Amplifying Rural Voices: Cultivating Community Vibrancy in Morgan County 

In spring 2025, the Morgan County Vibrancy Group, a community-led initiative made up of residents and local institutions, approached Janine Al-Aseer, Director of University-Assisted Community Schools, with a question important to the county’s future: What influences whether young people choose to stay in, leave, or return to Morgan County?

Janine Al-Aseer and Megan Mundie (Theory & Practice in Teacher Education and the Boyd Center for Community Schools) partnered with the Vibrancy Group to develop a community-engaged research project around that locally identified question. Through the Fall 2025 Appalachian Justice Research Lab, the research team traveled throughout the semester to Morgan County, where they conducted structured listening sessions with educational leaders and community representatives and facilitated discussions with young adults about their experiences, aspirations, and future trajectories.

The team analyzed these conversations to identify themes related to young people’s experiences of community, opportunity, belonging, and decisions about their futures. Findings were translated into recommendations designed to help the Vibrancy Group understand where community assets could be strengthened and where new strategies might support a vibrant future for Morgan County.

At the end of the semester, the research team returned the findings to the community, sharing a comprehensive report and discussing its implications over a meal with more than 30 Vibrancy Group members. The team later presented the research at the Southwestern Social Science Association Conference in April 2026, bringing insights from a locally driven rural research partnership to a broader scholarly audience.