Appalachian Joy Alliance

Mission & Statement of Values

What is it?

The Appalachian Joy Alliance (AJA) is a network of affiliation among people in the Appalachian region who share a commitment to cultivating joy, friendship and care in their communities. It is not an organization, it is an alliance between people. No special initiation is required; hopefully, you are already in the alliance without knowing it – now you know.

We are not coming up with anything new. We are simply naming our commitment to something primordially human: gathering in friendship, celebrating life, serving one another and making good memories together.

If you align with the mission, you are welcome to apply the Appalachian Joy Alliance name to your event so long as you commit to representing it well.

Mission Statement

To cultivate joy in community through shared experience – dance parties, service projects and celebrations – between people of any background in the Appalachian region.

We do this by creating occasions where people can gather, be present with one another, have fun, be silly, form friendships and make the kind of memories that become the connective tissue of real community.

AJA’s Missions

1. Cultivate joy

Life offers us joy alongside sorrow. As we mature, we learn to choose to be grateful. We treat joy as something we must actively cultivate – a practice, a discipline, a fruit borne of labor, a form of community health.

2. Make good memories

Who we are to ourselves and who we are to each other “lives” mostly in memory. We create occasions for people to make good memories together, building bonds of friendship, belonging and trust and, in so doing, creating safety.

3. Active expression > passive consumption

We trust that the expressive, creative, generative impulses for health shared among people “in real life” are a richer source of well-being than anything we can buy in a store or view on a screen.

4. Serve others

There is no greater source of joy than being of service to another. Alongside celebratory gatherings, AJA lifts up serving others – even in small, everyday acts of kindness – as a profound source of joy.

5. Celebrate diversity

We are all different people, who enjoy different things and see the world in different ways. This is something to celebrate – even as we sometimes disagree about what is best in a given situation.

6. Provide safety. Care

We curate settings where children, parents, elders and everyone in between can be at ease. In service of this, we encourage participants to look out for one another during events and discourage posting footage of events to social media.

7. Simplicity

You don’t need much to have a good time. We ask participants to consider and share their intentions toward themselves and others, emphasizing intentionality over creating a sensational production.

8. Inclusion

A person can belong to the Appalachian Joy Alliance without even knowing it. We honor, celebrate, thank, hold in esteem and encourage any organization, synagogue, mosque, ashram, church or community serving these missions in our region.