Monday Mailing
Year 23 • Issue 14 19 December 2016 1. 7 Reasons Why Emotional Intelligence Is One Of The Fastest-Growing Job Skills 2. What Makes a Good Main Street Work? 3. Good Food Talk Webinar Series 4. Rural America At A Glance, 2016 Edition 5. How To Do Creative Placemaking: An Action-Oriented Guide to Arts in Community Development 6. Five Lessons For Resilience 7. Designing for Health with the WELL Building Standard 8. Census Report is Unusually Informative About Rural 9. Environmentalism Was Once a Social-Justice Movement 10. A Sustainable Food System Could Be A Trillion-Dollar Global Windfall 11. Funding Opportunities 1. 7 Reasons Why Emotional Intelligence Is One Of The FastestGrowing Job Skills According to the World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Report, emotional intelligence will be one of the top 10 job skills in 2020.
Quote of the Week: “The snow doesn't give a soft white damn whom it touches.” ~E.E. Cummings
Oregon Fast Fact: The Oregon Trail is the longest of the overland routes used in the westward expansion of the United States. The Trail used from 1840 to 1860 began in Missouri and ended in Oregon. It was about 2,000 miles long.
The awareness that emotional intelligence is an important job skill, in some cases even surpassing technical ability, has been growing in recent years. In a 2011 Career Builder Survey of more than 2,600 hiring managers and human resource professionals, 71% stated they valued emotional intelligence in an employee over IQ; 75% said they were more likely to promote a highly emotionally intelligent worker; and 59% claimed they'd pass up a candidate with a high IQ but low emotional intelligence. The question, then, is why companies are putting such a high premium on emotional intelligence. Here are seven of the top reasons why highly emotionally intelligent candidates are so valuable. To access the full story, click here. 2. What Makes a Good Main Street Work? Shortly before this essay’s original posting, I participated in a terrific conference called From Main Street to Eco-Districts: Greening Our Communities, hosted by a chapter of the American Institute for Architects in Corning, New York. Held a block off of Corning’s own, magnificent “Main Street” (actually named Market Street), and including many of the people who have helped make that street so successful, the conference started me thinking about the whole idea of Main Streets and what makes the best of them such delights to experience. I have written at length about Main Streets before, most notably in an article in February 2013 addressing both the metaphorical and literal manifestations of the phenomenon, and lamenting that they seem to be a thing of the past in much of America; in that article I highlighted Sandy Sorlein’s evocative photos of principal shopping streets in small-town America, many of them mere ghosts of their past glory. (More recently, I Page 1 of 6
wrote of a notable adaptive reuse of an older, formerly vacant retail building on Rutland, Vermont’s Main Street.) To access the full story, click here. 3. Good Food Talk Webinar Series The North American Food Systems Network (NAFSN) is pleased to announce the launching of the Good Food Talk Webinar Series. We aim to identify innovations in the field and highlight efforts that promote just and sustainable food systems. These webinars will give you the opportunity to learn and interact with food system practitioners and experts in diverse locations and regions. Upcoming Webinar: Topic: We Traded in our MetroCards for Tractors: Going from Urban Agriculture to Rural Farming Date: Wednesday, December 21, 2016 Time: 2:00 pm Eastern Standard Time (11:00 am Pacific Standard Time) Presenter: Karen Washington, Co-Owner, Rise & Root Farm; Co-Founder, Black Urban Growers (more info ...) Register here Archived Good Food Talk Webinars
Collaborative Pathways to Change: Tools for Just and Sustainable Food Systems Networks (produced by NAFSN and Institute for Social Change. November 2016) Food Systems Networks "Circle Forward" ‹ Innovations in Collaborative Governance (produced by NAFSN and Circle Forward. October 2016) Experience of People of Color in Food Systems Work (produced by NAFSN and the Thomas A. Lyson Center for Civic Agriculture and Food Systems diours.com. March 2015) A Framework for Linking Food System Networks: The Experiment in Central Appalachia (produced by the Appalachian Foodshed Project. December 2014) NOTE: You may have to download an Adobe Connect add-in to see these webinars.
