June 3, 2010
Contact:
Kathleen Marks, 919-967-2223, x 111
Chapel Hill, NC — The Conservation Fund’s Resourceful Communities Program (RCP) awarded 32 grants totaling more than $250,000 to community groups in North Carolina implementing innovative “triple bottom line” projects that integrate sustainable economic development, environmental stewardship and social justice. Begun in 2001, RCP’s Creating New Economies Fund (CNEF) has awarded more than $1.8 million to nearly 200 grassroots organizations throughout the state.
Since the program began, generous funding has been provided by the Appalachian Regional Commission, Burt’s Bees Greater Good Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the NC Rural Economic Development Center and the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation. Dedicated to building local capacity, the CNEF program helps community leaders build grant writing and project planning capacity, develop new partnerships and leverage additional funding. To date, CNEF grants have helped raise more than $18 million in additional funding to support community projects. Recipients of this year’s grants include a green jobs training program for disconnected youth, renovation of a Rosenwald school to promote eco-tourism and an entrepreneurial youth-run community garden.
The Conservation Fund is a national nonprofit established in 1985 to work with public, private and nonprofit partners to protect land and water resources through land acquisition, sustainable community and economic development and leadership training, emphasizing the integration of economic and environmental goals. Its Resourceful Communities Program was established in 1991 to serve NC’s natural resource-rich and socially and economically distressed communities. RCP works with partners to build local capacity to implement “triple bottom line” efforts with balanced outcomes of environmental stewardship, community-based economic development and social justice.
Working for more than 20 years in economically distressed communities throughout North Carolina, Resourceful Communities follows the lead and wisdom of local leaders. Learn more about our partners.
Your gift provides the resources to promote self-sufficient, equitable, and sustainable communities throughout North Carolina.
Resourceful Communities has helped partners establish NC's first community forest on a 532-acre parcel in Hoke County. Community forestry engages local partners in planning, management and stewardship. Adjacent to forestlands with the second largest US population of the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker, this community forest will restore habitat and provide economic, recreational and educational opportunities and more.
Watch the UNC-TV report about Hoke Community Forest and learn about benefits to the community and future plans for the forest.
Powered by: Phase2 TechnologyResourceful Communities Program
The Conservation Fund
Post Office Box 271
Chapel Hill, NC 27514-0271
Phone: 919.967.2223
Fax: 919.967.9702
rcp@conservationfund.org
