News & Events
Deadlines for Oregon Museum Grant Applications
Oregon museums that meet certain qualifications are eligible to apply for Oregon Museum Grants. The grants support Oregon museums in… [read more]
Eastern Oregon Anthology: A Sense of Place
Libraries of Eastern Oregon (LEO) has published a book, Eastern Oregon Anthology: A Sense of Place, the proceeds of which… [read more]
Vicki Walker to Serve as State Director for Rural Development in Oregon
The Obama Administration recently announced that Vicki Walker will serve as Oregon State Director for Rural Development at the USDA.… [read more]
RIPPLE is a place where people in rural environments can connect with the knowledge and resources of their peers.
Volunteer Writer Positions
RDI is recruiting volunteers with a unique slant and strength in writing to contribute to the soon to debut RIPPLE blog. The RIPPLE site will be undergoing a relaunch in December of 2009. The new RIPPLE site will focus on stories from the rural northwest and a curated blog that tackles issues in Rural Community and Economic Development.
This is an opportunity to further the goals of your community or economic development initiative, publicize your existing blog, network with other industry experts, start a two way conversation with your constituents on a variety of topics, and gain experience writing and editing original material.
The time commitment is 10 hours per month. Click here for a pdf that includes a complete job description. For more information or to apply, contact .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
Northwest Area Foundation Releases New Study on How Americans Are Coping With Economic Challenges
The Foundation developed these resources to help communities in their work to reduce poverty and build sustainable prosperity. The “toolbox” includes links to practical guides, case studies, public policy papers, interactive tools, and more. You can download directly to your computer, work online, or order hardcopies at no cost.
The 2009 “Struggling to Make Ends Meet” national poll includes National findings, plus results for Montana, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon.
This poll of 4,000 asks how Americans see the struggle within their households and communities, what they’re doing in response, and what they expect their elected officials to do to reduce the number of people struggling to make ends meet. The findings reveal families have been hard hit, have made sacrifices, taken action and expect officials to do more to help.
You can download the data, summaries, and a Toolkit for Action that will help you apply these findings to your work with community, policymakers, and the media by clicking here.
Sisters Comes Together to Build the Outlaw Outpost
Sisters celebrated the official opening of the “Outlaw Outpost” at Reed Stadium during homecoming festivities on a recent October night.
Sisters School District Superintendent Elaine Drakulich cut the ribbon marking the completion of the community project that raised over $31,000 from 38 individuals and businesses to build the open-air structure.
Building the Outlaw Outpost was a class project of participants in the Ford Institute for Community Building’s Leadership Program. The institute is an initiative of the Ford Family Foundation, which contributed $5,000 to the construction of the Outlaw Outpost. The remaining $26,000 came from community members in cash, supplies and donated labor.
At the ribbon-cutting ceremony, Drakulich said she had always believed in the concept that it takes a village to raise a child but had never seen it come to fruition until she moved to Sisters.
“This is a perfect example of a whole village contributing to our city,” said Drakulich. “The Ford Institute leadership class designed it and enlisted community resources to build it.”
Click here to read more of Kathy Oxborrow’s article in the Nugget News.
Why Rural Matters 2009: The Realities of Rural Education Growth
Why Rural Matters 2009 is the fifth in a series of biennial reports analyzing the contexts and conditions of rural education in each of the 50 states and calling attention to the need for policymakers to address rural education issues in their respective states. The report was compiled by The Rural School and Community Trust, a national nonprofit organization addressing the crucial relationship between good schools and thriving communities. Click here to go to The Rural School and Community Trust web site for more information and to read the report in its entirety.
The Navigator: Rural Oregon’s Guide to Saving Money by Saving Resources
Farmers Conservation Alliance (FCA) created The Navigator, a guide to incentive programs that help save money by saving resources, after talking with hundreds of farmers throughout rural Oregon about installing a fish screen on their water diversions. Many of these landowners were searching for a way to reduce their resource use, because growing food, conveying irrigation water, or even driving to distant grocery stores uses significant amounts of energy and water and is ultimately costly.
State and federal governments have many programs to help people improve energy efficiency, make the transition to renewable energy, and conserve water. However, due to limited budgets and low population densities, little outreach is done in rural communities where energy use per capita is the highest and holds the greatest potential for individual savings. FCA’s goal was to create a tool to complement all of the other resources currently available; a tool for understanding the tax credits and incentives that will help you save money by saving resources. The Navigator accomplishes this by helping Oregon residents, small businesses, and farms quickly reference the incentive programs available for energy and water savings.
