Pickering also directs Appalshop’s Community Media Initiative (CMI), which provides media production and training as well as strategic communications support for community groups, social justice organizations and public interest advocates. As part of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s Mid-South Delta Initiative, Pickering led a series of Digital Storytelling Workshops with community groups in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas to assist them in using digital tools to document their work. Since 2010, she has coordinated Making Connections: New Ideas for Appalachia, a multi-media story bank exploring sustainable and just economic options for renewing Appalachia produced in collaboration with WMMT-FM (www.makingconnectionsnews.org).