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Initiatives At Golden LEAF, our grantsmaking responds to the challenges and opportunities that are presented day-to-day and year-to-year. That is why we're always looking for new ways to leverage our funding, to accomplish more and to build new relationships. Since inception, the initiatives that we have launched are a testament to what can be achieved when many players from every sector come together to form partnerships for change. Rural Hope Initiative Rural Hope Initiative The Golden LEAF Foundation Board of Directors earmarked $1 million to a rural health care initiative designed to enable better health care delivery and job creation by assisting in the construction and expansion of rural health care facilities. The health care industry serves as an economic driver in rural communities as it often is a top employer and plays a part in the ability to recruit citizens and companies into these areas. For this initiative, Golden LEAF collaborated with the Health & Wellness Trust Fund and the NC Rural Economic Development Center to increase the resources available for rural health care expansion projects. To date, Golden LEAF has awarded 8 grants totaling almost $700,000 for projects in rural communities across North Carolina. Self-Help Loan Loss Reserve Initiative The Golden LEAF Loan Program at Self-Help is a $5 million program that will provide loans to help businesses access capital during tough economic times. Self-Help Credit Union will administer the loan program. Golden LEAF funds are to be used as a loan loss reserve and are expected to leverage an estimated $25 million in loans to North Carolina business owners. For more information about how to apply for a Golden LEAF loan, contact Self-Help Senior Loan Officer Jane Hatley at 828-771-2817 or by e-mail at jane.hatley@self-help.org. Self-Help (www.self-help.org) is a nonprofit lender whose mission is to create ownership and economic opportunity through: financing for small businesses, community facilities, and home ownership; downtown revitalization and affordable housing development; and responsible consumer financial services. Self-Help has branches across North Carolina. Local Foods Initiative As part of its mission of promoting economic development in rural, tobacco dependent, and economically distressed areas of North Carolina, the Golden LEAF Foundation has funded projects designed to help farmers access new and expanding markets, including the market for local foods. Recently, public interest in local foods has grown, creating new economic opportunities for North Carolina farmers and businesses. In response, the Golden LEAF Foundation Board of Directors has developed a strategic initiative to expand local food opportunities for North Carolina farmers and businesses. The primary goal of the Local Foods Initiative is to improve and expand farmers' access to commercial, institutional, and retail markets that are increasing their use of local foods, especially those markets willing to pay a premium for local products. The Foundation hopes to accomplish this goal by identifying projects that address some or all of the following issues: 1) the need for farmers to meet the food safety and certification standards and related expectations of the marketplace; 2) the coordination of production and distribution necessary to satisfy business and consumer demand; 3) the availability of infrastructure for aggregation, rough preparation, and intermediate processing; and 4) the marketing required to create and sustain demand for local foods. It is expected that the Foundation will award a total of approximately $2.5 million for this initiative to several projects. Grant proposals for this Initiative were due November 2, 2009. Click here to learn more about this initiative. Golden LEAF Opportunities for Work in Aerospace Manufacturing Golden LEAF Opportunities for Work in Aerospace Manufacturing (GLOW-AM) is a special program of Golden LEAF intended to address some of the urgent workforce requirements North Carolina faces in labor markets with high concentrations of aerospace industries and in regions where aerospace manufacturing is emerging as a new economic engine. Recently, Golden LEAF provided support to the NC Eastern Region to complete a statewide workforce needs assessment and educational gap analysis for the emerging aerospace industry in North Carolina. In response to the findings, the Foundation requested proposals from direct providers of training that address the workforce development challenges identified in the report by strengthening training capacities in regions of the state that have high concentrations of aerospace manufacturing companies and maintenance, repair and overhaul operations. The Golden LEAF Board of Directors set aside $5 million for this workforce development grant initiative to support direct training programs targeting identified employment opportunities in tobacco-dependent, economically distressed and/or rural communities. The expected outcomes of projects include the eligibility of trainees for placement in permanent, full-time, high quality jobs in the aerospace industry. To date, Golden LEAF has awarded 7 grants totaling over $4.4 million for the GLOW-AM Initiative. Golden LEAF Opportunities for Work The Golden LEAF Opportunities for Work (GLOW) program was created to address some of the urgent job training needs North Carolina faces during the current economic downturn. GLOW was a short-term, non-degree workforce development grant initiative that supported vocational and/or technical training programs targeting identified employment opportunities in tobacco-dependent, economically distressed and/or rural communities. The expected outcome of projects awarded under this initiative is the eligibility of trainees for placement in permanent, full-time jobs requiring their new skills. Golden LEAF awarded $3.5 million in funding to 23 projects ranging from Newland, NC in the west to Elizabeth City, NC in the east. Priority was given to projects that will have a positive effect on tobacco-dependent, economically distressed and/or rural communities that demonstrated strong demand for trainees. Aerospace Alliance Initiative In 2005, the North Carolina Aerospace Alliance took flight, thanks in part to a grant from Golden LEAF. As a voluntary association of independent companies, academic institutions, and not-for-profit organizations, the alliance focuses on creating opportunities for North Carolina companies to manufacture spare parts for aging military systems. The Alliance is a government and industry partnership established to support the Department of Defense and defense contractors. As many systems age, spare parts are hard to find and costly. North Carolina can