Since FCA’s mission is to develop resource solutions for rural communities, a first run of 25,000 copies was printed to distribute throughout rural Oregon. However, to expand distribution, save money, and reduce paper use, an online version of The Navigator is available.
For more information about the project, email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) with “The Navigator” in the subject line or click here for more information.
Oregon’s Sesquicentennial Viewbook
The Oregon sesquicentennial is coming to a close, and to document the ways in which Oregonians remembered, experienced, and celebrated the state, Oregon 150 created a viewbook in honor of 150 years of statehood. This book includes descriptions of projects, testimonials, recollections, and pictures and can be found for now on the Oregon 150 website. The state’s official seven-month commemoration concluded in September, and after December 2009, Oregon 150’s website will be closing its doors. The sesquicentennial website will then be archived and viewable via the Oregon state archives.
Oregon Schools Woody Biomass Thermal Heating Initiative
Toward Energy Efficient Municipalities (TEEM) is proposing an initiative to install state-of-the-art wood pellet thermal heating systems at all Oregon schools currently heating with oil or propane furnaces. The benefits include utilizing a renewable energy source; Woody Biomass (WB) is sustainable and CO²-neutral and is less expensive, which would result in schools’ heating budgets to be cut in half. This inititiave would benefit Oregon by improving forest and community safety and creating local jobs.
TEEM would serve as the project management firm and would aggregate a minimum of 12 schools into the initiative with staggered deployments. Click here for a complete overview of the intitiative or click here to access the initiative schematic.
NPR Story Focuses on High School Football in Unity, Oregon
As high-school football kicks off around the country, NPR is documenting the people behind the game and the rituals that surround it in their special series, Friday Night Lives, inside high school football. Recently, Friday Night Lives focused on the unusual challenges of the Burnt River Bulls, the high school football team from Unity, Oregon. A nine-person team with six exchange students, players are trying to learn both the game and English at the same time.
Click here to read and listen to the story, Exchange Students Tackle Football, English in Oregon, on NPR.
USDA Rural Development Announces Energy Grant Awards
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack recently announced that the department is providing $62.5 million in loans and grants for 705 renewable energy and energy efficiency projects in 45 states and Puerto Rico under USDA’s energy grant program called Rural Energy for America Program (REAP), an important initiative to help rebuild and revitalize rural America.
44 Oregon rural businesses and farmers will be awarded energy grants for their proposed renewable energy or energy efficiency improvement projects. This is an increase from the 18 awards that Oregonians received in 2008.
REAP provides matching grants to rural small businesses and agricultural producers for the purchase and installation of renewable energy generation systems or energy efficiency improvements. Grants are awarded via a national competition based on merit. The REAP program will soon be accepting new applications for additional projects, and funding for the program in 2010 is expected to be even greater than this year’s.
What Has the Recession Done to Rural America?
Once a year, the Economic Research Service (ERS) publishes a report on rural America called Rural America at a Glance. The 2009 edition focuses on the effects of the recession on rural America.
Initially, effects of the recession were mitigated in nonmetro areas by high commodity prices throughout much of 2008, but as the recession deepened, prices fell. Both nonmetro and metro areas experienced rising unemployment as manufacturing and other major employment sectors contracted, and they were similarly affected by the mortgage foreclosure crisis. Regionally, nonmetro employment declines were sharpest in the Southeastern United States, in industrial areas of the Midwest, and in several Western States. In the Northwest, rising unemployment in the timber industry, closely tied to the housing market, has affected parts of Oregon, Washington, and California.
However, even before the current recession, nonmetro poverty rates had risen in the growth years after the 2001 recession, against the usual trend during a time of economic expansion; the nonmetro poverty rate has exceeded the national poverty rate since 2001. The nonmetro population continued to grow in 2007 and 2008, but at less than half the rate of the metro population. Nonmetro growth is largely due to a rise in births, offsetting a decline in net migration from metro to nonmetro areas.
Visit Daily Yonder for more information or click here to read a pdf version of the report.
Public Policy Update: Health Care Reform and Nonprofits
The following is an alert from Non-Profit Association of Oregon.
The Senate Finance Committee’s current health care reform contains tax credit incentives for small for-profit businesses with fewer than 25 employees, but no proposed relief for small nonprofit employers. As Tim Delaney of the National Council of Nonprofits urges, “Now is the time for nonprofits to remind government that we exist, and we exist at a scale that should not and cannot be ignored any longer.”
