Monday Mailing
Year 21 • Issue 40 29 July 2015 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.
More Community Service, Not Less Oregon Conservation Partnership Regional Meetings. Anatomy of An Implosion: No one wins in Oregon road-funding collapse From Rural Poverty to Rural Prosperity: A Lesson in Quilting Can the “Playable City” Make Smart City Critics Smile? Rural Transit Fact Book 2015 Resources for Finding and Creating Images for Promotional Materials OLCC Launches Marijuana Education Program Americans Spent 18.8 Million in Food Stamps at Farmers Markets Last Year 10. You’re Using the Internet Wrong: Here’s How to Finally Eliminate Digital Distractions 11. Green Spaces Make Kids Smarter 1. More Community Service, Not Less It would be hardhearted and counterproductive to squeeze any more money from the already meager federal funding for public service programs that help struggling schoolchildren, veterans, the elderly and communities stricken by natural disasters. Yet a House subcommittee this week approved a spending bill that cuts federal financing for the already beleaguered Corporation for National and Community Service, which oversees many programs, the most well known of which is AmeriCorps.
Quote of the Week: “To find yourself, think for yourself” ~Socrates Oregon Fast Fact: High above the city of Portland the International Rose Test Garden features more than 500 varieties of roses cultivated continuously since 1917.
Since its inception two decades ago, AmeriCorps has matched 900,000 Americans with nonprofit groups that are doing important work, like Teach for America, the American Red Cross, Habitat for Humanity, Boys & Girls Clubs of America and United Way. In addition, this summer AmeriCorps teams will work in economically hard-hit cities and towns like Baltimore, Detroit and Ferguson, Mo., to clean up public lands, tutor children, repair homes and help keep food banks running. To access the full story, click here. 2. Oregon Conservation Partnership Regional Meetings. Join the Oregon Conservation Partnership for regional conversations around opportunities and challenges to putting conservation on the ground. Morning discussion (beginning at 10:30) will vary by location, focusing on issues of local and regional importance. Afternoon discussion is an opportunity to learn more about agency programs and priorities (wrapping up by 3:00). Meet with OWEB, ODA, and NRCS to learn more about how agency programs align and consider how local priorities fit with regional and statewide initiatives. July 7 - Pendleton - Agenda Available July 8 - Burns - Agenda Available July 14 - Portland - Agenda Available July 22 - Medford
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August 6 - Corvallis August 25 – Tillamook Agenda in Brief 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM: 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM: 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM: 2:30 PM - 3:00 PM:
Open Discussion of Local & Regional Topics Catered Lunch & Brief Agency Updates Agency Conversation: Local Priorities & Statewide Opportunities Agency Q&A: Opportunity for One-on-One with Agencies
Who Should Attend? Council, district, and land trust employees and board members, as well as partner agencies and organizations, are encouraged to attend these half-day conversations. The more broadly these groups are represented, the richer the discussion! Registration Registration cost is $20, which includes refreshments and the catered lunch. Please register at least 3 business days in advance of the meeting you plan to attend. Access additional information and register online at: http://orcp.eventbrite.com For more information, click here. 3. Anatomy of An Implosion: No one wins in Oregon road-funding collapse SALEM — The battle lines over a road-funding deal in the Oregon Legislature were drawn even before legislators began this year's session. Republicans made clear they wouldn't bargain if Democrats extended a controversial clean-fuels program. Top Democrats insisted they could have both — with plans to pass clean fuels in a flash, then get serious about transportation once things calmed down. Then Gov. Kate Brown — thrust into the debate after taking office Feb. 18 — confidently commanded lawmakers to deliver an agreement before going home. So when the deal imploded Thursday, one thing was certain: Nobody got what they wanted. To access the full story, click here. 4. From Rural Poverty to Rural Prosperity: A Lesson in Quilting Sometimes we talk of poverty as if it were a tangible item—a stain, an illness, or a backpack filled with burdens. We think about programs to relieve that burden—cures for poverty, wars on poverty. In reality, poverty is probably more like missing pieces in the quilt of well-being and prosperity that should surround our children and families. Children and families need food and safe homes. They need nourishment for the mind—good schools and teachers, books, libraries, and Internet access to find information. They need accessible health care in or near their own communities, and the means to access more specialized care in other communities when necessary. They need people to support them and give them good advice, as well as to help them make choices, learn from mistakes and connect with other resources. They need dreams and hopes to fill their spirits. They need independence, but also interdependence in community, including the ability to help others. And they Page 2 of 4
