See You Soon!
Many of you are planning to attend the SSDN Annual Meeting in Orlando, FL, November 5-7. By now you have a final agenda and logistics packet, and should have made all your travel arrangements and paid registration fees. Please contact
Kim with any remaining questions, and look forward to learning and sharing with your peers in sunny Florida next week!
Funding Application Updates
SSDN members and SEEA submitted of a final letter of intent to the USDN Innovation Fund around equity as it relates to energy efficiency. It was not invited to propose, so we will continue to look for opportunities to move on this issue as a collective voice in the Southeast. Thanks to Knoxville’s
Erin Gill and SEEA’s
Lisa Wilson for leading this effort.
Potential Collaboration Opportunity
SEEA’s
Cyrus Bhedwar introduced our network to Daniel Hill, founder of the
Green Impact Challenge. Green Impact Campaign is a national nonprofit that provides university students with cloud-based training and tools to conduct free energy audits for local, small businesses. Collectively, Green Impact Campaign is working to reduce the environmental impact of small business while better equipping the next generation of climate leaders.
As small commercial energy efficiency tends to be a tough market, Cyrus thought SSDN might benefit from getting to know Daniel because he’s adding a useful tool and approach to reaching that market. If you feel your community would benefit from the Green Impact Challenge, feel free to contact
Daniel or
Susanna.
The State of the South
Pete Plastrik of
Innovation Network for Communities sent a report produced by his colleague
David Dodson in Durham, N.C. called “
Building an Infrastructure of Opportunity for the Next Generation”. This report takes a deep look at youth mobility in the South. It features analysis of state and regional data and profiles of nine Southern communities. At a time when political gridlock at the state and national level are freezing the pursuit of policies that promote education reform and economic development, the report says change must come at the level where the impact of stagnant economic mobility hits hardest: in communities.
Key highlights include the suggestion that Southern communities need to create an “infrastructure of opportunity” for youth and young adults. That infrastructure consists of a clear and deliberate set of pathways and supports that connect youth to educational credentials and economic opportunity. It requires the involvement of a broad cross-section of the community—employers, education systems, community-based organizations, policy makers, civic and neighborhood leaders, philanthropy, and young people themselves.
Top SSDN Post on USDN
Please continue to share with us what you're learning or needing to know on
USDN.org. We look forward to sharing your post in the newsletter next month.
Can't log on to USDN? Reply to this email or send Susanna a note and we'll fix that. Posters, be sure to tag the Southeast so we can all see. A tutorial for the site is here.
