>>So we're in a moment where there's a dawning recognition that we have to include voices that have been left out.

There's all kinds of research that the kinds of wicked problems we're trying to solve are going to require a diversity of viewpoints and perspectives.

So it's not just, it's not just the same people collaborating.

It's gotta be an ensemble of people included people that don't think like you, that don't come from your same cultural background.

People who are closest to the problems, the daily experience of the problems.

It's not just collaboration by itself, but it's the quality and character of that collaboration and the processes that gets to say who's in that and who gets to speak in their own voice.

(upbeat music) >>Now around this area is when you began to see more of the convenience stores.

Which are the go to for nutrition, groceries, and things of that nature.

You have one here and then there's another one across the street.

So on this block alone, you have four convenience stores and they all promote the same stuff, tobacco, cigarettes, beer, lotto.

So if I'm a child and I'm going to go get snacks, this is where I'm going to snacks from.

It's time the residents of Church Hill are recognized as being people who have had to have the bare minimum.

I think it's time for them to be rewarded.

(tinkling music) >>This area has not had a full service grocery store in about maybe 20 years, I believe.

And the community here, when we came out and kind of questioned what was needed, the number one thing they said was a grocery store, healthier choices.

We made a lot of decisions focused around just trying to deliver that simple thing to the customers.

>>Just sit still, don't move.

Say hi.

>>I started in the grocery business back in 1972.

So after 24 years in grocery business, I decided it was time to try something where I can make a difference in the community.

For a chain to open up here, like Aldi or Kroger, you can't just open up the store and say, okay, we're here.

It takes a lot of time and effort to get into the community and meet the people, develop that trust.

>>It was a leap of faith.

The community wanted to no longer be labeled a food desert.

Someone may live 10 years, 20 years, less than someone else, just because they don't feel like fresh, affordable food is within their reach.

It was time to have something that was a better option for them.

Because we wanted the grocery store to be reflective of the community.

It was so important to host listening sessions, to hear about what people were really interested in.

And that way helped to bring the services that were needed.

People spoke over and over again about transportation.

Great.

We'll put that on the checklist.

They talked a lot about being able to pay utility bills, wanting a pharmacy.

And once people feel heard they're vested in the store and then they're more apt to support.

>>So we have to expound on this.

A lot of the, I have a whole book of stuff.

That's going to help the market out.

So we'll have another meeting.

(somber music) >>Right now we have 97 employees of the 97, about 60% of that is local.

We've pretty much went into the neighborhood several times with job fairs, just to try and get local talent to come to the store here.

Kind of just keep that whole cycle of the neighborhood supporting itself.

>>That was paramount hiring from the community.

You know, that that was a part of the mission, part of the vision, you know, the advisement council, we spoke heavily on that.

If this market is truly for the community that you need to pull from the community.

>>I was raised up all over Church Hill.

I never thought we would have a grocery store in this area.

It's been so long.

>>It has been quite some years, that's true.

>>I hope we'd be busy.

>>Oh, me too, miserable.

>>Hello customer!

>>Hi, how y'all doing today?

>>My name is Ruth Cosby and for the first time I have a job that I'm proud of.

I've never been to college but we had all types of classes.

We did the Myers Briggs test to know who we are.

And every morning I got up and I had my little pad and my little book, I felt like I was going to college.

And I was learning how to work in this grocery store in this community.

>>Now put his pin number in.

>>The employees of the market, they are learning on the job.

Some of them have already been promoted.

So they see that there are multiple opportunities for them where their skills will be utilized and grown from perhaps a cashier to a supervisor and then maybe management in some position.

>>Got your senior discount today.

>>Thank you so much.

>>You are so welcome.

>>See you next time, Miss Ruth.

>>See you next time, thank you for shopping.

>>So whatever we were teaching them, whether it was team building skills, communication, we did a lot of problem solving in customer service.

They would then turn around and teach the community.

>>How is everybody doing?

>>Good!

>>What are these?

>>Strawberries.

>>Strawberries!

We believe that once you get kids involved and understanding the importance of the foods that they're making and they're cooking with that they're more apt to have healthier lifestyles.