fill the need for critical aviation parts with the manufacturing capabilities. The DoD wins with improved weapon system readiness and substantially reduced cost of ownership and operation. North Carolina gains a new sustainable industry that will bring more defense dollars to the state. To create resources for the alliance, Golden LEAF awarded grants to North Carolina State University and Western Carolina University to fund the development of reverse engineering capabilities for North Carolina aerospace companies interested in pursuing these opportunities. Additional Golden LEAF grants went to Lenoir Community College and Haywood Community College to establish advanced machining training centers to train a new generation of aerospace machinists. Through this initiative, Golden LEAF has also played a significant role in enabling statewide job creation in the aviation sector and more broadly in defense contracting. The Alliance helped connect companies to resources (capital, metal fabrication companies, and defense contacts) and build a sector that reaches from Murphy to Elizabeth City. Golden LEAF grants have made it possible for ten organizations to build increased training capabilities and assisted county and local governments and nonprofits with public infrastructure improvements and fair market value leases to enable job creation. NC Aerospace Alliance Initiative Results:
NCBIOIMPACT Initiative In August 2003, Golden LEAF made a historic grant to establish the North Carolina Biomanufacturing and Pharmaceutical Training Consortium, now called NCBIOIMPACT to assist with workforce development requirements in the biotech and life science industries. Since then, we’ve awarded nearly $69 million to this landmark effort, which is transforming the biotechnology landscape and generating significant, quantifiable economic gains throughout the state. Including three leading educational institutions, the NC Biotechnology Center, and the North Carolina biotechnology industry, NCBIOIMPACT brings assets from every sector together to form a powerful collaboration. With strong financial and professional support from the biotech industry, the educational partners — the North Carolina Community College System, North Carolina Central University, and North Carolina State University — have created an unprecedented statewide network of integrated and comprehensive workforce training programs. These programs are designed to develop a highly skilled biotechnology and pharmaceutical workforce for the 21st century. Several thousand students have already received training through NCBIOIMPACT and, as all components become fully operational, the annual number of students served could easily surpass 10,000. NCBIOIMPACT continues to raise the bar of achievement for not-for-profit, government, academic, and industry partnerships. It is looked upon as a model throughout the biotechnology community worldwide. 1:1 NC Learning Technology Initiative In 2007, Golden LEAF provided funding, along with SAS and the NC General Assembly, to launch a demonstration pilot called the 1:1 NC Learning Technology Initiative. The goal of this public-private partnership is to assist with high school reform efforts by supplying computers to students and teachers in school districts across our state, primarily in rural communities. The initiative supports development of adequate infrastructure for Internet use and multimedia curricula, as well as proper training for teachers. In addition, the program has evaluation instruments to measure the impact of the 1:1 initiative on student engagement and academic achievement. The purpose of this initiative is to create a model to guide the development of a 21st century learning environment for North Carolina’s public high schools. In this setting, learning is relevant to real-world applications, students are more fully engaged and take ownership of their learning, and teachers are able to open new learning opportunities to their students. The result: increased graduation rates, teacher retention, and student performance. Through this powerful public-private partnership, we envision creating a repetitive model that can be used by every North Carolina school to enable students, teachers, and administrators to make optimal use of the technology to enhance teaching and learning and make it relevant to twenty-first-century job opportunities. The potential of 1:1 learning is realized most in classrooms characterized by academic rigor, real-world experiences, and high-quality teaching that incorporates research on teaching and learning outcomes. Ultimately, our goals for the 1:1 initiative are to:
Schools participating in the demonstration pilot program are:
In addition to the demonstration pilot, 14 school districts are receiving funding from the Department of Public Instruction and Golden LEAF and support (coaching, planning and professional development) from the Friday Institute. These school districts will be connected with schools already implementing 1:1 teaching and learning initiatives and will be supported with best practices and lessons learned from the pilot initiative. School systems receiving 1:1 support for high schools are:
Community Assistance Initiative Launched in 2007, the Community Assistance Initiative is a grants program that targets communities of need and provides direct support for projects that significantly enhance the quality of life for citizens within those communities by stimulating economic activity or providing assistance in overcoming barriers to economic transition or community progress. The initiative was created by Golden LEAF in response to concerns that some of the state’s most distressed communities were not the direct beneficiaries of the foundation’s grantsmaking. By working directly with those communities, foundation staff and board were able to understand community priorities and challenges and were able to assist those communities in establishing a priority list of proposals for funding consideration. Building on initial success, the Community Assistance Initiative currently targets North Carolina’s Tier One counties, considered the most economically distressed counties in the state. With Golden LEAF staff and board members working directly with county leaders and citizens, proposals are developed following a process whereby the community reaches consensus on the key issues and objectives that it would like to target and then establishes a priority list of projects that have the most potential for positively affecting the key issues and achieving the desired objectives. There is a reserve of $2 million per county, but grant award amounts may vary. Hallmarks of the Community Assistance Initiative include the following:
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