| 114th Year, 21st Issue | Thursday, January 2, 2003 | Sparta, North Carolina |
The Northwest Alliance Program for the Rural Carolinas — representing Alleghany, Ashe and Wilkes counties — will soon begin carrying out its first-year plans of a Duke Endowment-sponsored economic recovery program.
Melanie Young, the Northwest Alliance's project coordinator, said DE's board approved the group's work plans and objectives about a month ago. That cleared the way for DE to release $150,000 to the alliance to fund the first year of the three-year economic development project. "We're set for next year (2003)," Young said.
That funding is part of the DE Program for the Rural Carolinas, a grant initiative announced last year whose goals are to create jobs and wealth, especially in economically distressed areas, and to increase local and regional leadership.
The Northwest Alliance was one of seven option one grant recipients in North and South Carolina, each awarded $475,000. Of that figure, $25,000 was designated for a planning period during the last several months; the remaining $450,000 is to be awarded in three equal annual increments. Plans must be approved separately for each respective year before the money is actually received.
(DE awarded option two grants of $175,000 each to an additional 16 organizations in the Carolinas.)
Young is a staff member at New River Community Partners, which helped prepare Alleghany County's application. Alleghany, Ashe and Wilkes applied separately for the program; Duke then brought the three together as one recipient. DE traditionally assists non-profit children's homes and hospitals, and rural United Methodist Churches, and it stipulated that those organizations be participants in the Rural Carolinas program.
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