For more information about NAFSN’s webinar series, click here. 4. Rural America At A Glance, 2016 Edition This USDA Economic Research Service report provides an overview of social and economic factors affecting rural America. Included are data and statistics about employment, population, poverty, and income trends. To access the report, click here. 5. How To Do Creative Placemaking: An Action-Oriented Guide to Arts in Community Development In its ongoing commitment to producing resources for community engagement with the arts, the National Endowment for the Arts has published "How to Do Creative Placemaking: An ActionOriented Guide to Arts in Community Development." The book features 28 essays from thought leaders active in arts-based community development, as well as 13 case studies of projects funded through the NEA’s creative placemaking program, Our Town. To access the guide, click here. Page 2 of 6
6. Five Lessons For Resilience Resilience is commonly understood as the capacity to endure shocks and stresses. But for Lisa Dickson, Arup’s resilience leader for the Americas, this definition is too limiting. Instead, she posits, we should aim to thrive in the face of adversity. Rather than focus on preserving current conditions, we can encourage innovative thinking that will lead to stronger communities. I recently asked Lisa what design professionals and their clients need to understand about resilience in order to make transformative solutions possible. What follows are five key lessons distilled from our conversation. To access the full story, click here. 7. Designing for Health with the WELL Building Standard Architects-In-Training Ledia Durmishaj and Samantha Wai provide a behind the scenes look into the design of Gresham, Smith & Partners (GS&P). Located on the top floor of One Enterprise Center, GS&P may be one of downtown Jacksonville's most impressive office spaces. As designers and architects of healthcare facilities and sustainability advocates, the concepts of health and wellness permeate our work. Yet people’s homes and workplaces impact their wellbeing just as much or more than their doctors’ offices or hospitals. GS&P’s Jacksonville staff took that to heart when relocating from the suburbs to downtown and – without even intending to – designed a new office that closely aligns with the new WELL Building Standard. The International WELL Building Institute defines this standard as “an evidence-based system for measuring, certifying and monitoring the performance of building features that impact health and well-being.” Why does that matter in a place of work? Because there are clear connections between employees’ wellbeing, productivity, and healthcare costs, according to the Healthways Center for Health Research. To access the full story, click here. 8. Census Report is Unusually Informative About Rural The Census released its five-year American Community Survey data with a major focus on rural America. This is the year when there is more rural data available, but the release also comes after increased attention to the so-called information “bubble” after the presidential election. The Census Bureau put the spotlight on rural America today when it released the results of its latest American Community Survey, the data that gives us the closest look at changes in American demography, economics, work, and lifestyles. Meanwhile, the survey showed that the Census-defined rural population remained steady from last year. The press release that announced the new Census data focused on rural information, noting that rural Americans are more likely to own their own homes, live in the state where they were born, and to have served in the military. And the bureau dug beyond the standard data tables to report on subsets of rural counties. To access the full story, click here.
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9. Environmentalism Was Once a Social-Justice Movement The incoming Trump administration is likely to see the greatest revival of environmentalism as a confrontational, grassroots, sometimes radical movement since at least 1970, when more than a million people took part in the first Earth Day. The vigil at Standing Rock, which surprised nearly everyone by blocking the proposed route of the Dakota Access Pipeline through traditional Sioux lands, was a far cry from the litigation and highlevel lobbying that are so much of the environmental movement’s work these days. As courts and lawmakers continue to falter in addressing climate change, with professional climate-change denier Myron Ebell heading the Environmental Protection Agency’s transition team, and Scott Pruitt tapped to lead it (Pruitt is an ally of the fossil fuel industry and key architect of the legal strategy against President Obama's climate policy) and the prospect of public lands opening to expanded mining and drilling, ever more people who believe that environmental responsibility has become a life-or-death issue are going to start acting like it. To access the full story, click here. 10. A Sustainable Food System Could Be A Trillion-Dollar Global Windfall Our planet has a very long way to go toward building a food system that is truly and genuinely sustainable, but that work, if done correctly, could come with a massive reward. That’s the conclusion of a new report released this month by the Business and Sustainable Development Commission, an international nonprofit hoping to make a strong bottom-line case for industries to take a more earth-friendly approach to their businesses. In its flagship report, the commission appears to have done just that. The report claims that taking a sustainable approach to the world’s food and agriculture challenges, like hunger, food waste and environmental degradation, could lead to new business opportunities totaling an annual $2.3 trillion — and 80 million new jobs — by 2030, based on an analysis of of industry reports and academic literature. To access the full story, click here. 11. Funding Opportunities Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Cooperative Agreements for Adolescent and Transitional Aged Youth Treatment Implementation — Purpose: Increases access to and improves treatment for adolescents and/or transitional aged youth with substance use disorders and/or co-occurring substance use and mental disorders. Eligibility: States, territories, and tribes. Funding: Awards of up to $800,000; $9.6 million total is available nationwide. Application Deadline: December 20, 2016. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Brownfields Programs — Purpose: Offers grants for either 1) developing inventories of brownfields, prioritizing sites, conducting community involvement activities, and conducting site assessments and cleanup planning related to brownfields sites, or 2) cleaning up contaminated brownfields sites. Eligibility: Nonprofits and public agencies. Application Deadline: December 20, 2016. U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of Violence Against Women (OVW) Justice for Families Program — Purpose: Improve the response of all aspects of the civil and criminal justice system to families with a history of sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking, or in cases involving allegations of child sexual abuse. Eligibility: State and local government entities, Page 4 of 6
