Even as the economic recovery begins to gain momentum, Appalachia may be left behind again unless we develop our own plans for progress. Communities need to explore ways to grow existing businesses while generating a climate that supports new enterprises. Food, energy, tourism, health care, and a host of other areas are ripe for innovation.
Appalachian communities have local resources that might be brought to bear on the challenges facing education, economic development, health care and other issues. Capturing these resources is critical to undertaking local, sustainable work to improve quality of life for all residents. Community foundations are a tool through which many communities have developed local philanthropy.
The Carpetbag Theatre (CBT) uses the digital storytelling process to reveal hidden stories and to build community. This creative approach to storytelling gives power to the personal voice and employs facilitative teaching methods. Digital storytelling brings together cultural and technological tools to create a powerful medium of text, images, and sound to present a story.
Effective Communication by Choice is an approach to communication that provides practical ways to handle both ordinary and challenging communication. Based on the Authentic Partnership model, this approach increases the chances that communication will be effective, and that helpful intentions will translate into good relationships.
Join this session to make plans stabilize your organization's contributed revenue streams. Through discussion and practical activities, participants will work on case statements, prospect identification, solicitation techniques, relationship building and donor communications. Group discussions will also help participants find strategies for funding for difficult projects and hard to solicit prospects.
Take the mystery out of researching grants and crafting successful proposals. Christy Bailey, executive director of the Coal Heritage Highway Authority, will lead you through the research process and initial contact with a funder. Learn to write a winning proposal from describing the work it will address in your community to creating the budget. Each participant will receive a comprehensive proposal writing manual created by the presenter.
Serving as a community leader has its rewards but it can also be an exhausting endeavor. The track offers sessions to build skills and inspire new perspectives about providing leadership to communities and organizations. From running effective meetings to understanding how different personality styles interact in leadership situations, participants explore aspects of leadership skills. Each participant creates a personal leadership development plan to encourage practicing some of the new skills.
Attorney Conley Salyer builds on his years of experience working in the nonprofit sector to present highly interactive sessions addressing four areas of concern for nonprofit organizations: profit-oriented activities; fundraising; common day-to-day mistakes (humorous and not so funny); and aggressive but legal lobbying. using a combination of informative short presentations followed by group discussions, this track will put you on the right track regarding legal issues.
This track will help participants learn about the records, policies and processes that help keep nonprofits healthy for the mission work. The track will be beneficial for staff involved in the overall management of a nonprofit organization, especially those who may be new to their role as a manager. Topics will include record keeping, what to keep and how organize it; systems for personnel management; and records and training for boards of directors.
Well-planned communications strategies are essential to promoting the good work of your organization or movement. They provide the spark that catalyzes your effort and keep momentum high. This track explores recent and developing research about new communications tools that meet the unique needs of nonprofits and social causes.
The sessions draw on Dr. Grisham's forty years of research in successful communities to learn the process and key elements in their triumphs. Participants will hear how these small, rural communities achieve extraordinary results with no unusual resources.
This track provides skills for building and maintaining a basic web site for your organization. This track requires no previous experience in web design.
The curriculum for this track is unique: serious work on actual challenges and opportunities that a senior leader will face. Designed for executives seeking excellence in any field, mayors, nonprofit directors, entrepreneurs, and senior leaders in government have attended in past years. Strengthen your ability to think strategically and sensitively about complex internal and external issues. Leave with allies, tools and plans for the future. Confidentiality and candor are a must.
