• North Carolina Community Solutions Network The North Carolina Community Solutions Network (NCCSN) was established as a partnership of community development organizations, state agencies, private foundations and universities to address community issues throughout North Carolina. The two purposes of the NCCSN are to be 1) an ongoing source of assistance to build the capacity of citizens in economically distressed communities to solve complex community problems inclusively and collaboratively, and 2) to strengthen the numbers and capacity of community-building practitioners across North Carolina through shared work and reflective practice. Additionally, a practioner learning team is being developed to provide a vibrant learning network of practitioners to improve the practice of community-problem-solving across the state.

• Agritourism/Sustainable Tourism One of the primary efforts of our Alternative Income Opportunities programs is the development of agritourism and other value-adding approaches to increase the income of farmers, especially in rural areas. Conferences, tours, schools and other educational approaches have been implemented to provide the technical and business planning support to help individuals develop these opportunities. Educational days for school children, for-pay crop mazes and sunflower mazes, specialty crops, road-side marketing of produce, and other methods are paying dividends in higher profits for many rural families

• Land Use and Community Design The preservation of greenspace and farmland has become a significant issue in North Carolina. A farmland preservation notebook has been published to serve as a catalog of federal and state land preservation programs, laws, and regulations to assist counties, nonprofit organizations and citizens in efforts to preserve farmland. Eleven counties are in process of developing or implementing farmland preservation programs, with more expressing interest. Extension faculty in the College of Design are working with communities through design processes to create a sustainable design for towns using considerable citizen participation.

• State Animal Response Team/Disaster Preparedness A network has been organized to address animal issues in disasters. State and federal agencies, nonprofit and industry organizations and volunteers with interest in animals, livestock or companion animals, collaborate on developing plans and implementation protocol, conduct training exercises, and assisting counties with the development of county animal response teams. This effort in cooperation with the NC Division of Emergency Management has put North Carolina in a better position to respond in the event of a natural disaster. Disaster fact sheets for families have been updated and efforts are underway to develop common training and disaster response with the American Red Cross.



• Hispanic/Latino Audiences North Carolina’s Hispanic/Latino population increased by 95% from 1990 to 1997. Cooperative Extension programs are being developed to assist these communities with leadership development. There are also programs underway to provide services to the Hispanic/Latino community in healthcare and language education.

• Natural Resources Leadership Institute NRLI has graduated its sixth class in 2001. Although legislative funding for the program has not become available, the Institute has received a $400,000 grant from the Ford Foundation to further the concepts of the Institute into environmental justice issues in cooperation with North Carolina Central University.

• Forestry Issues Forum Teleconferences Using the videoconference technology available across the state of North Carolina the Extension Forestry Program has conducted educational sessions on forest management, alternative enterprises with the forestland, wildlife management, and others. This has resulted in significant savings to CES, foresters and landowners participating in terms of the cost to participate as well as the economic savings from implementation of the topics provided. Professional Foresters acquired 999 CEU’s and saved $79,951 in participation costs.

• Wood Products Manufacturing A significant economic sector of the North Carolina economy is the forest products manufacturing sector. Extension programs working with sawmills and other processing firms resulted in savings or increased profits to these operations of over $14,000,000 per year.

• Staffing We are currently revising our approaches to staffing for effective extension programs. In ANR/CRD programs, we are looking specifically at opportunities to create more area specialized agent positions. We anticipate this will free up a few positions that we can re-deploy to emerging high priority program areas. At the same time, we are restructuring our Extension long range plan. We will condense 20 major programs into five program focus areas (agriculture, environment, communities, youth and families).

For further information on ANR/CRD programs contact Ed Jones at 919-515-3252 or Edwin_Jones@NCSU.edu