Resourceful Communities has worked for the past 15 years in distressed communities throughout North Carolina to build successful working partnerships with more than 165 grassroots organizations.
Resourceful Communities provides a structure and supportive services to our ever-growing network of partner organizations around a triple bottom line approach that addresses sustainable community economic development, environmental conservation and social justice. We do our work through four major programs:
Capacity Building: From direct technical assistance to a small grants program, we help build our partners' capacity at the grassroots level.
Innovation and Demonstration: We help our grassroots partners become leaders in developing projects that demonstrate innovative approaches that blend conservation, sustainable community economic development and social justice
Movement Building: Through on-going regional leadership and organizational development training workshops, we help build a network of rural leaders who understand and implement the triple bottom line.
Policy and Advocacy: Engagement of grassroots leaders in state-level policy and funding initiatives has helped to grow local and state-level support for alternative approaches to economic development and environmental protection.
In North Carolina, as in most predominantly rural states, there is a direct geographic overlap of important natural systems and poverty. The relatively intact ecosystems in North Carolina include the coastal plain in the east, the Sandhills in the southeastern piedmont, and the Southern Appalachians in the west. As shown in the map above, all the most economically-distressed Tier One and Tier Two Counties (shown in orange and yellow respectively) are located in one of those three significant ecosystems (see arrows). While economic developers are often frustrated by environmental regulations, history has shown us that long-term extractive economic strategies in natural resource-rich areas are not sustainable. However, this overlap provides an extraordinary opportunity for those communities to capitalize on their significant natural resource base, tap their cultural traditions of land and water stewardship and entrepreneurship, and leverage environmental dollars, expertise and techniques to increase local wealth and improve the quality of life by “creating new economies” that protect, enhance and restore the natural resource base.
Michael Cox, our controller, shares his view on why our work matters.
As controller at The Conservation Fund, while recording each transaction of our operations and real estate projects, I have come to appreciate all the work behind these numbers.
I grew up on a farm in eastern North Carolina. About once a year, I go back to visit my family—and the land. In doing so, I’m reminded of the many valuable lessons my parents shared about people and their land. I'd like to tell you a story about one such lesson of people and their land in North Carolina’s Sandhills.
It's mid-January. Mikki Sager, who heads our Resourceful Communities Program (RCP), and partner Ammie Jenkins, executive director of the Sandhills Family Heritage Association, are discussing their progress in protecting historically African-American lands in the area. They’re also planning ahead for a Farmers Market—the first African American-the first in the region to be run by African-Americans. Just listening to them, and scanning the carefully chronicled maps of the land, brought back a flood of memories and made me nostalgic for my childhood—and the rural character that is still very much alive in this community.
Ms. Jenkins explained how important these lands were in the early- to mid-20th century. The care and protection of the land was crucial because it offered so much, including: farming to nourish a family, shelter for safe haven from racial persecution, employment and opportunity, roots and leaves for medicinal purposes, and a healthy home environment. Today, the care and protection of this land is about cherishing and passing on this legacy, with the real economic and environmental benefits still present.
As we toured the community, we talked about the importance of connecting people and their land. Given the temptation for younger landowners to profit from development, they must be inspired by a vision big and simple enough to capture their hearts. I’m reassured that the vision of the Sandhills Family Heritage Association will do just that.
Working for more than 18 years in 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.
For more than 15 years, TCF has worked with rural, impoverished communities across the state to help local leaders connect their needs to available resources. We are dedicated to the empowerment of rural communities in our state, and our effectiveness is reflected in the 17 local, regional and statewide nonprofits we have helped establish; 21 others we have helped strengthen; the $80+ million we have helped our partners raise to carry out their missions; and a strong and functioning statewide network of more than 165 grassroots organizations that are implementing “triple bottom line” initiatives. Collectively, we have helped our partners create 160+ new businesses and 430+ jobs that are demonstrating economic, social and environmental returns-on-investment in our state’s most isolated rural areas.
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The Conservation Fund
Post Office Box 271
Chapel Hill, NC 27514-0271
Phone: 919.967.2223
Fax: 919.967.9702
rcp@conservationfund.org
