December 14, 2020
Contact: Scott Dadson, Executive Director
828-351-2365
Upcoming Meetings and Events
Public Notice
IPDC Board of Directors Meeting on December 15
A Meeting of the IPDC Board of Directors will be held on Tuesday, December 15, 2020, at 12:00 noon via an electronic meeting. The IPDC, under North Carolina General Statue 143-318.13 will host an electronic meeting. To see the Agenda, Click here.
For public participation in the IPDC Board of Directors meeting on December 15 at 12:00 PM, you may join the virtual meeting on GoToMeeting via telephone. To join, please dial +1 (872) 240-3212. The meeting access code is 886-957-773.
You will initially be placed on hold/mute if you plan on participating in either meeting. We will call upon you by the name registered or your phone number. Once called upon you will be unmuted and be able to participate in the public comment. If you have any questions before the meeting please contact Scott Dadson at sdadson@regionc.org.
The meeting will be recorded and placed on the IPDC Website at www.regionc.org
Last chance to participate in Regional Survey
We recently hired Formation PR + Brand to help us with new branding and later today you will be receiving an email survey from Formation. Please set aside a few minutes this week to complete this survey. Your input will assist us with the rebranding process and is greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Thank you to everyone who has completed the IPDC branding survey. Today is the last day to take the survey and we would greatly appreciate hearing from as many of you as possible. Please make time today to complete the survey by responding to the email sent to you last week or by clicking this link. Thank you for your participation.
Regional News
Governor Cooper Announces Modified Stay at Home Order to Address Alarming Case Counts
Cleveland and Rutherford County in the Red Zone
On December 8, Governor Roy Cooper announced that North Carolina will begin a Modified Stay at Home Order starting Friday, December 11 after a sharp increase in key COVID-19 trends. Executive Order No. 181 requires people to stay at home between 10 pm and 5 am and restaurants, bars, and other businesses to close at 10 PM through at least January 8, 2021.
North Carolina has broken single-day case records three times in the past week, having more than 6,000 new cases two days in a row over the weekend. Governor Cooper stressed that further action will be taken if these trends don’t improve.
“We already have strong safety protocols and capacity limitations in place – including a statewide mask requirement. With this additional action beginning Friday, we hope to get these numbers down. Our new modified Stay At Home order aims to limit gatherings and get people home where they are safer, especially during the holidays,” Gov. Cooper said. “It’s also a reminder that we must be vigilant the rest of the day – wearing a face mask when we are with people we don’t live with, keeping a safe distance from others, and washing our hands a lot.”
Dr. Cohen also shared an update on North Carolina’s COVID-19 County Alert System map, noting that every county in the state is experiencing community spread. More than 80 percent of counties are either red or orange. Forty-eight counties are now red, recording critical levels of community spread — more than double the critical counties since November 23 — and 34 orange counties have substantial community spread.
McDowell County Community Leaders Write Textbook on Community Development
Paula Swepson, executive director with the West Marion Community Forum, and Mary Snow, principal consultant with the Equitable Community Strategies, are the co-authors of “Shift Happens in Community: A Toolkit to Build Power and Ignite Change.” This textbook or toolkit shares best practices for engaging rural communities developed from a real-world model in McDowell County.
Swepson and Snow describe this toolkit as “a love offering to the field of rural community development.”
“This book is our love letter to the community development field. We believe that real and lasting change comes from the bottom up, and we want to share our model for others to tailor and replicate,” says Snow. “We are forever grateful to our flock of good troublemakers, along with our colleagues, allies, and funders who supported us to bring this toolkit to life.” To learn more, click here to read The McDowell News article.
Disability Partners Serving McDowell, Polk, and Rutherford
Aging
Stay in Touch During COVID-19
Keep up with the latest information on COVID-19 in North Carolina on the NCDHHS website or text COVIDNC to 898211 to receive updates about the virus and the state's response.
United Way’s NC 211 is a free, multilingual, confidential information and referral service available 24 hours a day to help you find resources within your community. 2-1-1 connects you with local resources that provide food, shelter, health care, employment, childcare, and other health and human services. Simply dial 2-1-1 or 888-892-1162 to reach a call specialist, or search for resources online at www.nc211.org.
Families who need food assistance for their children can text FOODNC to 877-877 to find free meal sites in their communities.
Make sure to prioritize your overall wellness and don’t hesitate to seek additional help.
