In the PBS special, Country Boys, film maker David Sutherland, tells a story of hardship, uncertainty, and hope facing two teenagers growing up in Floyd County, KY. Hardship, uncertainty and hope are words that characterize the life of many children in rural America living in regions of the country where economic opportunity, steady employment, and parental support and encouragement are limited. In the first two parts of the documentary, we are introduced to the young men, their families, girlfriends, teachers, and mentors. We also get a bird’s eye view of life in Floyd County. Floyd is located in the Cumberland Plateau region in the Eastern Kentucky Coal Field of the state of Kentucky. Prestonsburg, the seat of Floyd County, is located on the Levisa Fork of the Big Sandy River.

Like some other parts of the Eastern Kentucky Coal Field, many of Floyd County’s residents brush up against but are largely unrewarded by their location in a region rich in natural resources. The county was home to 10 coal towns in the early 20th Century, but mechanization and strip mining since the mining heyday of the 1940s have made it possible to produce as much coal as before with many fewer workers. Poverty in Floyd is twice the state average and almost three times the national rate (30% versus 15% versus 12%, respectively). Today, the county’s economy is largely moribund, with public services that include health care and education comprising the largest sources of employment. Such an economy works because payments from taxes translate into incomes that are paid to local residents who work in the public schools and social services agencies. Money earned in the county is either immediately consumed or leaks out to outside businesses linked to consumption, such as the Taco Bell restaurant in which Chris worked. The largest private employment sector is retail trade, where work pays just above poverty line wages for a family of four. Income has grown negligibly over the last ten years and is well below the rate of inflation.

A quick tour through the county’s basic statistics provides a stark picture of the context in which Chris and Cody reside. Their world is comprised of many challenges, the least of which is a dwindling population, a population aging in place, a large number of persons of working age outside of the labor force due in part to persistently high levels of unemployment, and education levels that depart significantly from Kentucky and national trends. Other facts about the local economy serve to reinforce the message that a long-standing lack of economic opportunity, combined with the accompanying economic uncertainty, wears on and ultimately shapes individual aspirations.

And yet there is hope. Kids like Cody and Chris are touched by individuals and organizations that provide the support required to overcome obstacles. Family values and religious beliefs are an important structural element in a person’s system of life chances in American communities where economy and society long ago parted ways. (To see a regional view of Floyd County ).

Floyd County has been losing population since the 1980s and has declined by 5,000 persons over the last twenty years.

A smaller number of younger persons and a larger number of older persons characterize the basic demographics of the county.

Steep declines are evident in the percentage of the population in the age group 25 years of age and younger.

Only slightly more than 40% of the working-age population is in the labor force. Almost 32% of the entire population is to some degree disabled.

For twenty years, unemployment in the county has been substantially above the state and national levels. Since 1990, unemployment in Floyd has been double the level for the state of Kentucky.

The lack of economic opportunity greatly diminishes the returns to education. Thirty-five percent of the population lacks a high school education, more than double the national average.