From Below: Rising together for Coalfields, Community and Clean Water

Brad Davis and Caitlyn Ware are responsible for the movement From Below: Rising Together for Coalfield Justice. They originally began as an immersive experience in McDowell County, WV. However, when Brad asked his congregation to help neighbors across the county line, whose water had recently been poisoned, a woman in the back laughed out loud and said, “our water has been bad for years”. This moment sent them down a path filled with water distributions and legislative sessions.Most recently, McDowell County, was featured on an episode of 60 Minutes. The original story was about “affordability” and the “birthplace of foodstamps”, but Brad negotiated with the producers to make sure that they told the story of the people. Water IS the biggest issue, because Water IS Life. If we don’t have water, we can’t eat, work or anything else. Our state government is not doing right by their people and Caitlyn is one of our biggest advocates, when it comes to legislative policy and crunching the ACTUAL numbers for these water projects that are making their way into a few bills this session. She is also aware of the bills with good ideas that have not gone anywhere during this 2026 Legislative session.This is just a couple of the things that we touched on in this 2 hour conversation about our home, the place that is worth saving, West Virginia