Deadline dates for future Vanguard editions:

1 August 2006
1 November 2006
1 February 2007

Please send submissions via email to srlease@buttscounty.org, via fax to
+1 (770) 775-8225,
or via postal mail to:

Steven Lease, AICP - Director
Community Development Dept.
Butts County
625 West 3rd Street, Suite 3,
Jackson, Georgia 30233
USA

Phone: +1 (770) 775-8210

(CDS at National Katrina Summit Continued from Page 1)

An agenda for future actions was established for the following areas:

Research

• Inventory/catalogue and coordinate existing research and research activities relevant to hurricane impact and recovery in rural areas.
• Track and document long-term effects and responses—this will take long term support and likely require acquiring financial resources from multiple sources (e.g., Hatch Act Funds through the United States Department of Agriculture, private foundations, Hazard Mitigation Grant Program through the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Environmental Protection Agency, Economic Development Administration, etc.).
• Provide input to the National Research Initiative (NRI) on research priorities for a competitive grants program.
• Develop a “conference proposal” to the NRI (2006) to support organization of research activities among individuals.
• Review and comment on the National Science Foundation (NSF) Advisory Committee report in support of Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Services (CSREES) review.
• Integrate issues of social justice and race into research activities.

Application

• Secure appointment of Community Resource Development (CRD) delegates to Extension Disaster Education Network (EDEN).
• Develop modules to add to EDEN on community rebuilding in disaster recovery.
• Develop cognitive, research-based framework for organizing content on EDEN .
• Develop “expert” database or a community of practice on disaster recovery and community building.
• Organize rapid response teams for external support to Mississippi and Louisiana efforts (short term) and other localities (long term).
• Develop mechanism to involve/coordinate students/volunteers in disaster recovery efforts regarding service learning, internships, field research, etc.
• Facilitate communication/response.
• Clearly delineate individual and community resources, re: EDEN .
• Develop Memoranda of Understandings (MOUs) with resource providers.
• Avoid information overload—sift/sort/condense, use tools like the decision tree approach to organizing large amounts of information.
• Identify mechanisms for engaging citizen organizations (that already work in localities and have appropriate resources) in disaster recovery and community building efforts.
• Establish redundancy in information dissemination strategy.
• Develop special issues of journals in relevant disciplines.
• Address community organizing for long-term social justice.

Partnerships

• Encourage more proactive marketing of EDEN and other expertise/resources among partners and to other organizations and agencies.
• Engage/reach out to partners, including foundations, actively.
• Do a “word check” with partners on materials to insure use of appropriate language.
• Communicate and share information and updates on activities.
• Utilize the rural entrepreneurship training from Rural Policy Research Initiative (RUPRI) Rural Entrepreneurship Center .
• Access the RUPRI Panel Expertise to provide guidance on integrating disadvantaged into discussion, such as the Rural Human Services Advisory Group that consists of human service professionals, Community Action Program (CAP) agency directors, faith-based people, state directors of community development, etc.

Co-coordinators Ken Pigg and Bo Beaulieu have offered the following suggested actions to implement the proposed agenda:

1. Develop a proposal to the USDA/CSREES/NRI this year for a “conference” on Disaster Response research that will help to unite the diverse set of ideas that were generated and to serve to mobilize groups of researchers to pursue opportunities as they are identified. This would be an effort to sketch out some initial ideas for actual research projects and identify those individuals willing to pursue the funding opportunities.
2. Develop a SERA proposal to the Extension Directors that will more immediately provide some limited support to meet and begin the consolidation and elaboration of ideas and implementation plans for follow-up, potentially including both research and extension faculty. This group would also be responsible for drafting and getting approval for a multi-state project following Hatch procedures.
3. Identify a group of people from the Nashville , Tennessee area willing to work on an extension/application project immediately. For example, the Kettering Foundation has expressed some interest for supporting efforts to elaborate their “issue forum” model to address disaster recovery in affected communities. A need also exists to organize implementation efforts around the EDEN II resources working with the EDEN project personnel on procedures.
4. Identify a group of individuals willing to monitor various agency announcements as they relate to research and application program funding possibilities and to notify the appropriate groups that are prepared to respond in a timely fashion.
5. Investigate the option of working with the Rural Caucus/Rural Network relating to funding issues that could support some of the ideas initially identified and for which more concrete plans will be developed.

Suggestions or comments regarding future direction may be directed to:

Ken Pigg,
E-mail: PiggK@missouri.edu
University of Missouri
104 Gentry
Columbia , MO 65211
Phone: 573-882-4350
Fax: 573-882-1473

Lionel J. (Bo) Beaulieu
E-mail: ljb@srdc.msstate.edu
Director, Southern Rural Development Center
Box 9656
410 Bost Extension Building
Mississippi State , MS 39762
Phone: (662) 325-3207
Fax: (662) 325-8915