The Brushy Fork Watershed

 

Dear Friend,

It's hard to believe that the 2016 Brushy Fork Annual Institute is now less than a month away!

Our staff have been working steadily to coordinate rooms and meals, review and approve scholarship requests, and help folks strategically select track selections that fit their organizational needs and professional development plans.

As usual, we have a full schedule this year. On Monday, we will be hosting a special gathering of the Central Appalachian Network as a lead-in event to the Annual Institute.

Tuesday offers opportunities to learn with and from our campus and community partners as part of our early bird sessions, which are offered at no additional cost to Annual Institute attendees.

On Wednesday, we begin the full Institute, which offers 14 sessions from which to choose. After a full day of learning and networking, we'll all eat well at the Historic Boone Tavern Hotel & Restaurant before savoring the sweet sounds provided by The Local Honeys.

Thursday, we will hear from our keynote speaker, Brandon Dennison, a social entrepreneur from West Virginia who is finding ways to create quality jobs that provide both higher education and employment to individuals while also addressing other community needs, such as creating more units of affordable housing.

On Friday, we'll pack it up and send everyone home buzzing with excitement, brimming with new ideas, and better connected and better equipped to tackle community challenges.

Head on over to https://www.berea.edu/brushy-fork-annual-institute/preliminary-agenda/ to check out the full agenda. Highlights of some of this year's program elements follow.

We look forward to welcoming you to Berea.

 

From young pioneers to experienced elders, social entrepreneurs to social activists, policy makers to community practitioners, this year's Annual Institute has something for everyone.

For easy access, we've organized all of our 2016 sessions below by category with direct links to each session description.

If you need assistance with selecting a workshop session or resourcing your participation, please reach out to a member of our team. Rodney, Mark, and Beth are all available to answer any questions you may have and will help you select the session that best fits your individual, organizational, or community needs.

Developing Rural & Regional Economies:

Leadership Development Sessions:

• Early-Bird Session: Building Healthier Communities from the Ground Up
• Early-Bird Session: Community Diversity: Exploring the Strength of Our Identity
   
• Performing Community: Why Local Stories Matter
• How to Change the World in Five Easy Steps
• Communities for All Ages: Intergenerational Community Building
• Ordinary Communities Achieving Extraordinary Results

Organizational Capacity Building Sessions:

 

We get it.

You intended to submit that scholarship application but one thing after another keeps distracting you. Emails, conference calls, meeting requests, and reporting deadlines keep delaying and derailing your best intentions. When you do find a few free minutes, your spouse / roommate calls to tell you the cat has gone missing or that the cows have broken the fence again...

Look, life happens.

The good news is that you can still apply online. Although available funds are limited, we do sometimes recover awards as we get closer to the event that need to be redistributed.

Limited opportunities remain in the following programs:

Social Enterprise Scholarships
For coalfield residents interested in exploring whether social enterprise is right for you and your organization. $400 partial scholarships are available for any current or potential social entrepreneur.

West Virginia Youth Leadership Program
For West Virginia youth and their adult mentors from economically distressed counties. Full registration scholarships for youth and $275 scholarships available for adult mentors.

Regional Opportunity Scholarships
For individuals from economically distressed Appalachian Kentucky counties. Provides partial $250 scholarship awards with lodging assistance.

Kentucky ARC Team Scholarships
For three-person community and county teams from economically distressed Appalachian Kentucky counties. Provides partial $275 scholarship awards with lodging assistance.

Berea College Appalachian Fund Scholarships
For individuals who are current grantees of the Berea College Appalachian Fund. $400 scholarship awards are available to representatives of active grantee organizations.

Promise Zone Opportunity Youth Program
For Opportunity Youth, ages 16-24, who live in a Kentucky Promise Zone County. Recipients may choose from a selection of track sessions focused on leadership and economic development. Full scholarship awards with travel and lodging assistance.

Visit https://legacy.berea.edu/brushy-fork-annual-institute/scholarships/ to complete an online application. It only takes a few short minutes, and trust us: the cat can wait.