Programs
The practical skills and innate talents of the Appalachian people were simply a way of life: music, crafts, sewing, and storytelling. FOCIS members envisioned combining this creativity and raw talent with ingenuity and new techniques with a goal of empowerment and self-sustainability. Building on their idea of community development, FOCIS cultivated programs utilizing existing skills combining the old and the new by introducing new quilt patterns, pottery techniques, organizing music, arts and storytelling festivals, plays, Bible schools, etc.
Maureen Linneman called it "putting theology and action together."
A FOCIS sponsored event in 1970 called Appalachian People's Old Timey Folk Rock Camp Meeting Music Fair! was referred to as the Appalachian Woodstock. Held in Jefferson National Forest, attendance was in the thousands. This event would spark a series of music festivals and a resurgence of interest in traditional mountain music.
A small selection of FOCIS sponsored events are featured below.