need jobs—employment to provide the food, housing, safety, independence and well-being to sustain a family. These are pieces that make the fabric of well-being and prosperity. To access the full story, click here. 5. Can the “Playable City” Make Smart City Critics Smile? Imagine a city where, as you walk along the sidewalk, you can see the moving shadows of pedestrians who preceded you. A city where you can exchange text messages with lampposts, where poems appear in light on waterways, and pipes emit music. Such urban whimsy would constitute a “playable city,” according to the UK-based organization Watershed. All of the above concepts were either winners or finalists in Watershed’s Playable City Award, now in its second year. (This year’s winner, the shadow project, was announced earlier this month.) The goal of the award is to encourage use of technology to foster an engaging and playful urban environment. According to Watershed’s website, “A Playable City is a city where people, hospitality and openness are key, enabling its residents and visitors to reconfigure and rewrite its services, places and stories.” To access the full story, click here. 6. Rural Transit Fact Book 2015 The Rural Transit Fact Book provides information on transit service availability and cost to help the transit industry in the United States provide efficient and effective service to meet rural community mobility needs. Financial and operating statistics can be used by agency managers, local decision makers, state directors, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), and lawmakers to assist in policy making, planning, managing operations, and evaluating performance. The Rural Transit Fact Book serves as a national resource for statistics and information on rural transit in America. This publication includes rural demographic and travel behavior data as well as financial and operating statistics for agencies receiving section 5311 funding. In addition to national level data, statistics are presented by state, FTA region, tribe, and mode, as well as other agency characteristics. To access the Rural Transit Fact Book, click here. 7. Resources for Finding and Creating Images for Promotional Materials Images help bring your story to life and you can use them on almost all your promotional materials such as fliers, websites, videos, newsletters, and social media. If your program is just getting started, you can use stock photos to spruce up your marketing materials. If you have your own, you can edit them using free tools available online. To access this resource, click here. 8. OLCC Launches Marijuana Education Program Effective July 1, recreational marijuana is legal in Oregon for adults 21 and older. But there are limits. The Oregon Liquor Control Commission (OLCC) has developed an educational campaign titled: “What’s Legal? Educate Before You Recreate.” Detailed information about the do’s and don’ts starting July 1 can be found at www.whatslegaloregon.com The website includes printable posters and flyers, a fact sheet and a video.
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9. Americans Spent 18.8 Million in Food Stamps at Farmers Markets Last Year The good news keeps on coming: In farmers markets across the country, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefit redemptions (aka food stamps) generated $18.8 million in the 2014 fiscal year – “a nearly six-fold increase since 2008,” the United States Department of Agriculture reports. In the same time period, the number of farmers markets that take food stamps grew from 753 to more than 6,400, according to the USDA. Impressive! So what’s is responsible for this boom in SNAP-friendly vendors? Technology, actually. To access the full story, click here. 10. You’re Using the Internet Wrong: Here’s How to Finally Eliminate Digital Distractions Alexandra Samuel has 32,944 unread Gmail messages, not to mention the 98,000 unread emails in her archive alone. She also makes a living helping people better manage their digital lives. Samuel has written a newly released book on the topic, Work Smarter with Social Media, and she lives by the mantra that Inbox Zero is not only impossible, it's a waste of your time. "I don’t think that having everything read and checked off and filed is an indicator you have it all done," she says. "We are still working off a manual that was written for a pre-digital world." To access the full story, click here. 11. Green Spaces Make Kids Smarter When I lived in L.A., I reported on a school near Long Beach in which nearly a fifth of the students had asthma. One culprit seemed to be the school’s unfortunate geography: About 500 trucks passed by its grounds every hour, and according to a study released at the time, at least 9 percent of childhood-asthma cases in the area were attributable to road traffic. The air near the school, which sometimes smelled rotten or rubbery, contained nearly twice the normal level of elemental carbon, a marker of diesel particles. Asthma is just one of the health problems linked to air pollution exposure. Sniffing exhaust all day also contributes to everything from stroke to premature death. To access the full story, click here.
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