The History of HEAD Corporation

In 1967, the Commission on Religion in Appalachia (CORA) created the Self Help Task Force to research and address the factors causing the persistent and widespread poverty in central Appalachia. In 1974, the Task Force incorporated as the Human/Economic Appalachian Development (HEAD) Corporation, a 501(c)3 nonprofit community development corporation, “to promote, encourage, organize and mobilize for self help community development… and to make available realistic local business and job opportunities… to carry out all other activities related to the general betterment of human and economic conditions.”

The Vision and Strategy of HEAD Corporation

HEAD began as a grassroots organization in 1974. The organization’s progressive evolution led management to consider strategies to expand its presence in commercial lending. Although this is a challenging arena, the willingness to transition the lending activities to larger scale ventures yields benefits for the service area and the organization. Larger projects typically offer greater employment opportunities. These ventures have the capacity to provide living wages, fringe benefits, health insurance and retirement plans for a broader spectrum of people than do smaller micro enterprises. Larger projects offer opportunities to combine the resources and services of HEAD’s affiliate organizations with those of the revolving loan fund. This uniquely positions HEAD and its affiliates as a community development entity that creates employment opportunities through business lending, access to fair and reasonable credit through its credit union services and promotes improved living conditions through housing services. All of these services are now provided under one corporate umbrella, Appalbanc.

The Region Served

HEAD’s geographical region encompasses the 86 counties in central Appalachia. This area is made up of predominantly rural counties in eastern Kentucky, northeast Tennessee, southwest Virginia and southern West Virginia.