CNEF Grantee Highlights 2009

Asheville GO (Green Opportunities)

A new RCP partner, Asheville GO received CNEF funds to support comprehensive green jobs training for young people. The training combines service-learning projects, life-skills building, support services, community college coursework and on-the-job experience to provide everything GO members need to launch successful green-collar careers.  Asheville GO is dedicated to building a strong and just green economy in Western NC from the bottom-up through green-collar job training, community education, and green microenterprises. 

SFHA, a long-time RCP partner, has been funded in 2009 to continue building its organizational capacity.  Grant-funded activities will include staff and board expansion; fundraising; increasing earned income; and engaging young adults and youth in programming and governance.  SFHA operates the only African American Farmers Market in the Sandhills, where growers, hand crafters, bakers, artists, and other small businesses sell their produce and goods to supplement income and stimulate the local economy.  A major focus on SFHA’s work has been stemming the tide of African American land loss through education, resource identification and planning.

Carteret Community College received its first CNEF grant in 2008 to launch a Heritage Entrepreneurship Camp.  The camp introduced 15 middle school students to cultural heritage business opportunities unique to down east Carteret County such as fishing and boat building.  Student participants divided into 3 groups and developed business concepts and plans that were “judged” by local business owners and bankers.  The camp’s curriculum, activities and exercises allowed the middle schoolers to increase their knowledge of local entrepreneurial traditions; learn skills around entrepreneurship; and envision ways to preserve the culture and create place-based economic opportunities.  The camp was so successful that CCC was funded to hold two camps in 2009 that target an underserved area of Morehead City.

CNEF Grantee Highlights 2008

Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Program – Nineteen (19) individuals representing 15 community groups participated in the Growing Minds Peer Learning Visit, sponsored by Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture with CNEF support on October 16, 2008 in Asheville.  Participants learned about Growing Minds, ASAP’s farm-to-school program, part of a national initiative. Growing Minds works with farmers, educators, and communities in Buncombe, Haywood, Henderson, Madison, Mitchell and Yancey Counties, as well as Asheville City Schools to encourage schools to serve local food. The program cultivates mutually beneficial relationships between farms and schools that create dynamic, wellness-focused learning environments for children that include farm field trips, experiential nutrition education and school gardens.

Student Action for Farmworkers used CNEF funds to launch From the Ground Up.  The project’s focus is to educate and mobilize supporters to take part in farmworker-led efforts for access to higher education, increased wages and a safe workplace. The project raised awareness about pesticide use and the need for reform; created a new e-newsletter; co-created a book and exhibition on farmworker educational aspirations with Duke’s Center for Documentary Studies; and sponsored Farmworkers Awareness Week, a statewide effort that included events to help communities organize around agricultural reforms.  All efforts included increasing access for Spanish-speakers in SAF campaign work to build a more diverse movement to inform the public about the injustices endured by farmworkers.

North Carolina Willing Workers Small Farmers Cooperative used CNEF funds to support a small farmers cooperative in Pender County.  The group worked to build its capacity to organize growers and gardeners living in and around the Maple Hill community and to help them market their crops locally.  The group has a fresh vegetable stand on Highway 50 to serve vacation traffic around Topsail Beach.

To see highlights from past CNEF grantees click here.