Rural eNews

August 2021

Funding & Finance Opportunities

Community

Apply for a $10,000 Community Heart & Soul Seed Grant.  Grant funding requires a $10,000 cash match from the participating municipality or a partnering organization.  Click here for guidelines and to apply.

NORTHWEST FARM CREDIT SERVICES: Rural Community Grant Program provides support to nonprofit organizations in rural communities in the Northwest region, within the states of Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington for projects that improve a community's infrastructure, viability, and prosperity. Examples of eligible community projects include the following: a new fire engine for a rural fire department, a new multi-purpose community building, improvements to a community park's facilities, and computers for a community center's educational classes.  Applications are reviewed on a monthly basic.  Click here to visit the website for further information.

Firefighting

THE LEARY FIREFIGHTERS FOUNDATION’s Jeremiah Lucey Grant Program provides funds to paid and volunteer departments in three areas of support: training, with the goal of enhancing the professional development of departments; equipment, with the goal of providing the best equipment to help keep firefighters and the communities they serve safe; and technology, with the goal of ensuring that fire departments update along with technological advances. Grants typically range from $5,000 to $25,000.  Deadline:  Letters of Intent 8/15/2021; invited applications 10/1/2021.  Visit the Foundation's website here to review the guidelines for the Jeremiah Lucey Grant Program.

FIREHOUSE SUBS PUBLIC SAFETY FOUNDATION invites applications for First Responder Grants.  Grants of up to $50,000 will be awarded to law enforcement, EMS units, public safety organizations, nonprofits, and schools that provide lifesaving equipment and prevention education tools to first responders and public-safety organizations.  Deadline:  8/18/2021.  Click here for more information and to apply.

Native Americans

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, Bureau of Indian Affairs, is making funding available to support Tribal tourism feasibility studies and/or Tribal tourism business plan development.  Deadline:  8/13/2021.  Click here for funding guidelines.

THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE has grants available for: broadband service on Tribal Land; and programs that promote the use of broadband to access remote learning, telework, or telehealth resources during the COVID-19 pandemic.  Deadline: 9/1/2021.  Click here to review program guidelines.

Other

HUD is offering grants to legal service providers to provide free legal assistance low-income tenants at risk of or subject to eviction, especially among populations disproportionately affected by eviction and in rural areas or other communities with high rates of eviction.  Deadline:  9/8/2021.  Click here to review application guidelines.

THE FOUNDATION FOR OPIOID RESPONSE EFFORTS (FORE) has issued a Request for Proposals for projects that aim to improve, expand, scale, and/or evaluate evidence-based prevention for opioid use disorder targeting vulnerable children and families.  Nonprofit organizations and universities, as well as state, local, and tribal government agencies, may apply for grants of up to $500,000 a year for up to three years.  Deadline:  9/20/2021.  Click here to review funding guidelines.

BRAVE OF HEART FUND® Invites Applications from Family Members of Frontline Healthcare Workers Who Lost Their Lives Due to COVID-19.  The grant will provide basic and continuing financial support for common needs, such as funeral costs, medical care, counseling, food, educational expenses of children and other dependents currently in school, mortgage or rent payments, and immediate living expenses.  Deadline:  12/31/2021.  Click here for more information. 

Transportation

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION, Federal Transit Administration, is making funds available to support planning, capital, and operating assistance for tribal public transit services. Among other things, this funding supports partnerships working to expand access to health, medical, and social service providers.  Deadline:  8/25/2021.  Click here to review application guidelines.

THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION is offering funding through the Areas of Persistent Poverty Program that supports projects that will improve transit services or facilities in areas of persistent poverty through planning, engineering, technical studies, or financial plans for projects.  Deadline:  8/30/2021.  Click here to review funding guidelines and to apply.

Training Events and Conferences

Online and In-Person Events

National Low Income Housing Coalition’s “End Rental Arrears to Stop Evictions (ERASE) Webinar Series,” will be offered (July 28) August 4, and August 11, 2021 from 3:00-4:30 PM EDT will provide emergency rental assistance (ERA) program administrators, state and local partners, and community stakeholders with tools and best practices to ensure that ERA reaches households experiencing the worst impacts of the pandemic—including households of color, people with disabilities, and immigrant communities—in time to prevent housing loss and eviction.  Register for the two remaining webinars by clicking here.

