News & Events
JULY 10-12 Grand Ronde Veterans Powwow 2009
JULY 10-12
Grand Ronde Veterans Powwow 2009
Uyxat Powwow grounds. Under the tent! Grand Ronde, Oregon
Times: Gourd… [read more]
2009-2010 Oregon Tourism Commission Matching Grants Program
The Oregon Tourism Commission is pleased to announce the opening of the 2009-10 Matching Grants Program for investment in travel… [read more]
New VAPG Guidelines
USDA Rural Development’s Value-Added Producer Grant (VAPG) Program web site is being continually updated to reflect new guidelines. These include… [read more]
RIPPLE is a place where people in rural communities can connect with the knowledge and resources of their peers.Native American Insights and Issues
Click here for the new blog, Native American Insights and Issues.
The Pacific Program, Fall 2009
The Pacific Program is an eight day residential program that has been described as getting a Masters of Public Administration in a week. It is an intense learning experience bringing together 50 to 55 top-level elected and executive leaders from state, county, local, and regional governments; tribal leadership; and not-for-profit agencies as well as community leadership from the private sector. The week focuses on growing leadership skills in strategy, negotiations, collaboration, difficult communications, servant leadership, ethics and other topics. These are blended together within a week-long focus on catalytic leadership and its use in solving difficult community and inter-agency problems.
The Pacific Program is being held October 10-17, 2009 at the Kah Nee Ta Resort and Casino in Central Oregon. Click here for a pdf brochure or go to www.lukecenter.org for registration materials and more information. Application deadline is July 15, 2009.
Mapping Power and Broadband Availability
Listen to WNYC’s On the Media’s story Missed Connections about mapping broadband availability.
This past week, RDI hosted a session about web based mapping projects in addition to learning about great resources like open street maps, and Google Earth, we also found ourselves inspired by the power of mapping for advocacy, storytelling, and sharing information. Coincidentally, a story exemplifying just how powerful mapping projects can be was featured on NPR’s On The Media this week.
The story discusses the controversial methods with which a government funded organization: Connected Nation maps broadband availability. The maps they create will have a direct impact on how the government will spend money to expand broadband availability. The issues presented in the story seem particularly important to those of us living in rural areas. I encourage you all to listen to the 10 minute interview with Mark McElroy the Senior Vice President of Communications for Connected Nation and Art Brodsky the communications director for Public Knowledge, a critic of Connected Nation’s mapping methodology. Could a user generated map that asks individuals to indicate the broadband availability in their area be a solution to all this controversy? Click here to read or leave a comment.
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.
Stimulus Bill Provisions for Rural Communities
President Obama signed the stimulus bill in February. It is intended to jumpstart the nation’s economy, create or save jobs, and address other economic challenges. In this article, we discuss the most promising programs for rural communities and farmers and ranchers. Click here to continue reading.
Renewing Rural Communities with Stimulus Funds
Tapping the federal stimulus bill programs that provide funding opportunities at the local and regional level can provide new opportunities for rural community revitalization. The key to unlocking its full potential, though, is creative and innovative uses of the funds. Click here to continue reading.
Sign Up to Volunteer at One of the 500+ Take Care of Oregon Days Projects!
Give the gift of your time to Oregon. On your birthday, you want to celebrate with your friends. We want Oregonians to join together and take on community projects that will keep Oregon strong for the next 150 years. The Take Care of Oregon Days projects are inspiring citizens across Oregon to roll up their sleeves and give back to their communities this May. Across Oregon, 500+ community partners stepped up to lead volunteer service projects in their communities. Now they need a good 20,000 volunteers to give a few hours to make Oregon a better place. Let’s get started and make our best assets shine!
For more information or to find a project by county or date, check out our website: http://www.oregon150.org/projects/take-care-of-oregon/
RDI and its partners SOLV and Oregon Volunteers were commissioned by Oregon 150 to bring this project to you. You can contact Laurel MacMillan at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) for more information.
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.
MMT’s 2009 Operating Funds Grant Applications Are Now Open
Meyer Memorial Trust is launching an Operating Funds grant program to help sustain small- and mid-sized organizations who play a critical role in their community and have been hit particularly hard by the economic crisis. This opportunity will provide grants of up to $50,000 to key organizations that have received a Responsive or General Purpose Grant from MMT within the past five years and for whom a cash infusion will be critical to weathering the economic storm. There will be two funding rounds through this program in calendar year 2009. Spring proposals are due April 15, 2009, and the tentative fall application deadline is October 15, 2009. Click here for more information.
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
The Oregon and Washington Central Cascades Geotourism Project Web Site Is Now Live!
Help in the quest to find the best destinations for travelers to experience and learn about the unique culture, heritage, environment and scenic beauty found only in the Central Cascades. Go to http://www.thecentralcascades.com/ or click here to access the web site where you can share your experiences and tell your stories about why this place is special to you and like nowhere else in the world.
RURAL DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVES
2620 River Road, Suite 205 . Eugene, Oregon 97404 . phone 541-684-9077 . fax 541-684-8993