And it also helps with learning and it just helps build basic good life skills.

>>I'm AJ Brewer and I own Brewer's cafe.

Thought coffee could bring the neighborhood together.

The short and sweet is like, I've never even drank coffee before this, but I just knew that I wanted to create an idea in a neighborhood that in my opinion, desperately needed folks to stay in it.

>>I'm Courtney McCoy.

I am a naturalist.

I make natural beauty products I have in the store here, our signature lip butter.

It's just so important to let people know what's out here and that we learn better together.

And we got to support one another and that you can do it.

Like if this got into a store, like you can do it.

Come on.

>>My name is Dr. Chantel Brown and I am the owner and operator of Hope Pharmacy.

Not having access.

That's the biggest thing.

And that was the problem.

And so now to have the fresh produce, have VCU health hub, have all of the different things that are needed within walking distance.

I think that's what makes it so crucial and so important that people have access.

>>Folks that don't have the resources, have a tendency to not be able to choose healthier choices.

When we partnered with VCU health hub, we have programs where they come in and bring folks in and do tours.

They'll show them some of the healthier options.

So we really were intentional about what we wanted to carry.

>>In all reality is not running a grocery store.

It's when I see that we're really helping an individual, helping the employees, helping the community in any way, that's what motivates me.

>>You know, when we talk about a collective impact model, this is a prime example of that.

It truly is something that has brought a lot of people together, a lot of organizations together and the Church Hill neighborhood and how the market can be an example of what that success looks like.

>>I think that once we get the word out more about the market and what we're doing and the purpose of the market, I think that's going to be a hub of community.

That's what I see the market as being, not just a place, it's no coming to get nutrition and grocery but.

So build community too, to build connection.

And I think that the market is the platform for people from these communities and people from, you know, other communities moving in to come together and be one.

And I think that if we continue to promote that, then that would just encourage people to come through the doors.

(somber music) >>I've always been a big rural proponent.

My mom is from Southwest Virginia, my dad's from the Eastern part of the state.

So I have a little bit of both.

And I think building a better hometown means people have the chance to, to grow up and live where they want to live.

They don't have to leave a rural community that has a very, very good quality of life to go somewhere else and find opportunity.

It gives them the opportunity to stay at home, to raise their kids, to do whatever they want to do without feeling that pressure, that in order to have a good opportunity, they have to go somewhere else.

We've seen a lot of out migration in our rural areas over the last 20, 50 years as industries have come and gone.

And so I think it's really about rebuilding that opportunity for people to be able to have that as an option, but there's gotta be that desire on the part of the local community to really rebrand itself and remake itself in a way that makes it a viable place for people to stay.

(somber music) >>I love Southwest Virginia.

That's my home.

The region has so much to offer.

>>It is absolutely beautiful.

If you like outdoors, you'll love Southwest Virginia, but you'll also love just the friendly atmosphere, the sense of community and just a family feel there.

>>Well, it certainly is home to me and to lots of folks who call it home.

And we have pretty deep roots here and would not really want to be any place else to be very candid with you.

>>If you measure your quality of life on being able to go to a museum or shopping center every day of the week that you want to, then Wise County is probably not your haven.

Nonetheless, there are a few areas in the world today that one can walk out at night and see the Milky Way.

There's peace here.

There's tranquility that money cannot buy.

>>They can be up hiking and running and biking on the trails in 10 minutes.

So it's offers a really great quality of life.

Wise County is heavily impacted by the coal industry.

Everywhere you go, you're surrounded by former mines and you can see coal by the train tracks.

It's very visible.

>>Well, it's a very mountainous terrain.

It has a strong history in resource development, a large basically on extraction of coal.

The carbon mineral has been the dynamo in the local economy for multiple generations, particularly in the 20th century, it has gone through several booms and busts.

>>In 2012, there was a precipitous decline in the coal industry.

4,000 people lost jobs within a year.

That has left to a demographic decline.

And so we have an aging population, people leaving the region because of lack of jobs.

>>The ripple effects of the loss of coal jobs.

It doesn't just mean the coal miners lose their job.

It means that restaurants shut down, it means that grocery stores shut down.

It means that schools shut down.

