The Rural View

	Newsletter - Center/Council for Rural Virginia
The Rural View www.cfrv.org www.councilforruralvirginia.org		©	Volume 2 Issue 2 January 2008
	Center Board of Trustees/Council Board of Directors

Center Chair Invites Fellow Legislators To Virginia Rural Caucus Honorable Frank M. Ruff, Jr., Invites Fellow Legislators to Take Part in: Virginia Rural Caucus Rural Legislative Watch - 2008 General Assembly Session Calendar Center for Rural Virginia - 2007 Annual Report Can Small Towns Be Cool? Virginia Ag Summit Education - Johnny Can't Read Healthcare - Legislative Watch Rural Virginia Road Trip! 17 New properties named to Virginia Landmarks Registry Time to Educate the Coalfields Out of Poverty, Disease Virginia Center for Healthy Communities announces the launch of the Virginia Community Health Entrepreneurs Program (VCHEP) Come Home to Virginia's Great Southwest - - - Ex-Residents Are Gone, But They're Not Forgotten Study Shows Urban Sprawl Continues To Gobble Up Land Staff Corner Center/Council Executive Director Meets With Secretary Gottschalk regarding Rural Caucus Coalition Agreement! Center/Council for Rural Virginia and The Community Foundation! Virginia Coalition for Rural Communities	Board Members Spotlight
	Ellen Matthews Davis - State Director USDA Rural Development for Virginia Donna Pugh Johnson - Executive Director Agribusiness Celebration 2008 Susan Rubin - Assistant Vice President Governmental Affairs, Virginia, Maryland & Delaware Association of Electric Coops Scholarship Foundation deadline Apply by April 1, 2008 Jack Reasor, President - ODEC in the News Dr. Oliver A. McBride, Executive Director Crossroads Rural Entrepreneurial Institute announces that Carroll County is first in VA to erect signs along the roadways to identify Entrepreneur Zones Contact Dr. McBride, Council Chair RUPRI - Rural Entrepreneurship Entrepreneurship 101 Healthcare Virginia Health Reform Commission Members VCOM Establishes National Center for the Analysis of Healthcare Data Physician Workforce - Issues for the Commonwealth of Virginia Report Document No. 37 PUBLICATION YEAR 2008