Let your representatives know how important health care reform is to Oregon’s nonprofit organizations:
Send an e-mail to Senator Ron Wyden.
Send an e-mail to Senator Jeff Merkley.
For more information see the Independent Sector’s discussion and comparative chart of the current legislative proposals.
Oregon Farmers Are Among the Leaders in Computer Use
A recent nationwide government survey which is conducted every two years by the National Agricultural Statistics Service, part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, indicates that Oregon farmers and ranchers are among the leaders nationally for using computers in their agricultural operations. The survey shows Oregon near the top in nearly all computer categories for 2009 and indicates that Oregon is No. 5 in the percentage of farms with Internet access. The survey also shows that high-speed access with digital telephone service, cable, satellite and wireless connections have become much more available to farms and ranches. Read more at Oregon Live.
NOAA’s Arrival Will Mean Economic Victory for Newport
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has chosen Newport as the home for its Marine Operation Center-Pacific. This is good news for the central coast fishing community, which is one of the five CORE (Connecting Oregon for Rural Entrepreneurship) target areas and a Ford Institute Leadership Program community that will be working with Rural Development Initiatives this spring. The 20-year lease for the center has yet to be signed, but work could begin as early as next fall, with NOAA, a federal agency which conducts research and gathers data about the oceans and atmosphere, planning to fully occupy it by July 2011. The center could result in an annual return of about $19 million for the community. Read the entire article at Oregon Live.
Nonprofits’ Contributions to the Oregon Economy
Nonprofit organizations are an essential component of the Oregon economy. They provide medical services, support religious organizations, entertain, and educate. The organizations are found in every corner of the state and, depending on the county, provide employment opportunities for dozens or even thousands of Oregonians. In 2008, about one-eighth of the nearly 1.3 million private-sector jobs in Oregon were in nonprofit organizations. Those jobs were in nearly every industry and, contrary to popular belief, the salaries in some industries are quite competitive.
The jobs created by Oregon nonprofit organizations have a great impact on the state economy. This makes nonprofit employment economically desirable as well as fulfilling. Click here [PDF] to continue reading.
Stimulus Grants Announced for Rural Oregon
Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced the award of 145 economic development grants to nonprofits and local governments in rural communities throughout the nation. Oregon grantees will receive 6 of these, totaling $622,802. Read the complete press release here.
The awards are being made by USDA Rural Development. USDA Rural Development offers a variety of Federal loan guarantee, loan, and grant programs designed to create and retain jobs; to support business, energy and cooperative projects; and to promote sustainable economic progress in Oregon’s rural communities. They build cooperative financial partnerships with rural Oregonians. Further information on rural programs is available at a local USDA Rural Development office or by visiting USDA’s web site.
The grant program that is supporting these awards is the Rural Business Enterprise Grant program. Regular RBEG funding levels are being supplemented this year thanks to the Recovery Act. The recently announced awards were from these supplemental RBEG-Recovery funds.
2008 Volunteering in America Report Released
Oregon Ranks 7th for Average Volunteer Hours Per Capita Annually
The Corporation for National and Community Service released its annual Volunteering in America Report which looks at volunteering trends across all 50 states and the District of Columbia, as well as 50 large and 75 mid-sized cities.
Climbing three spaces to the 13th spot in the state rankings, Oregon’s overall rate of volunteers was 33.9 percent. In 2008, 1.015 million volunteers in Oregon dedicated 120.5 million hours of service to their state.
More information can be found here at the Oregon Volunteers web site.
We the People Forum in The Dalles
Over the last several years, members of the Latino community of The Dalles, Oregon have been voicing serious concern that they have become victims of abuse from some employees in the justice system in Wasco County. A local group called “We the People” recently held a community forum to discuss their concerns with city officials. The first person giving testimony in this video is Angelica Perez, a Cultivando participant from The Dalles training in November 2007. Along with the 150 community members who attended, the city of The Dalles Mayor, City Manager and the Chief of Police were present. During the event, members of the community offered a 10 point proposal to city officials. By the end of the forum, the Mayor, the City Manager and the Chief of Police agreed to review the proposal and work with the Latino Community to come up with solutions.
Klamath Teens Receive Coveted Gates Millennium Scholarship Among Others…
By Taylor R. David
Klamath Tribes News Dept.