CDFA Virtual Summer School is August 2-12, 2021. Learn from expert practitioners during seven training courses and experience CDFA's most interactive educational event of the year - all from the comfort of your own home or office.  Click here for additional information.

Federal Reserve Launches Community Development Research Seminar Series August 3, 2021.  Each seminar in the series will be focused on supporting an inclusive recovery and will present research illuminating an issue critical to our economy. Presenters will discuss how the community development field can use these findings to support a recovery that benefits everyone. We begin by exploring the employment experiences of low-income workers during the pandemic and examining how to improve the financial security of those workers.  Register for the first seminar, “Toward an Inclusive Recovery: Improving Labor Force Attachment and Financial Security among Low-income and Marginalized Workers,” by clicking here.

The Aspen Institute Communities Strategy Group is beginning a four-part webinar series with “Building Trust with Immigrant Families: Spreading and Adapting 2Gen Working Practices,” August 12, 2021, 2:00-3:30 PM EDT.  Three organizations will share how they are making remarkable success building trust with immigrant and refugee communities. Speakers will show how community-based non-profits can develop deeper relationships with immigrant family clients, how school systems can provide safe spaces to develop stronger relationships among parents, children and teachers, and how home visiting programs can increase participation by hiring and retaining staff that immigrant families trust.  Click here to register.

Novogradac 2021 Affordable Housing Tax Credit and Bond Conference will take place September 30-October 1, 2021 in Nashville, Tennessee and online.  Click here for more information and to register.

2021 Grantmakers in Aging Annual Conference will be held virtually October 13-15, 2021. With the theme “Reimagining the Road Ahead: Philanthropy’s Role in the Decade of Healthy Aging,” participants will hear how aging philanthropy is aimed at promoting age-friendly communities, health systems, and universities, to addressing questions of diversity, equity, and inclusion, to reframing the public conversation to recognize the contributions and value of older people in our nation and around the world.  Click here to register.

Opportunity Finance Network 2021 Virtual Conference will be held October 19–21, 2021.  The theme “Finance Justice. Finance Change.” will expand on last year’s theme to highlight how CDFIs drive change. CDFI finance helps combat racial inequality, works to move individuals and communities out of persistent poverty, and ensures that we will have a more just economic recovery.  Click here for more information and to register.

Save the Date...

SAVE THE DATE:  Rural LISC Annual Seminar, in person and online, October 11-14, 2021, Memphis, Tennessee.  Watch this space for more information!

National Housing Conference’s Technology & Housing Symposium will take place Wednesday, October 13, 2021 to discuss the latest technology solutions for housing, housing finance and community investment. Panel topics will cover:  Innovations in Production; Artificial Intelligence; and the Future of Housing Equity.

Information and Other Resources

Articles, Reports, and Tools

A NeighborWorks America Survey shows disparities in homeownership and credit.  The annual study examines the state of housing and financial conditions. Click here to read more. 

The California Coalition for Rural Housing have made an “Affordable Housing and Natural Disasters: A Practitioner’s Guidebook” available online.  The need for disaster preparedness presents an opportunity to build the capacity of rural communities to engage in disaster planning and recovery more effectively and equitably, to become more adaptable, and able to rebuild stronger.  Get the guidebook by clicking here.

The National Alliance to End Homelessness released a series of case studies on hotel to housing initiatives in California, Oregon, and Vermont. Each state utilized federal CARES Act funding to help ensure that people experiencing homelessness could be safe and secure during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. The reports were written in conjunction with Mary Tingerthal, who presented her work during a recent National Housing Conference webinar series on hotel and motel conversions.  Get the case studies report by clicking here.

The Legatum Institute has updated the United States Prosperity Index 2021 which assesses the economic, institutional, and social aspects of prosperity across the United States over the past decade. It features state-by-state breakdowns of prosperity increases and decreases, and examines 11 pillars of prosperity, made up of 48 different elements, measured by over 200 state-level indicators.  Data includes a county-level index for 12 selected states.  Click here to access the index.

Alabama Newscenter published an article, “National investment nonprofit Rural LISC brings technology to Alabama communities.”  In today’s world, particularly in the midst of the pandemic, Alabamians and people nationwide are spending hours every day online, whether they are job hunting, shopping, taking part in telehealth visits, working or helping their kids with school assignments. But for a rural community like Uniontown, getting online is not so easy, with limited and sometimes no broadband access.  But Rural LISC (Local Initiatives Support Corporation) is helping put the internet, and the devices needed to access it, at the fingertips of Uniontown people and families.  Read the post here.

