Appalachian Regional Commission | Autumn Laurel & Investing in Appalachia's Future
Every candle we pour is made inside the Appalachian region. Every one we sell is a small investment in its future.
Autumn Laurel draws its identity entirely from Appalachia - its landscapes, its seasons, its heritage, its people. The Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) is the federal-state partnership that has been investing in the economic and community development of this same region since 1965. We are proud to champion their work and call ourselves part of the community they serve.
What Is the Appalachian Regional Commission?
The Appalachian Regional Commission is a unique partnership between the federal government and the 13 state governments of the Appalachian region, created by Congress in 1965 to address the persistent economic challenges facing one of America's most storied and underserved regions. ARC's mission is to innovate, partner, and invest to build community capacity and strengthen economic growth across Appalachia.
ARC serves 423 counties across 13 states - from southern New York to northern Mississippi - encompassing roughly 205,000 square miles and more than 25 million people. Its work spans economic development, workforce training, infrastructure investment, broadband access, healthcare, heritage tourism, and small business support. It is one of the longest-running and most impactful regional development initiatives in American history.
ARC in Virginia
In Virginia, ARC serves 25 counties and eight independent cities - the full sweep of the Commonwealth's Appalachian territory, from the New River Valley in the east to the coalfields of Southwest Virginia in the west. This includes Montgomery County, where Autumn Laurel is hand-poured in Christiansburg. Every candle we make is made inside the ARC service region.
In fiscal year 2025 alone, ARC invested $15.4 million across 45 projects in Virginia, matched by more than $70 million in additional funding and serving nearly 732,000 residents across the state's Appalachian counties. These investments touch the everyday fabric of life in our region - water and sewer infrastructure, broadband connectivity, workforce training, healthcare access, heritage and cultural tourism, and small business development.
Virginia's ARC counties include communities that Autumn Laurel knows and loves: Montgomery, Floyd, Giles, Pulaski, Rockbridge, Botetourt, and the independent cities of Radford, Buena Vista, and Lexington, among others. These are the places that shape our scents, our stories, and our sense of what home means.
What ARC Invests In
Heritage & Cultural Tourism
ARC recognizes that Appalachian heritage is an economic asset - that the folklore, craft traditions, landscapes, and cultural identity of the region draw visitors, sustain communities, and create economic opportunity. Investments in heritage tourism support the same Appalachian identity that Autumn Laurel is built on. When a traveler comes to the Blue Ridge for its culture and craft, ARC has often helped build the infrastructure that makes that visit possible.
Small Business & Entrepreneurship
ARC invests in the entrepreneurial ecosystem that allows small businesses like Autumn Laurel to exist and grow. From business development programs to entrepreneur challenges to the networks that connect makers with mentors and markets, ARC funding supports the conditions under which Appalachian entrepreneurship can thrive. The Southwest Virginia Entrepreneur Challenge program, which has supported more than 290 graduates since 2012, is one example of ARC-aligned investment in the region's small business ecosystem.
Workforce Development
ARC funds workforce training for skilled trades and professionals across the Appalachian region - investing in the human capital that rural communities need to compete and grow. In a region where workforce development has historically lagged behind urban centers, ARC's investments create pathways for Appalachians to build careers close to home.
Infrastructure & Broadband
Water, sewer, broadband - the basic infrastructure that makes economic activity possible. ARC has invested heavily in ensuring that Appalachian communities have access to the same foundational services that urban and suburban communities take for granted. For small businesses operating in rural Virginia, reliable broadband is not a luxury. It is the difference between reaching a regional customer and reaching a national one.
Community Capacity Building
Through programs like READY Appalachia, ARC invests in the leadership and organizational capacity of nonprofits, community foundations, and local governments across the region - ensuring that Appalachian communities have the institutional strength to identify their own needs, access resources, and build lasting solutions.
Why Autumn Laurel Champions ARC
Autumn Laurel is not an ARC grantee. We are a small candle company, hand-pouring in a home studio in Christiansburg. But we are deeply aware that the community and economy we operate within has been shaped - in ways both visible and invisible - by decades of ARC investment in our region.
The heritage tourism infrastructure that brings visitors to the Blue Ridge. The broadband that allows us to run an e-commerce store from a small Appalachian city. The entrepreneurial programs that have strengthened the ecosystem of makers and small business owners we are part of. The cultural investments that have helped the world understand that Appalachia is a place of creativity, resilience, and deep worth. ARC has had a hand in all of it.
Championing ARC is our way of naming something that often goes unnamed - that the conditions for Appalachian entrepreneurship do not appear from nowhere. They are built, over decades, by sustained investment and genuine commitment to a region that deserves both.
We are part of this region. We benefit from this investment. And we think it matters to say so.
The Appalachian Region We Call Home
Appalachia is not a monolith. It is 423 counties, 13 states, and more than 25 million people whose experiences of this region are as varied as its ridgelines. It is coalfields and college towns, hollers and hiking trails, deep poverty and profound creativity. It has been romanticized and condescended to in equal measure, and it has endured both with characteristic resilience.
What it has always had — and what ARC has worked to strengthen - is a fierce sense of place and the resourcefulness to build something from it. Autumn Laurel is one small expression of that. The makers at Junction 245 are another. The entrepreneurs who have gone through The Gauntlet are another. The families in Roanoke supported by Huddle Up Moms are another.
Together, we are the Appalachian economy. And we are worth investing in.
Learn More
To learn more about the Appalachian Regional Commission and their work in Virginia, visit arc.gov.
To learn more about Virginia's ARC program administered through the Department of Housing and Community Development, visit dhcd.virginia.gov/arc.
Also in our community:
The Advancement Foundation →
Junction 245 Marketplace →
Huddle Up Moms →
Rooted & Giving Back →
Hand-poured in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Made in Appalachia. Invested in its future.