Southern Rural Development Center
 

Box 9656
410 Bost Extension Bldg.
Mississippi State, MS 39762
Phone: (662) 325-3207
Fax: (662) 325-8915
http://srdc.msstate.edu

 

 

 

Around the SouthDecember 2006, Vol. 2 No. 12

In this Issue . . .


Thank You and Happy Holidays!

As we enter into the holiday season, we want to stop and give thanks to the many individuals, institutions and organizations that have helped advance the work of the Southern Rural Development Center in the region and beyond over the past year. We appreciate the valuable support from the leadership of our Mississippi State University Extension and Experiment Station in facilitating and investing in the outreach and research efforts of our Center. Furthermore, we thank our land-grant university Extension and Research leaders from across the region for their expanding commitment and support for our rural development endeavors, and for the invaluable work that their rural development-related faculty have provided to our Center over the course of 2006. Specifically, we thank these faculty for their leadership this year as we "listened to the people of the South."

Our colleagues in CSREES have been a constant source of guidance and support. And we thank our non-land grant partners for their investments of time and financial resources in the rural development efforts of the SRDC.

On behalf of the SRDC staff, I want to extend our best wishes for a happy holiday season, and we look forward to working in partnership with you in 2007!

Bo Beaulieu

Bo Beaulieu
Director

 


National Items of Interest

  • ERS Releases Two New Food Security Reports
    The Economic Research Service has just released two food security reports, Household Food Security in the United States, 2005 (http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/err29/) and What Factors Account for State-to-State Differences in Food Security? (http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/EIB20/) . The first report, based on data from the December 2005 food security survey, provides the most recent statistics on the food security of U.S. households as well as how much they spent for food and the extent to which food-insecure households participated in Federal and community food assistance programs. The latter report explores the extent to which the prevalence of food security by State depends on characteristics that vary across States, such as average wages, cost of housing, levels of participation in food assistance programs, and tax policies, while taking into account the characteristics of households in the State. Taken together, household-level and State-level factors account for most of the State-to-State differences in food security. For additional information on food security, visit ERS's website at http://www.ers.usda.gov/briefing/foodsecurity/.

  • eXtension's Newest Offering: Financial Security for All
    Americans struggling to make good money management decisions in a complex marketplace now have a new tool at their disposal. Extension's Financial Security for All brings the wealth of research-based university information on all aspects of attaining personal financial security. Financial Security for All provides Internet visitors with reliable, up-to-date financial security information through online lessons for self-paced learning and a knowledge base of commonly asked questions with research-based, peer-reviewed answers to help users learn more about specialized areas of personal finance. Visit the Financial Security for All page at http://www.extension.org/personal+finance to learn more.

  • International Municipal Economic Development Tool Kit -- Call for Contributions
    The Global Urban Studies Program and Extension Service of Michigan State University in collaboration with the Local Economic Development Project of the United States Agency for International Development are issuing a call for contributions to an edited volume of Municipal Economic Development Tools. The project aims at distribution of best practice models in urban economic development and exchange of knowledge in this field among local government officials, extension specialists, economic developers, and researchers nationally and internationally. To achieve this goal, the project will collect, publish and promote a set of basic economic development tools used by practitioners and extension specialists around the globe. The volume is to provide a description of development tools including practical and user-friendly advice about how to address common, critical aspects of municipal economic development. This tool kit will be published online and in press. All interested contributors should submit descriptions of the proposed economic development tools by January 15, 2007. For full details, including submission procedure, please visit http://gusp.msu.edu/?t=news.php&c_id=50.

  • Third Issue of Rural Realities Now Available
    As the Gulf Coast hurricanes of 2004 and 2005 made abundantly clear, rural communities are often left on their own to meet the emergency needs of local residents. This is increasingly true in an age when the federal government frequently cedes control to state and local jurisdictions. Although this new responsibility opens the possibility for greater community involvement in local planning, not all communities have the capacity to meet these new obligations. Rural communities often find themselves doing more with less. However, a new approach – the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program – shows promise, not only for disaster response, but also as a tool for building community capacity. This latest issue of Rural Realities explores CERT’s role both in helping rural communities prepare for disaster and in building sustainable capacity in those communities. To access the brief, check out http://ruralsociology.org/pubs/RuralRealities/Issue3.html.

  • UNC's School of Government Announces The Public Intersection Toolkit
    The Public Intersection Project team at The University of North Carolina's School of Government has created training exercises and background reading to help communities work on collaborative problem-solving to solve shared community problems. The Public Intersection Toolkit, by Lydian Altman-Sauer, Margaret Henderson and Gordon P. Whitaker, is a compilation of the resources necessary to engage organizations in boundary-spanning work to address the challenges communities face. The toolkit is intended for facilitators and community leaders who are trying to effect positive change by working "at the public intersection" where diverse organizations share common interests. The book is available for purchase online at http://www.sogpubs.unc.edu/singlebook.php?id=969.


Funding Opportunities

  • SRDC's Grant Connections: Rural Development Funding Opportunities
    Volume 9, Number 2, December 2006
    http://srdc.msstate.edu/funding/dec06.htm -- Available Dec. 15

    The SRDC staff compiles Grant Connections primarily for the faculty of land-grant colleges and universities in the South to provide funding information in support of activities in agricultural economics, education, human sciences, rural sociology, youth development, and other related disciplines.


Conferences & Trainings


People in the News


Job Opportunities


Submit Announcements

Job announcements and other items of interest may be sent to Rachel Welborn, rachelw@srdc.msstate.edu, for possible inclusion in future issues.


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courtesy of USDA NRCS.

  

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