So all of that ripples through because people have to leave the area to find work.

>>So when you have a one industry dominated economy and there is a decline in that industry, it permeates through the whole economy.

>>I do not see coal coming back simply because the utilities invest over a long period of time.

And they are now investing in natural gas and renewable energy as opposed to fossil fuels.

So we've got to engage in modernization.

Certainly we need to lure people back into the area, especially those between 25 and 55 to repopulate the workforce and with skills that are more apropos to the modern economy.

>>In order to create jobs and to begin to diversify up an economy like Wise County, you first need to attract great employers.

And so everyone was thrilled when mineral gap data center decided to open its doors.

>>The facility it's designed for 65,000 square feet on 22 acres.

This is a high security facility and is designed to accommodate federal, commercial, and the health industry.

>>Mineral gap data center has provided much needed jobs in Wise County for local residents who are looking to transition from the coal industry.

>>My name's Adam Wiseman.

I'm a multi craft technician, spent seven and a half years in the coal industry.

Year and a half on surface mining as a mechanic, six and a half years underground.

As I was seen a decline in coal, I decided to try to get into electrical field.

You know, I've got opportunity for a career right here, close to home.

>>I enjoy a lot of aspects of my job here.

It's a competitive paying job.

It's good schedule, but probably the neatest thing is being part of something that's just new and groundbreaking to Wise County.

And it's an opportunity to be a part of something that is new to the area that challenges the traditional thinking of what industry looks like around here.

>>I think the data center is not only brought jobs to the area, but I think it's bringing attention to the area which hopefully will promote other companies to move into the area.

>>Mineral Gap Data Center is working really hard to diversify the local economy by utilizing alternative energy, to power, a portion of its facility.

>>Solar as with wind and other technologies, now.

They will, at some point in time replace the fuels that we use.

So we feel like as a company that we're obligated to move in that direction.

>>I don't think there's a more poignant example of the transition from 19th century technology to a 21st century technology than the project that we're doing in Wise County.

>>The system that we are going to be building in Wise County at the Mineral Gap Data Center is very similar to the system that we built in Middlesex County last year, it's a ground mounted system.

And when people walk into work every day, it gives them the opportunity to actually see the system that's powering the facility that they're working in.

Their project is about three and a half megawatts.

Three and a half megawatts is about 10 acres of solar, enough energy to power three large schools.

>>Mineral Gap Data Center is located on an abandoned mine land, which is kind of a technical term that means that it was mine prior to there being any laws for reclaiming land after you mine it.

Installing solar on that abandoned mine land, where there is all of this wreckage is just incredibly symbolic and inspiring for our region to have this new, clean energy on land that has been left for decades and in shambles basically, and unusable by our residents.

>>From an engineering standpoint, when we go to a site that's a ground Mount project.

It's really exciting because we have a little bit of room to work and try to really optimize the design.

We come back to the office and our team puts all of our heads together and we list out all the challenges, all the opportunities.

And we engineer the project together as a team.

>>So here, I'm working on the layout for the Mineral Gap solar project.

I'm looking at the area that we have available and trying to optimize the number of rocks we can fit in the amount of solar that fits in the most optimized way.

So we're using the contours of the area because it's not a completely flat land area.

So we're trying to take those contours and map out how we can fit a raise there to best create a system that has good efficiencies and minimal shading and things like that.

>>I kind of want our communities to understand that it doesn't have to be coal that brings in the work.

It can be other industries.

People here really like the idea of remaining an energy producing region.

We have more than 70,000 acres of coal impacted lands that can be reused and revitalized for new economic development.

Having this example will really help people imagine what other things are possible with these lands.

>>Culturally people being able to see, hear, feel, and know people who are working in this sustainable energy field will realize that yes, we may have been a coal extraction economy, but we can be an energy economy.

(somber music) >>You're not looking to change the entire world.

You're looking to change your block, right?

You're looking to change your city, your neighborhood.

Well, what gives me a lot of hope is what's happening on the local level, the municipal level, the community level, the nonprofits, they're not waiting for a big giant bill that comes from the federal government on down.

They're doing as much innovative stuff there's, they're allowed to do in their local communities.

