RUX celebrates National Kentucky Day!

Today, the RUX team celebrates National Kentucky Day, which recognizes Kentucky’s history as the fifteenth state to join the union and the first state west of the Appalachian Mountains. 

All elements of RUX’s mission, values, and practices are tethered to Kentucky. In recognition of this, our Currency of Connection framework centers place as one of its three focus areas, along with people and partnerships. We believe that our work requires a deep understanding of our state’s identity, culture, and history. 

Our team’s diversity in geography is a testament to that belief; our cohort members come from 42 of Kentucky’s 120 counties. We have held community intensives in ten locations across the state, stretching from Paducah in the west to Harlan in the east. In each place, we trust local community members to share their first-hand knowledge of local culture and history. 

Simultaneously, we acknowledge the violence enacted on this land, including the Indigenous people displaced by colonization, the enslaved Black people who built this state, and the lasting resilience of these communities. Our understanding of and imagining of Kentucky is incomplete without engaging marginalized peoples and centering them in our membership, leadership, and vision.