Commentary in the Daily Yonder: “Broadband Anchor Institutions Drive Telehealth in Rural Areas,” reports that Rural libraries and schools have an opportunity to apply for government funds meant to build out their technological capabilities and help provide access to telehealth and education.  Read this article by clicking here.

National Low Income Housing Coalition has released a new report, “The Road Ahead for Low-Income Renters,” summarizing research on how renters have fared during the pandemic and their likely needs going forward.   The report provides an overview of what we have learned over the last year and a half from the Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey and other sources.  Click here to access the report.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia has released an updated report on household rental debt during Covid-19.  New research estimates that nearly 2 million U.S. renter households will owe over $15 billion in back rent and utilities by August 2021 because of job loss or involuntary part-time work during the COVID-19 pandemic.  Read the report here.

A recent Rural Matters podcast, “Remote Work & Community Networks Part III,” featured John Fitzsimmons, president of The Foundation for Maine’s Community Colleges; David Daigler.  president of the Maine Community College System; Justin Archer Burch., national director of Workforce Development at Rural LISC; and Francie Genz, co-principal of the Institute for Networked Communities.  This episode and the entire series on rural higher education and workforce development is sponsored by Ascendium Education Group, a nonprofit organization committed to helping learners from low-income backgrounds reach their educational and career goals.  To access this podcast, click here.  To access other Rural Matters podcasts, click here.

U.S. Department of Commerce has announced that the Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration (EDA) will implement a series of programs, collectively called Investing in America's Communities, to equitably invest the $3 billion it received from President Biden's American Rescue Plan Act to help communities across the country build back better.  Read the press release here.

“Community-Rooted Economic Inclusion Playbook” from the Brookings Institution and LISC, provides concrete guidance on how to implement a community-rooted approach to economic inclusion—one that can build wealth within underinvested communities, while reducing economic inequities within entire cities by connecting more people, places, and small businesses to regional economic opportunity.  Get the playbook here.

Rural Assembly’s Everywhere Radio podcast recently featured two people who are part of a growing movement of rural “homecomers,” younger people who are returning to their rural roots and hometowns to build a life and committing to making their communities more inclusive, vibrant places to live.  Listen to the podcast by clicking here.

HUD’s CDBG-CV Co-Managing Disaster Recovery and CARES Act Programs Quick Guide summarizes the key similarities and differences between the Community Development Block Grant CARES Act (CDBG-CV) and the CDBG-Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) programs and how their allocations can be used together.  HUD provides these flexible grants to help cities, counties, and states recover from Presidentially declared disasters. The CDBG-CV and CDBG-DR programs are designed to primarily assist low-income households and areas.  Get the guide by clicking here.

CDFA's latest publication - Food Finance Detroit: A Landscape Map for Financing Detroit’s Local Food System is now available.  This resource highlights traditional development finance tools and programs that can help advance local food system redevelopment in Detroit.  Get the guide by clicking here.

National Low Income Housing Coalition has released a new report, “Direct-to-Tenant Payment Implementation: Increasing Flexibility and Equity in Emergency Rental Assistance Programs,” that outlines why direct-to-tenant payments are needed in emergency rental assistance (ERA) programs and how program administrators can implement this feature.  Get the report by clicking here.

“Access to Affordable Care in Rural America: Current Trends and Key Challenges,” a report from the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, describes geographic and demographic challenges that contribute to healthcare access and health disparities in rural areas. The report covers patterns of insurance coverage between rural and urban areas, healthcare provider shortages, and rural hospital vulnerability and closures.  Get the report by clicking here.

Shelterforce has begun a new Under the Lens series—Community Ownership Takes Center Stage—that takes a focused look at some of the ways these forms of community ownership are evolving. Access the current series by clicking here.  Sign up for the weekly newsletter to read the rest of the series and other stories here.

Rural LISC works with over 140 partner organizations creating sustainable rural communities across 45 states. Visit our website here and sign up for the Rural LISC RSS feed here. If this email was forwarded to you and you would like to sign up to receive the Rural eNews each month, click here.

Send information on funding opportunities, events, publications, resources, or rural-related issues to sfelzke@lisc.org. Announcements will be published at our discretion based on space and applicability.  Please do not copy this document without permission.