Farmers Market and Local Food Marketing – List of Program and Services available from UDSA Agriculture Marketing – including food hubs, local food, farmers market and grant programs.
Food Value Chains: Creating Shared Value to Enhance Marketing Success - Food value chains are
business arrangements distinguished by their commitment to transparency, collaborative business planning and exchange of market intelligence and business know how among chain partners, and their interest in developing
business strategies and solutions that yield tangible benefits to each participant in the system. The Wallace Center, in collaboration with USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service, and American University has released a new resource, Food
Value Chains: Creating Shared Value to Enhance Marketing Success. This document is designed to provide guidance on how food value chains are initiated and structured, how they function, and the benefits they provide to participants, with the intent of encouraging their adoption where the opportunities for successful collaboration exist. Source: USDA AMS
Moving
Food Along the Value Chain: Innovations in Regional Food Distribution – Report
examines the aggregation, distribution, and marking of weight diverse food
value chains to glean practical lessons about how they operate, the challenges
they face, and they take advantage of emerging opportunities for marketing
differentiated food products. Source: USDA AMS
AARP and Harvard University Release Report Addressing
Housing Issues Facing Older Americans
AARP and the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard
University recently released a new report, Housing
America's Older Adults: Meeting the Needs of An Aging Population.
The report notes that "the existing housing stock is unprepared to meet the
escalating need for affordability, accessibility, social connectivity, and
supportive services" for older adults (defined as 50 and over in the
report). The publication addresses these issues and provides strategies
for solving these difficult challenges, noting "these changes will improve not
only quality of life for older adults, but also the livability of communities
for people of all ages." Click here
to download the report.
Empowering
Women through Financial Literacy: Realities and Resources
Learn how financial literacy can empower women. Extra Credit explores
myths, realities, and resources for women's financial empowerment.
LEARNING
WEBINAR: Rewriting the Rural Narrative Thursday, October
9, 2014, 4-5 p.m. EDT
Brain drain—the loss of 18-29 year olds—dominates the
conversation about rural population change. Yet at the same time, a lesser
known migration is occurring. A majority of rural counties are, in fact,
experiencing "brain gains" as newcomers age 30-49 move in. Most communities
aren't tuned in to positive migration and miss out on the opportunities that
come with newcomers. Ben Winchester, research fellow for the University of
Minnesota Extension, Center for Community Vitality, has studied the trend and
has great ideas for making the most of positive migration patterns. Join
our next CommunityMatters® and Citizen's Institute on Rural Design™
webinar to hear Ben's research on rural migration trends and the impacts they
have on social and economic opportunity. Learn how communities are responding
to these trends and what can be done in your town.
WEBINAR: "Building Relationships through Better
Understanding of One Another "
Tuesday, October 14, 2014, 12pm-1pm (CST) / 1pm — 2pm
(EST). http://univmissouri.adobeconnect.com/r6vthwavfhd/
- "Enter as a guest." Type your name (first and last) into the text box
provided, and click on "enter room." You are now in the meeting room for this
webinar.
Presentation: "The single biggest problem in
communication is the illusion that it has taken place" - George Bernard Shaw.
Too often, we walk away from a conversation with another person comprehending
the opposite of what he or she had intended. Missed messages can worsen when
the communicators come from different backgrounds – socially, culturally, and
linguistically. Understanding how we hear one another, will improve
communication. This interactive webinar will help participants learn about the
varying barriers to clear communication and the cultural patterns that come
into play when we interact.
Debra Bolton, PhD: Dr. Bolton has been on faculty at
Kansas State University for nine year as an extension specialist in Family and
Consumer Sciences. She works with Agents in 26 counties of Southwest Kansas
where the three population centers are Minority-majorities. Bolton is engaged
in multi-lingual research in densely-settled and frontier rural communities
focusing on health, well-being, integration, and social connectedness. She
presents workshops in cross-cultural communications, grant development, logic
model building, and strategic planning. Besides working with agents, Debra, a
certified family life educator, teaches writing to women working on high school
diplomas. In her past careers, Debra worked in public radio and taught English
literature. Debra studies geography and plays banjo for a band in her spare
time.
WEBINAR: Arts and Community: Funding Opportunities and
Resources from the National Endowment for the Arts, October 20, 2014
(Monday), 1:00 PM – Eastern Time
http://connect.msu.edu/ncrcrd
Registration: There is no registration and no fee for attending this
webinar.