courts, Indian tribal governments, nonprofits, legal service providers, and victim service providers. Funding: Up to $550,000 for standard projects and up to $700,000 for complex projects. Letter of Registration (recommended) Deadline: December 22, 2016. Application Deadline: January 12, 2017. U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development Solid Waste Management Grants — Purpose: Reduce or eliminate pollution of water resources through funding for organizations that provide technical assistance or training to improve the planning and management of solid waste sites. Eligibility: Most state and local government entities, nonprofits, federally recognized tribes, and academic institutions. Funding: Matching funds are not required, however, applicant and in-kind contributions are recommended. Application Deadline: December 31, 2016. Federal Office of Rural Health Policy Rural Health Network Development Planning Grant Program — Purpose: Promote the planning and development of healthcare networks in order to achieve efficiencies; expand access to, coordinate, and improve the quality of essential healthcare services; and strengthen the rural healthcare system as a whole. Eligibility: Rural nonprofits, public entities, and federally recognized tribes that represent a consortium/network of 3 or more healthcare providers. Funding: Up to $100,000 in individual grants; 24 grants will be awarded. Application Deadline: January 3, 2017. Corporation for National and Community Service 2017 AmeriCorps State and National Grants — Purpose: Provide operating funds and AmeriCorps member positions to support organizations proposing to engage AmeriCorps members in evidence-based or evidence-informed interventions to strengthen communities. Funding: Grant award amounts vary, both in the level of operating funds and in the type and amount of AmeriCorps member positions. Application Deadline: January 18, 2017. Bureau of Health Workforce Advanced Nursing Education Workforce (ANEW) Program — Purpose: Provides grants to support innovative academic-practice partnerships to prepare primary care advanced practice registered nursing students to practice in rural and underserved settings through academic and clinical training. Eligibility: Accredited schools of nursing, nursing centers, academic health centers, state or local governments, tribal governments or Native American organizations, and other public or private nonprofits that provide registered nurses with training that leads to master's and/or doctoral degrees that prepare nurses to serve as primary care nurse practitioners, primary care clinical nurse specialists, or nurse-midwives. Funding: Average award is $700,000; $31.8 million total is available nationwide. Application Deadline: January 25, 2017. EPA Environmental Justice Small Grants Program — Purpose: Provides grants for projects that address local environmental and public health issues within an affected community. Eligibility: Incorporated nonprofits, federally recognized tribal governments, and tribal organizations. Funding: Up to $30,000 in individual grants; 40 grants will be awarded. Application Deadline: January 31, 2017. Morris K Udall and Stewart L Udall Foundation Native American Congressional Internship — Purpose: Offers a 10-week fully funded summer internship for Native American and Alaska Native students who wish to learn more about the federal government and issues affecting Indian country. Eligibility: Native American and Alaska Native college juniors or seniors, recent graduates from two- or four-year colleges, graduate students, or law students. Funding: Covers roundtrip airfare, housing, food, and incidentals, and provides a $1,200 educational stipend. Application Deadline: January 31, 2017. Indian Health Service (IHS) Health Professions Extern Program — Purpose: Provides externship opportunities for Indian students, placing them in an Indian health program in their chosen health care category. Eligibility: Indian Health Scholarship recipients, as well as other health Page 5 of 6
profession students. Funding: IHS extern employment for 30 to 120 workdays per calendar year during non-academic periods; salary range is $12.33 to $34.46 per hour. Application Deadline: January 31, 2017. Mary Byron Foundation Celebrating Solutions Awards — Purpose: Honor programs that demonstrate promise in ending the cycle of domestic violence. Eligibility: The program's primary focus must address the issue of intimate partner violence; both the program and institution must have been operating for a minimum of 3 years; the program must be part of a nonprofit or government agency; and the program should be replicable, or if national in scope, the program should have parts that are applicable to individual communities. Funding: Up to $10,000 in individual awards. Application Deadline: January 31, 2017. 2017 Five Star and Urban Waters Restoration Program — Purpose: Develop community capacity to sustain local natural resources for future generations by providing modest financial assistance to diverse local partnerships focused on improving water quality, watersheds, and the species and habitats they support. Funding: $2.5 million in grants is available nationwide; a mix of public and private funding sources may be used to support any grant made through this program, including the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Wildlife Habitat Council, EPA, USDA Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, FedEx, Southern Company, and Alcoa Foundation. Proposal Deadline: January 31, 2017. U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities Healthy Watersheds Consortium Grant Program — Purpose: Accelerate strategic protection of healthy, freshwater ecosystems and their watersheds. Eligibility: Not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organizations; for-profit companies; tribes; intertribal consortia; interstate, state, and local government agencies, including water utilities and wastewater facilities; and colleges and universities. Application Deadline: February 1, 2017. USDA Rural Development Strategic Economic and Community Development (SECD) — Purpose: Promote collaboration in rural communities and across Rural Development programs by aligning resources; developing long-term community and economic growth strategies; and engaging federal, state, and local partners. Authorized by Section 6025 of the 2014 Farm Bill, this new authority prioritizes projects that support the implementation of multi-jurisdictional plans under USDA's Community Facilities Program, Water and Waste Disposal Program, Business and Industry Loan Guarantee Program, and Rural Business Development Grant Program. Eligibility: Strategic partners, including nonprofits, institutions of higher education, university extensions, regional authorities, coalitions of counties/towns, and federal special initiative coalitions. Funding: Up to 10 percent of each program's annual appropriations can be set aside and made available to eligible SECD applicants. Application Deadline: Varies by program.
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