Cherokee Preservation Foundation

To help the EBCI’s neighbors in Cherokee, Jackson, Haywood, Clay, Macon, Swain and Graham counties determine who they can call to identify and discuss collaboration opportunities for projects that may qualify for Cherokee Preservation Foundation funding, here is a directory of some EBCI tribal programs and departments. These departments and programs are included because their work has a relationship with the Cherokee Preservation Foundation’s four areas of focus: cultural preservation, economic development, creation of employment opportunities and environmental preservation.

The Cherokee Reservation Cooperative Extension is part of the North Carolina Cooperative Extension. Its primary function is to extend the educational resources of North Carolina State University and North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State university to the residents of Qualla Boundary, and it provides assistance in the areas of sustaining agriculture and forestry, protecting the environment, maintaining viable communities, developing responsible youth, and promoting healthy and safe families.

Cherokee Transit Services - 497-5296
Cherokee Transit Services provides residents of Qualla Boundary and other tribal lands with reasonably priced general public transportation, program transportation (e.g., transportation to and from Head Start, after-school programs and Vocational Opportunities of Cherokee) and non-emergency medical transportation services.

Cherokee Tribal Travel & Promotion - 497-5737
Cherokee Tribal Travel & Promotion provides information to prospective visitors and visitor services, and it is also responsible for advertising, promotion and special events.

Cherokee Youth Center (Boys & Girls Club) - 497-3119
The Cherokee Youth Center provides after-school programs; instruction in traditional Cherokee arts, crafts and dance; national programs from the Boys & Girls Club of America that help promote character and leadership development, and prevent behaviors that can injure young people’s health; and opportunities for members to be involved in community service projects. Membership is open to children in kindergarten through age 18.

Cultural Resources - 497-1581
Cultural Resources provides cultural resources and historic preservation services, including public education; interaction with museums, universities, other organizations and the general public; handling of requests for cultural performances, Cherokee language translation services, video productions, museum exhibits developments and research; the performance of duties in connection with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act; locating, surveying and nominating significant historic sites to the National Register of Historic Places; consulting with museums, universities and government agencies; issuing and monitoring all permits involving ground disturbance on Qualla Boundary; and providing archaeological survey expertise to tribal units and members.

Education and Training - 497-7485
This department provides education and job training to members of the EBCI.

Parks and Recreation - 497-9115
The Parks & Recreation department provides EBCI members with sports and cultural programs, including (to name just a few) football, basketball, cheerleading, bicycling, exercise and weight rooms, paintball, aerobics, senior games, karate, gospel singing, benefit dinners, senior citizen events, Indian Fair events and sports clinics.

Public Utilities and Public Services - 497-1823
Among the many services that Public Utilities/Public Services provides, sanitation services and recycling education and services are most closely associated with the Cherokee Preservation Foundation’s environmental preservation focus.

Qualla Boundary Public Library - 497-1764
The Qualla Boundary Public Library provides EBCI members with books, magazines and videos; provides genealogy research assistance to local groups, schools and visitors; assists the school system with needed resources; provides computers to EBCI members with limited access opportunities; offers a meeting area for higher education students; and offers programs for youth, Vocational Opportunities of Cherokee, and elders.

Tribal Planning Office - 497-1679
The Tribal Planning Office provides the EBCI with a planning program that will enhance the quality of life for tribal members, lead to economic development programs that will produce a viable, year-round, full-service economy for the EBCI, enhance opportunities for existing businesses, and build strong neighborhood communities.

Handmade in America at www.wnccrafts.org/ is a non-profit organization that promotes the craft of handmade objects as a means of sustainable economic development in depressed communities in Western North Carolina. Handmade in America's mission is to celebrate the hand and the handmade, to nurture the creation of traditional and contemporary craft, to revere and protect our resources, and to preserve and enrich the spiritual, cultural, and community life of our region.

