10/14/2026
What does it look like to move beyond supporting partners and start tackling the barriers they face alongside them?
That's the question our very own Hanna Gabbard, Cheryl Grogg and Dr. Amon Couch explored alongside Dr. Jennifer Lindon of Hazard Community and Technical College at StriveTogether's 2026 Cradle to Career Network Convening. Their session, From Support to Systems Change: How Backbones Show Up for Partners, explored how backbone organizations can work alongside partners to better understand their needs and build solutions together.
At the heart of the conversation was a simple shift in thinking: Instead of only asking, "How can we help?" what happens when we ask, "What's getting in your way and what can we do about it together?"
For AppC2C, that means listening to what our partners are experiencing and using our relationships, resources and expertise to help address those barriers. Sometimes that looks like quickly pulling together data a partner needs for strategic planning. Sometimes it means finding an employer-of-record solution so local businesses can host interns. Other times, it's helping secure funding to keep important work going or partnering to build more grant-writing capacity in rural Kentucky.
Attendees also got to dig into the needs they're seeing among their own partners, brainstorm ways their organizations could help and map out concrete next steps to put those ideas into action.
We're grateful for the chance to share some of what we're learning here in Appalachia and to learn alongside other cradle-to-career partnerships working to strengthen systems in their own communities!
