Bonnie Teater Lifetime Achievement Award Nominations Requested
Nominations are now being accepted for the 2010 Bonnie Teater Community Development Educator Lifetime Achievement Award. The award is for superior lifetime work by an individual (not a team) who has made an important contribution to the Extension Community Development (CD) area. The nomination packet must be postmarked no later than March 19, 2010.
2010 Nomination Guidelines [PDF]
View general information on the award and past winners
New RIDGE Center for Targeted Food and Nutrition Assistance Research at SRDC
USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) has named the Southern Rural Development Center (SRDC) at Mississippi State University as the RIDGE Center for Targeted Food and Nutrition Assistance Research. SRDC was selected by the ERS following a nationwide competition. The SRDC’s new RIDGE (Research Innovation and Development Grants in Economics) Center will coordinate and invest in innovative research that addresses the food and nutrition assistance challenges facing rural residents, Native Americans, immigrants and other key populations in the U.S. In addition, it will serve as a valuable source of funding for doctoral students who are pursuing promising research that aligns with the priorities of the SRDC RIDGE Center.
View the release and learn more about the new Center
Visit the ERS RIDGE Information Page
Visit the RIDGE Homepage
Spring 2010 e-Commerce Mini-Grants Awarded
As part of the National e-Commerce Extension Initiative, the SRDC award mini-grants to those Extension Educators or teams of educators that are utilizing one or more of the current nine online learning modules. This funding cycle the following teams were selected to implement these learning modules through workshop offerings in their target communities:
Talladega County Cooperative Extension, Talladega Alabama.
Curriculum Selected: A Beginner’s Guide to e-Commerce: Easy Tools for Profit
Facilitator (s) : Wanda Jurriaans, County Extension Coordinator for Telladega County, Alabama and Isaac Chappell, Regional Extension Agent / Financial Management.
Alcorn State University Extension Program, Various Counties, Mississippi.
Curriculum Selected: A Beginner’s Guide to e-Commerce: Easy Tools for Profit
Facilitator (s): Katrina McLin, Community Resource Development Educator.
Congratulations to both teams on a job well done. To learn more about the mini-grants, visit the National e-Commerce Extension Initiative’s Web site.
New e-Commerce Curriculum on Electronic Retailing Debuts
The National e-Commerce Extension Initiative is happy to introduce Electronic Retailing to the Learning Center line –up. Created by Dr. Julie S. Sexton with support from Drs. Brian McCann and Merrill Warkentin, this self-paced course, introduces potential e-commerce entrepreneurs to the concepts that govern conducting online business and sales. Using interactions, such as games, simulations and you-fix-it case studies, participants will learn the basics of selling online, from understanding what motivates consumer decisions and trends to making practical choices for efficiency. This course is suitable for Extension educators and clientele alike and is now available, along with other learning modules at The Learning Center .
New SRDC Project, Turning the Tide on Poverty, to Launch Pilot Sites
Turning the Tide on Poverty, a new initiative from the SRDC, is preparing to launch pilot sites in five southern states. Fashioned after the successful efforts of the Horizons initiative in the nation’s northwest region, Turning the Tide on Poverty gathers a wide range of community members to seek a place-based solution to local poverty. Beginning with a five-week Study Circles process, community members work toward a community action plan that encompasses local talents and concerns. The eight pilot locations are listed below with local contacts for interested community members. Funding and support from Everyday Democracy, The Farm Foundation, and The Kettering Foundation have made this important project possible.
View Pilot Locations and Contact Information
View Mississippi Press Release
Listen to Mississippi Public Radio Interview
SRDC Released 2009 Annual Report on Turning Challenges into Opportunities
With job losses mounting, poverty rates accelerating, cutbacks being made in local government services, and food insecurity/hunger spiraling upward, many would conclude that 2009 was a pretty challenging time for countless people and communities across the rural South. But, it’s during these difficult times that we hope the value of the Southern Rural Development Center (SRDC) and its land-grant partners can be best demonstrated to our stakeholders. Working with many of our land-grant colleagues and external partners, the SRDC pursued a number of initiatives that were designed to attend to the economic uncertainties facing our region. While our 2009 Annual Report seeks to capture the variety of activities we’ve pursued with our partners over the past year, the underlying theme of our joint work has been to translate the South’s rural development challenges into opportunities. While we are far from finished, we hope you agree that the SRDC has taken some positive steps in uncovering and building on these many possibilities over the past year.
View 2009 SRDC Annual Report [PDF]
