[MUSIC]
The first time I came to West Virginia, it helped me to solidify so
much of even just my sense of self and place.
And every time I come back, I'm always struck by the hospitality and
kindness and welcome that the community provides.
There are so many ways in which we can look at the world and be so
disappointed and sad by what's taking place.
But we can look at that same world and
also see kind of these glimmers of hope and opportunity.
[MUSIC]
>> Coal mining has been a very important part of the culture here.
And it's been the number one form of employment.
So you have generational coal miners.
Their great grandfathers or grandfathers, their fathers have have all done this.
[MUSIC]
In 2015, we lost 1,000 jobs just in Mingo County alone.
So this is a population of about 25,000 people.
So when you lose 1,000 jobs, that's a huge impact on an area.
>> I retired in 2015.
Cole miners through my era made good money.
[MUSIC]
If mining hadn't slowed down so bad, I wouldn't be retired.
And be honest with you, there's probably not two days
a week that I don't dream about what I used to do.
[MUSIC]
>> There's not a lot of opportunities here.
When I was growing up, either you worked on a railroad,
coal mines, or your soldier up, pretty much.
That was it.
And so I would like to see kids know that they could be more,
they could do more than what their parents done or what people told them to do.
That they don't have to live inside this box.
[MUSIC]
>> One of the really important aspects of Williamson for
those of us that are visiting is that many of us are forced to really
think about building bridges and innovation across politics,
across class, across race, in order to really bring together diverse
teams to help take on some of the biggest challenges facing the country.
And part of the principle is if we're really that innovative in Silicon Valley,
then can we use what we've learned alongside of the community to help them
innovate against the biggest challenges that they're facing in the world?
>> How could we galvanize people, like people from Cisco, and Intuit, and Google,
and Stanford, and foundations and impact investors from across the country and
really around the world to work alongside like community leaders?
>> It's not just a bunch of people coming in from out of town and brainstorm thing,
and dropping it on people's laps.
It's people coming in and
brainstorming with the people who are e going to execute the decision.
And so together we're saying, what are we committing to do?
>> We work with communities like Williamson to really
accelerate what's going on.
So we work very closely with them, but
they're the heroes of their own work.
>> Having a lot of the what that Doctor is leading around diabetes and
obesity reduction, and the work around drug addiction,
have that really be profiled and
witnessed as lessons learned that can be applied all really around world.
>> So Williamson Health and Wellness Center, I mean,
not only are we a traditional clinic, but we also have a farmer's market,
a community garden and active living components of what we do.
And we have many outreach programs that impact the entire area.
It's the economic corner stone of our community.
I mean, we use this as the economic driver to create the potential for
jobs and access to health in our broad definition of what health is.
Every time we have a learning journey or I'm out at Palo Alto,
just the excitement that comes after that.
So there's a lot of buzz.
>> A big part of what we see our role is catalyzing and sparking the seeds,
then hopefully we'll see some of that come into fruition
within our lifetimes and some of the future generations.
[MUSIC]
>> In some people there's a sense of I'm going to work and some things
to make a lot of money and then I'll think about meaning in the future.
And I think for me, it's always been something like, how do I,
on a daily basis cultivate that sense of meaning?
And I think, keeping that as a north star and
as a focus is something that both sustains me and
enables me to feel like that there's so much opportunity and space for that.
[MUSIC]