Optum has a toll-free 24-hour Emotional Support Help Line at 866-342-6892 for people who may be experiencing anxiety or stress due to Coronavirus.
Community, Economic & Workforce Development
myFutureNC County-Level Profiles
myFutureNC is a statewide nonprofit organization focused on educational attainment and is the result of cross-sector collaboration between North Carolina leaders in education, business, and government. In pursuit of their goal to have 2 million North Carolinians have a post-secondary degree or credential, they have produced County-level profiles, available as PDFs via the https://dashboard.myfuturenc.org website.
These profiles include many data elements, including county demographics; educational performance indicators; and labor market outcomes. In addition to the indicators on the published profile, this data file contains county indicators that align with data reported in the state attainment dashboard (where available), as well as contextual information that has been included based on conversations with county leaders. This data file also contains data for multiple years for many indicators and provides details by demographic subgroups where available.
Researchers from Carolina Demography, located within the Carolina Population Center at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, identified the best source of data for each indicator by consulting with experts from the UNC System, the NC Community College System, North Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities, the NC Department of Public Instruction, the NC Department of Commerce, and the NC Department of Health and Human Services. Carolina Demography will provide updated data for each indicator as it becomes available.
See all four of the Commission’s county profiles below:
North Carolina Land and Water Fund 2021 Grant Cycle Open
Applications Due February 1st
The Clean Water Management Trust Fund is now the North Carolina Land and Water Fund (NCLWF). In 2019 the General Assembly voted to rename the Fund because over the years its mission has expanded beyond the original focus on just water quality.
Since its creation in 1996 by the General Assembly, the newly renamed North Carolina Land and Water Fund has conserved well over one-half million acres and protected or restored 3,000 miles of streams and rivers.
The North Carolina Land and Water Fund improves water quality, sustains ecological diversity, and protects historic sites and military installations by funding projects to acquire lands, restore the habitat for fish, wildlife, and other species, and enhance the filtering of stormwater runoff to reduce pollutants from entering water supplies. If you are interested in applying for a grant for land acquisition, restoration, innovative stormwater, or planning, please click here and reach out if you have any questions.
Brookings Releases Five-Part Online Report on Building Resilient Rural Places
The Brookings Institution has released a new online report, “Building Resilient Rural Places: Strategies from Local Leaders to Strengthen Rural Assets, Diversity, and Dynamism.” The research calls for understanding, sustaining, and investing in the hyperlocal strategies already working to bring growth and equity to increasingly diverse and dynamic rural areas. Using in-depth, on-the-ground research in three rural communities across the U.S., the report covers place-based strategies as well as the policy and capacity-building supports needed to sustain and scale them in the years to come. The five sections focus on Main Streets, small businesses, the built environment, racial and economic inclusion, and community-led civic structures. Click here to access the report.
The NC FIRST Commission is seeking public involvement as it works to finalize future revenue and investment recommendations to the Board of Transportation.
The Commission recently launched CRAFTS, a web tool that lets people explore revenue and finance solutions to modernize the state’s transportation network. The Commission wants the public to check out the web tool and then submit their suggestions online. Share your thoughts by Dec. 14.
Rural and Small Metro Area Intelligent Transportation Systems Webinar
Want to learn more about intelligent transportation systems (ITS) applications in rural areas? Register to attend a U.S. Department of Transportation ITS Joint Program Office webinar on December 9 at 1 p.m. ET, which will feature the NADO Research Foundation's report on Rural and Small Metropolitan ITS Case Studies. The webinar also highlights ITS technologies and partnerships used by Mo-Kan Regional Council in St. Joseph, Missouri, and South East Area Transit (SEAT) in Zanesville, Ohio. Learn more and register for the webinar here.
TRB Pandemic Playbook for Transportation Agencies
The Transportation Research Board's (TRB) new Pandemic Playbook for Transportation Agencies is available as a free download on the National Academies Press website. A guide for agencies starting or updating their pandemic operations and staffing response plans, the playbook includes chapters on pandemic basics, roles and responsibilities, communications with employees, establishing pandemic-related policies, and how to approach challenges.
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ith the West Marion Community Forum, and Mary Snow, principal consultant with the Equitable Community Strategies, are the co-authors of “Shift Happens in Community: A Toolkit to Build Power and Ignite Change.” This textbook or toolkit shares best practices for engaging rural communities developed from a real-world model in McDowell County.