And what we're seeing is, and what really makes the change and what makes it exciting.

There's those pilot projects, right?

There's pilot projects that happen in communities are the ones that are going to bounce from city to city and state to state.

And I think we'll hopefully have really good examples of how to solve problems.

(somber music) >>I don't know how exceptional Nelson County really is.

It feels exceptional.

It felt exceptional from the earliest days when people started moving in here and carving out lives for themselves.

>>Nelson County is no replica of anything.

It's completely authentic.

>>It's kinda easy to take for granted, but it's probably the most beautiful County that I know of in the state.

I am biased.

I live here.

>>I mean, there's such an ownership of this place and that is a strength.

But Nelson County has a strange geography.

It's almost like a tic tac toe board where the mountains create actually nine separate communities.

If you like Nelson County, you want to stay here.

You got to be pretty innovative.

You got to find different ways to do it.

You gotta think.

>>We go back to colonial days.

When the minor crop was tobacco.

And then came they make word a 1930s then peaches were bringing a dollar a bushel.

And this was exciting to people.

Here they planted 75 acres of peaches.

Without a tractor or without a truck.

>>When Hurricane Camille hit in 1969 and that comprises a very damaging blow to the County.

>>We lost a lot of our plants.

Probably around 20,000 or so.

They've washed away up, got flooded.

>>Camille was a real traumatic experience for the county's population at that time.

The number of farms dropped radically.

>>I know there were challenges after hurricane Camille for the County.

You can look at things in a positive way.

I think you can turn a challenge into an opportunity.

And then I think a lot of people did that from the 1969 flood.

>>An entrepreneur is anyone who sees an opportunity to do things a little differently because of a changing world.

Changing landscape.

>>If you really take a look at what's right for Nelson County, understand who you are and what your true assets are and where you want to use those assets to go.

I thought that agriculture was a big industry, as well as a tourism potential and blending the two together looked like a winner all the way around.

>>The agritourism deal is a huge part of our business and business here locally.

People want to support these local forms and we want to support the local forms.

Our customers want to know kind of who the farmers are that grew their product.

I always say they want to kind of reach out and touch that person.

(somber music) >>In 1990, I think there were 20 wineries in the state.

In 2002, when we got our bonded license, we were number eighty.

A lot of that is because there are people like me who went from growers to producers.

We were the netherworld of wine region.

Nobody talked about Virginia back then, you know, and we're in a really good location.

Major highways are nearby.

God gives an artery for sales.

You could have the best growing location in the world, but if you want to direct market and nobody wants to go there for any other reason, you're going to have trouble, but there's a lot to do here.

>>The farm has been in the family since 1898.

My grandparents grew up here.

My dad grew up here.

I had a saw mill.

So I started building barns and fences and whatnot for chicken houses and pig houses and cow barns.

And then eventually built the malting facility hangar down there.

And we still do a floor malt just like it was done 200 years ago, we do our own roasting and toasting.

We make all our, of our crystal malts, all of our chocolate malts, everything, anything that goes into beer, we actually make here.

We don't change our water to try and make a Munich German beer.

Everything you get here is Nelson County.

>>Today we have three distilleries, three cideries and five breweries.

And so that is an extremely robust cluster of businesses that are thriving.

80% of all new jobs come from existing businesses.

And so we've seen these businesses grow and employ with quite significant wages.

>>I know that sales tax from restaurants and breweries and wineries and so on are way beyond what they were.

Today you were close to the median for the state and there isn't a teenager who wants a job that can't find one in Nelson County working in some tourist related enterprise.

The entire 20th century was spent closing small schools and building larger schools, but you don't build a new high school, build a new middle school and two brand new elementary schools without revenue.

Where did that revenue come from?

That revenue came from all the new entrepreneurial enterprises.

So the county's economic fortunes today, rest on all that development.

>>I think that agrarian economy is such an important part of not only our beauty here, but also the strength of the individuals who comprise that community.

>>One of the best things that you can do for economic development and tourism is to be true to yourself because if people want that real experience, that is genuinely authentic, they have to go to the source.

And that's where Nelson County is a step above and beyond.

(somber music) (upbeat music)