Western North Carolina Nonprofit Pathways (www.nonprofitpathways.org) links local nonprofit leaders with learning opportunities, resources and support to help them become more effective in serving the community. It is offered through a collaboration involving Cherokee Preservation Foundation, the Community Foundation of Western North Carolina, Mission Healthcare Foundation, and United Way of Asheville and Buncombe County. These organizations came together out of concern about the increasing demands on nonprofits and a desire to play a role in building the capacity of community organizations so they can best carry out their missions.

Building Capacity in Non-profit Organizations defines capacity-building as the ability of non-profit organizations to fulfill their missions in an effective manner, and examine capacity-building as it relates to the overall quality of life in the communities non-profit organizations serve. It is available at http://www.urban.org/uploadedpdf/building_capacity.pdf.

The Center for Community Change (www.communitychange.org) is one of the nation's flagship non-profits working to build capacity and provide policy support in low-wealth communities.

The Laboratory for Community and Economic Development (LCED) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is using information technologies to expand the scope of community development practice. With the support of the Illinois Council on Food and Agricultural Research (C-FAR), a package of online community development tools to enhance local development efforts is presented on the LCED homepage at www.ag.uiuc.edu/~lced/toolbox/.

The National Network for Collaboration features a wealth of collaboration and changes resources on its Web site (http://crs.uvm.edu/nnco/), including links to Collaboration Handbook— Creating, Sustaining and Enjoying the Journey; Assessing Your Collaboration — A Self Evaluation Tool; Collaborative Framework – Addressing Community Capacity; and Self Help Resources for Community Groups.

The Pew Partnership for Civic Change at www.pew-partnership.org/index.html is a civic research organization whose mission is to identify and document promising solutions crucial to strong communities. The Pew Partnership has worked with communities to create new ways for citizens to tackle tough community issues -- at-risk youth, job creation, family health and neighborhood revitalization. These communities are demonstrating how to build trust between diverse sectors of the community to face immediate crises while engineering long-term solutions addressing the root of a problem. The site provides articles about programs and promising solutions and also highlights new publications and surveys.

How to establish and run study circles – small-group discussions that help communities address their most pressing issues – are the focus of a step-by-step guide on the Civic Practices Network Web site at www.cpn.org/tools/manuals/Community/studycircles1.html. The guide includes:

Rural Community Assistance Corporation (www.rcac.org/) is dedicated to improving the quality of life for rural communities and disadvantaged people through partnerships, technical assistance and access to resources. RCAC strives to help community-based organizations and rural governments increase their own capacity to implement solutions to their problems. The site provides information on financial assistance, housing programs, training and technical support, upcoming events, publications, and more.

The Southern Rural Development Initiative (www.srdi.org) is a bottom-up intermediary -- a regional collaborative working together to dramatically increase the flow of philanthropic and development capital to the South's rural communities.

Sustainable Measures (www.sustainablemeasures.com/), put together by Hart Environmental Data, provides information about indicators of sustainable community: ways to measure how well a community is meeting the needs and expectations of its present and future members. The substance of this site is a list of several tools and areas of basic information necessary to develop an indicator appropriate to a particular task and situation. Some examples are: a list with examples that compare better indicators to poorer ones; a list of sustainable community projects in operation; and a search facility that can be accessed to search the organization's database using key words. Some other very useful features offered are a one-day training course on sustainable community indicators that can be conducted online or by downloading the PDF files. The site also lists questions commonly asked about sustainable community indicators and follows these with helpful and concise answers.

TechSoup.org (www.techsoup.org) is a comprehensive source of technology information just for non-profit organizations. Help yourself to everything inside – tools and resources, a listing of donated and discounted products, and articles and news.

YOUR FIELD GUIDE TO COMMUNITY BUILDING

This 100-page guide helps rural community leaders build the capacity of local citizens to take collective action for community improvement and provides practical information about how to create strong relationships and get things done. The guide may be ordered at http://www.heartlandcenter.info./publications.htm.