Twin sisters, Jade and Spayne Martinez, do a lot of things together, but were recently jumping for joy when notified they both received the Gates Millennium Scholarship (GMS). The Gates Millennium Scholarship is a national scholarship that attracted over 20,500 applicants and was awarded to 1,000 applicants - so the odds of them both winning seemed slim. This scholarship will pay 100% of unmet financial need when the recent Chiloquin high school graduates head to Southern Oregon University (SOU) this fall. With costs for one year of college at SOU estimated to be around $20,245 each, getting the scholarships was a true blessing.
Click here to read the full story.
Native American Insights and Issues
Click here for the new blog, Native American Insights and Issues.
Native American Actor Ed Edmo
His dark and shiny hair in braids and with an infectious smile on his face, he raises his thumb in the air to indicate he is well pleased with his world. And the world is pleased with him. Ed Edmo, a nationally acclaimed storyteller, an actor, a writer, a director, a poet, and most of all an Indian, is often heard to state, in his best storyteller voice, “I am a River Indian. I eat Salmon-eye soup!”
Born in Owyhee, Nevada, a part of the Duck Valley Indian Reservation, Ed Edmo’s family moved to Celilo Falls shortly after his birth. He spent his early youth living along the Columbia River in the Celilo Village, a stone’s throw from the legendary Celilo Falls. He remembers with fondness watching the fishermen dip the long poles into the foaming water and with muscles straining, raise the nets filled with salmon to the fishing platforms. His playground was the hills behind his home and the river beyond his front door.
Ed also remembers the day the falls were overwhelmed and drowned by the waters of the dam. He tells the story of how his father took him out of school that early spring morning in 1957 and how he stood on the highway holding his father’s hand and watched as the water covered the falls. “I couldn’t believe it, it hurt my heart,” is how he describes that fateful memory of his life and his community’s past.
Ken Kesey, best known for his novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, described his long time friend this way, “Ed Edmo has much medicine and magic.” Ed’s medicine and magic comes in the form of stories told from his heart about the sadness and the joy that has been his life as an Indian. Through his irreverent take on the world he shares a mirror that reflects the often harsh and unkind treatment of Native Americans by society, but always with a giggle he reminds us of the hope that he carries in his heart for reconciliation.
Ed the actor has traveled throughout the world, from Sri Lanka to Jordan, and Tunisia and then back to the U. S. performing in Kesey’s, Children of the Raven. He has performed in his own original play, Through Coyote’s Eyes, and gifts his audience with “fall on the floor funny” stories of five historical Indian men. He shifts with ease from the “old man” to the “military scout” and evokes sympathy for the relocation of the “1950’s Indian man” as he is forced from his place of birth. “Fred the Wino” makes an appearance, as well as “Alby the Indian fisherman.”
In another of Ed’s original one man shows, he is Grandma Chokecherry and as she walks on stage she begins to tell the story of the Indian Boarding School through the eyes of a small Indian woman and you begin to cry. She is dressed in a plain cotton dress and her sadness is tempered with her happy laugh that she hides behind her hand.
Ed is a gifted entertainer but more importantly, he is a family man who calls Portland, Oregon his home. He lives with his wife of almost 40 years, Carol, and enjoys his most favored role―that of father and grandfather. Ed and his wife have two children―a daughter and a son. His children are grown and living on their own but the ties that bind his family are strong, and there isn’t a day that goes by that he doesn’t drive his granddaughter to school.
When he and his wife, Carol, adopted their son, Ed recognized the need for a guide for Indian parenting. So he sat down and wrote one! The manual, Positive Indian Parenting, is used as the primary resource on Indian parenting for the National Indian Child Welfare Association (NICWA).
Ed creates art by telling the unvarnished and sometimes hurtful truths of his life. But like Grandma Chokecherry, his irreverent and biting humor coupled with his unflagging hope, are all a part of the message that Ed Edmo shares with his audiences.
You can purchase Ed Edmo’s book, These Few Words of Mine, by contacting him at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
A Snapshot of the President’s Budget
The Rural Policy Research Institute (RUPRI) recently released A Snapshot of the President’s Budget FY2010: What’s In It for Rural America? The budget focuses on the President’s priorities, but also contains funding for a broad range of programs, several of which have been specifically targeted at rural people and places. Click here for a pdf of this report, or go to the RUPRI website at www.rupri.org.
Don’t miss this Important Opportunity!
Please don’t miss this opportunity. Now is the time to ask questions and share what you know about the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act so that our rural communities are not left out of the stimulus benefits. Join our Recovery and Economy related discussion forums.