This webinar will explain funding and resources provided by
the National Endowment for the Arts to support arts-based community development
activities. Through its programs the Endowment supports American
communities in their efforts to engage the arts in making places more livable.
It will explain Challenge America Fast Track, Art Works, and Our Town funding
guidelines and walk through some new resources that provide technical
assistance to communities.
About the Speaker: Jason Schupbach is the Director of
Design Programs for the National Endowment for the Arts, where he oversees all
design and creative placemaking grantmaking and partnerships, including Our
Town and Design Art Works grants, the Mayor's Institute on City Design, the
Citizens' Institute on Rural Design, and the NEA's involvement in the HUD Sandy
Recovery Taskforce Rebuild by Design Competition.
To join the webinar go to http://connect.msu.edu/ncrcrd, "enter
as a guest" is by default already chosen. Type your name into the text box
provided, and click on "Enter Room". You are now in the meeting room for the
webinar.
FUNDING
Smart Growth America to Deliver Free Community and
Economic Development Workshops to Communities
Each year, Smart Growth America
makes a limited number of technical
assistance workshops available to interested communities for zero
cost. This competitive award gives communities a chance to understand the
technical aspects of smart growth development through a one- or two-day
workshop. Applications are now being accepted for the 2015 workshopseries.
Communities can apply for one of 12 workshop types as part of the free program,
including planning for economic and fiscal health; regional planning for small
communities; parking audits; land use code audits; walkability workshops; and
others. Any unit or subdivision of local government, tribe, or regional
government is eligible to apply for these free workshops. Communities may
apply for more than one workshop, but must submit separate applications for
each. Applications are due by October 23 at 5:00 p.m. ET. Click
here
for more information and to apply.
YMCA Announces Third Annual My Fresh Page Project Competition
- DEADLINE: October 24, 2014
A total of $20,000 will be awarded in support of small ideas
that have a big impact on a community....
Great Lakes Higher Education Guaranty Corporation Seeks to
Boost College Readiness - DEADLINE: November 12, 2014
Two-year grants of up to $600,000 are available for programs
in Iowa, Ohio, Minnesota, and Wisconsin that help prepare high school juniors
in the math and English skills they will need for college....
Chesapeake Bay Trust Accepting Applications for Maryland
Outreach and Restoration Projects - DEADLINE: December 5, 2014
Grants of up to $75,000 will be awarded for outreach and
restoration activities that promote a stewardship ethic toward Chesapeake Bay
and its tributaries and for on-the-ground restoration activities....
Arch Coal Foundation Invites Nominations for 2015 Teacher
Recognition Awards - DEADLINE: January 5, 2015
Outstanding K-12 teachers from West Virginia and Wyoming
will receive a $3,500 personal cash award and widespread recognition of their
excellence in the classroom....
Mountaineers Foundation Offers Funding for Research and
Conservation of Pacific Northwest Wilderness - DEADLINE: February
1, 2015
Grants of up to $5,000 will be awarded to organizations and
agencies working to preserve the natural beauty and ecological integrity of the
Pacific Northwest area
Treasury Department Publishes Funding Opportunities under
RESTORE Act on www.grants.gov.
Applications are due by March 15, 2015 under each competition. Trust Fund
amounts are available to carry out eligible activities described in the RESTORE
Act. These are:
a) Restoration and protection of the natural resources,
ecosystems, fisheries, marine and wildlife habitats, beaches and coastal
wetlands of the Gulf Coast region.
b) Mitigation of damage to fish, wildlife and natural
resources.
c) Implementation of a federally approved marine, coastal,
or comprehensive conservation management plan, including fisheries monitoring.
d) Workforce development and job creation.
e) Improvements to or on State parks located in coastal
areas affected by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
f) Infrastructure projects benefitting the economy or
ecological resources, including port infrastructure.
g) Coastal flood protection and related infrastructure.
h) Planning assistance.
i) Administrative costs.
j) Promotion of tourism in the Gulf Coast region, including
recreational fishing.
k) Promotion of the consumption of seafood harvested from
the Gulf Coast region.
Links are available from the Treasury Department's website
at http://www.treasury.gov/services/restore-act/Pages/default.aspx.
This webpage presents a complete compendium of the Department's activities.
Suzette M. Agans
Community and Economic
Development
Rural Development | U.S. Department of Agriculture
1400 Independence Ave., S.W. | Washington, D.C. 20250-3253
Phone: 202.401.1922 | Fax 202.401.7311
www.rurdev.usda.gov
"Committed to the future
of rural communities"
"Estamos dedicados al futuro de las comunidades rurales"