	Time to Educate the Coalfields Out of Poverty, Disease Frank Kilgore is an attorney in St. Paul, Virginia, and a lifelong advocate for improved natural resource conservation, health care and education in the Appalachian coalfields. Mr. Kilgore's article gives solutions that 'Mirror' the Center/Councils focus on Workforce, Education, Healthcare and stopping the "Brain Drain" as imperative to the economic health of Rural Virginia. For more than 100 years the coalfield communities of Central Appalachia -- which includes dozens of counties in Southwest Virginia, Eastern Tennessee, Eastern Kentucky and Southern West Virginia -- have been characterized as economically depressed, politically oppressed, chronically impoverished, and brutally raped of their natural resources. The term "Third World" comes up often when the coalfield region's health care system, economic see-saw and environmental degradations come into focus. Holding parents and caretakers more accountable for harming children with second-hand smoke, drug use and alcohol abuse would be a good start as well. The throngs of adults who attend coalfield higher education institutions should follow the examples of the Appalachian School of Law and the University of Appalachia College of Pharmacy. These graduate schools located in Buchanan County, Virginia, are national leaders in requiring community services of their students to promote healthier living, leadership and guidance to the young generations who will soon face the option of staying in their coalfield communities to seek higher education and making a difference, or leaving the region and continuing the "brain drain" that ultimately disables progress. Read the Full Article Come Home to Virginia's Great Southwest - - - It's time to come home for good. Return to your roots where job opportunities are exploding and the quality of life is even better than you remember. If you grew up here, you know about the pace of life, sense of family and community and the beauty of Virginia's Great Southwest. Those things are still the same. Even better now that a new career option may be waiting on you to come and claim it. Start planning your return today by clicking here to sign up so Return to Roots (RTR) can keep you informed of the companies with job openings in Southwestern Virginia. Return to Roots,a program of the Virginia Economic Bridge, Inc., is funded by a special projects grant from the Virginia Tobacco Commission. Learn more: Ex-Residents Are Gone, But They're Not Forgotten Center Council Staff Corner Glen C. Sink Executive Director 501 North Second Street Richmond, VA 23219 Ph: 804-371-7141 Fax: 804-371-7092 glen.sink@cfrv.org Thelma Burris Program Coordinator 2265 Kraft Drive Blacksburg, VA 24060 Ph: 540-231-6866 Fax: 540-231-5338 tbtburrisurris@vcom.vt.edu Cheryl Wiltsee Associate 2265 Kraft Drive Blacksburg, VA 24060 Ph: 540-231-6866 Fax: 540-231-5338 cwiltsee@vcom.vt.edu *The Rural View* To join the Rural View list serve, please click here. To remove your name from our mailing list, click here *Editor and Design: Thelma Burris* *Contributing Editor: Glen C. Sink* *Contributing Editor: Cheryl Wiltsee* © All Rights Reserved-CFRV
Center for Rural Virginia Council for Rural Virginia USDA Rural Development US Census Bureau Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Rural Prosperity Commission Rural Economic Analysis Program Rural Policy Research Institute Virginia Department of Housing & Community Development Edward Via Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine Virginia Rural Health Association Virginia Center for Innovative Technology (CIT) Virginia Association of Counties Virginia Economic Bridge UVA Public Policy "Can Small Towns Be Cool?" - - “Cool Cities” has increasingly become a buzzword among both community and economic development practitioners. The pursuit of the creative class, as outlined in Richard Florida’s The Rise of the Creative Class, and the opportunity to reverse the brain drain that has plagued communities has become a hot topic throughout the United States. Click to meet the Author, "We're in the midst of a fundamental economic revolution, bigger than the change from an agricultural to an industrial society. It's based on creativity including technological, economic and aesthetic creativity." He warns us however that unless we're willing to harness the creativity of people, we're going to lose the edge. Read the White Paper. . . The Virginia Ag Summit, held in Abingdon in December 2007 was loaded with a wealth of information critically important to our rural economy! The theme was “Rural Prosperity Through Agriculture: Agritourism & Value-Added Marketing.” Farmers and industry professionals gathered to learn the best ways to market their products and explored direct marketing techniques, retailer expectations, pricing, agritourism opportunities and much more. One example: To learn more about how to grow Rural Virginia by buying from local growers to get the freshest and best, from down the road, not across the country, visit Virginia Grown Council Chair Oliver McBride and Center/Council staff Thelma Burris were among the attendees. Education: National Endowment for the Arts - The declines in reading have civic, social, and economic implications – Advanced readers accrue personal, professional, and social advantages. Deficient readers run higher risks of failure in all three areas. NEA Chairman Dana Gioia said, "This study shows the startling declines, in how much and how well Americans read, that are adversely affecting this country's culture, economy, and civic life as well as our children's educational achievement." To Read or Not to Read - order hard copies or download a pdf. Rural Areas Included in Virginia Tourism Opportunities 17 Properties Named to Virginia Landmarks Registry. Take a road trip into Virginia's Storied Past. Register listings promote state and federal tax-credit rehabilitations and preservation easements. Press Release The Virginia Center for Healthy Communities is excited to announce the launch of the Virginia Community Health Entrepreneurs Program (VCHEP). VCHEP is a dynamic learning & coaching initiative of the Virginia Center for Healthy Communities in partnership with Community Health Solutions, Inc. The daily mission of VCHEP is to equip people for excellence in community health entrepreneurship – the practice of creating sustainable community health initiatives. Our vision is for every community in Virginia to have an active group of VCHEP entrepreneurs working to improve community health. Read more For more information on VCHEP, please visit www.vchep.net or contact Yedda Stancil at (804) 965-1214 or Yedda@vahealthycommunities.com. Study Shows Urban Sprawl Continues To Gobble Up Land Despite reports to the contrary, urban sprawl has continued to grow significantly for the past several decades, new research suggests. An interactive look at Vanishing Green Space - land converted from forests and farms to residences, commercial and industrial development. The Need for a Statewide Conversation On The Future of Rural Virginia rural lands and communities are under stress. Since mid- century, the Commonwealth has been transformed, from a rural, primarily agricultural state to one that is increasingly urbanized and suburbanized. Rapid population growth in Northern Virginia, Metro Richmond, Hampton Roads, suburban Charlottesville, and other areas has put increasing pressure on local governments, straining their ability to provide roads, schools, and other services - authored by David Bearinger, Associate Director of the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and Public Policy* and a member of the VFH program staff since 1984.*
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