Without Local Stimulus, There May Be No Stimulus
Join the economic stimulus bill discussion with Michael Shuman, author of The Small-Mart Revolution.
Local Clusters of Self-Reliance: The Key to Rural Prosperity
Join the discussion with Michael Shuman, author of The Small-Mart Revolution.Green Business Development and Rural Stimulus Opportunities
Rural Stimulus Money
What money exists for rural communities? Let us know what you and your organizations are going after
Get information about what resources exist on our Rural Economy and Recovery page.
Green Business Development and Rural Stimulus Opportunities
Click here to continue the Regards to Rural Green Business Development and Rural Stimulus Opportunities discussion.
For more information contact Cylvia Hayes at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or (541) 617-9013.
http://www.oregon.gov/recovery/
http://www.oregon.gov/ENERGY/Stimulus2009.shtml
http://www.recovery.gov/
Self-Reliance and Rural Prosperity
In a piece written for the 2009 Regards to Rural Conference in Salem, Oregon, Michael Shuman reminds us that at a time when headlines are bringing bad news about the plight of rural economies, it’s worth remembering that success is possible. He cites examples of rural communities that have prospered by substituting homegrown business for imports. By focusing on local demands for food and energy, and by creating cutting-edge businesses to meet these demands, communities are able to grow new, powerful export-oriented industries. There are plenty of cost-effective opportunities for growing business, based initially on local sales. A smart rural community will start with what residents are already spending their money on. In the typical U.S. community, about 58 percent of all spending is on local business, nonprofits, or government agencies. In a rural community, that number is substantially higher, often 70 to 75 percent. Deploying leak-plugging strategies could nudge that number in, for example, a coastal Oregon community from 75 to 85 percent. Over one or two years, that might mean the difference between depression-level unemployment and real economic growth. As new stimulus funds come into the hands of rural decision makers, they will have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to spend them on the right things. Only by guiding their town to build new clusters of self-reliance, not only in food and energy but in finance, services, health care, even light manufacturing, can they possibly transform the current crisis into renewal and prosperity.
Click here to read more of Michael Shuman’s article, Local Clusters of Self-Reliance: The Key to Rural Prosperity.
Click here to join the discussion.
Fact Sheet Estimates House Economic Recovery Package’s Impact on Oregon
Oregon Center for Public Policy prepared a fact sheet summarizing available data on what Oregon would receive as a result of the House version of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The House legislation totals more than $800 billion over two years. What could that mean for Oregon? Click here for the chart which summarizes key measures that would result in increased income to Oregon in the House version of the economic recovery package.
Nonprofits and the Economy
The Nonprofit Association of Oregon (NAO), which provides a voice for Oregon’s nonprofit sector, identifies new resources to help nonprofits address the current economic crisis. NAO collaborated with funders and development professionals to assess the impact of the crisis on nonprofits and to provide a better understanding of how organizations are managing the situation. Click here for the 2009 nonprofit fundraising trends survey and report.
The National Council of Nonprofits prepared reports which analyze the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and specifically address grant opportunities for nonprofit organizations.
To read the Federal Economic Stimulus Legislation: Nonprofit Grant Opportunities report, click here.
To read the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2000: Grant Application Information, Tips, and Thoughts report, click here. This report identifies some of the key elements for grants under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
Without Local Stimulus, There May Be No Stimulus
Michael Shuman, author of The Small-Mart Revolution, takes a look at the newly approved economic stimulus bill and its possible impact on small businesses and local economies. He suggests that whatever stimulus the legislation induces will be accidental, not intentional. Essential to the local economy movement is an understanding that economic development works best when it maximizes the local circulation of spending as opposed to big contracts and nonlocal spending. Without local stimulus, the result could be no stimulus whatsoever.
Click here to read more of Michael Shuman’s latest blog post.
Click here to join the discussion.
Got Internet?
The Daily Yonder did a piece about part of the stimulus package that would increase the infrastructure for broadband internet in rural places. Rural people deserve the same access to information that those in more populated places do, and it thrills me that broadband internet will be reaching the far corners of the United States as it does in other countries. The internet can bridge the geographic spaces between us which is so essential for rural networking. The article also points out that there are innovative uses of broadband being used in agriculture. I still wonder, will the broadband initiative really lead to sustainable jobs and help bolster rural economies? Click Here to Read the Article and Leave your thoughts here on our Discussion Forums
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