08/2010: Power of 32 – a regional initiative
In a global economy, the unit of competition now is more region than city or state.
Power of 32 is a regional visioning initiative that will involve tens of thousands of people across 32 counties in Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia in creating a shared vision for the region’s future.
Through Power of 32, we can think differently about our region’s challenges—our role in the global economy, our quality of life, and our opportunities—and act in ways that set a new direction for the future. See www.powerof32.org for more information.
The Power of 32 differs from any planning effort in significant ways
- It is the largest regional visioning project ever
- The 32-county region has common challenges and opportunities in the global economy, but is larger than the scope of any one single political entity, authority, or organization
- The project doesn’t have a pre-determined set of issues, all of the priorities will be determined by YOU, the residents of the region
- The process aims for the broadest possible public participation both from people within the region and from the many former residents around the globe
- The resulting To-Do list will require the cooperation of entities – quite possibly across government, business, and non-profit sectors – to address regional problems and opportunities
07/2010: Schools’ Innovation Zone Ideas Already Stir Excitement
Teachers at Cherry River Elementary School in Richwood won’t officially implement their Innovation Zone ideas until classes resume in August, but the county’s schools chief says an education revolution already has begun at the struggling school.
“You can just feel the change in the air,” said Bev Kingery, who worked as the reading coordinator with the state Department of Education before becoming superintendent of Nicholas County Schools.
“Cherry River at one time had some of the highest test scores in the county, and then a variety of factors intervened, and now the school has some of the lowest scores in the county. But the teachers still have that drive, that zeal to see students succeed.”
The Innovation Zone program, created last year by the Legislature, allows schools to gain the OK to ignore certain state laws, rules and regulations in favor of innovative strategies to boost learning or otherwise help students.
Nineteen projects across the state recently won approval for their ideas along with grant money from the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation to implement the projects.
“This is all about teacher empowerment,” said Donna Peduto, who oversees Innovation Zones as coordinator of the Office of Organizational Effectiveness and Leadership with the state Department of Education.
“Innovation Zones allow teachers to have a voice, and we’re so enthused at the degree of change teachers have come up with. We’ve seen a lot of truly amazing ideas.”
Kingery said the Innovation Zone at Cherry River will give students more time than the state requires to focus on reading, math and other basic skills. To allow for that, students will take a new approach to other subjects, such as science, social studies and health.
Instead of working from textbooks, they’ll dive into hands-on projects, she said. “Our teachers looked at content standards and objectives in those subjects and found the commonalities,” she said. “A unit on, say, the environment will allow students to learn what they need to know in an exciting way.”
Back in March, when the school used the new approach to complete a pilot project centered on the Vancouver Olympics, students and their families became involved as never before, Kingery said.
“In the last few years, there might be 15 or 30 parents at an event, but when Cherry River held its culmination for this project, there were more than 300,” she said. “They actually had a traffic jam at the school.”
Other Innovation Zone projects around the state tackle problems such as the dropout rate (raising the minimum dropout age to 18 instead of 17) and childhood obesity (creating a walking trail and planting gardens on site).
In Calhoun County, high school and tech school students will receive many of their lessons through video, online or via podcasting.
The initial round of Innovation Zone projects will affect more than 14,000 students in 16 counties around the state, and Peduto said she expects the good ideas to spread.
“We see these schools as the models for what can be done,” she said.
04/2010: Benedum Foundation Announces New Program Staff
PITTSBURGH (April 6, 2010) – Kimberly Barber Tieman has been named Program Officer of the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation. She will join the Foundation on June 1, 2010, and will oversee the Foundation’s grants programs in health, human services, and early childhood.
Ms. Tieman currently is the Executive Director of The West Virginia Commission for National and Community Service, also known as Volunteer West Virginia. Her prior experience includes serving as: Senior Program Officer of The Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation; Program Director of the Community Council of Kanawha Valley, which administered Family Resource Centers in four central West Virginia counties; Executive Director of a regional Family Resource Center; West Virginia Director of Quality Assurance for 19 Intermediate Care Facilities for adults with mental retardation and developmental disabilities; and, Habitation Director for VOCA of North Carolina. She also has worked as a child/adolescent therapist, as the residential supervisor of a group home for adults with disabilities, as a counselor at a women’s health center, and as a social worker providing foster care, adoption services, and child protective services for both the West Virginia Department of Human Services and the Wood County Child Care Center. In addition, for the past 14 years, Ms. Tieman has been an adjunct faculty member in the West Virginia University School of Social Work, teaching courses to candidates for a Masters in Social Work.
Ms. Tieman earned her BSW from Glenville State College and her MSW from West Virginia University. She is a member of the Academy of Certified Social Workers and is a West Virginia Certified Social Worker. She and her husband, Greg, who is a Senior Consultant with the Acacia Environmental Group, LLC, live in Charleston.
02/2010: Future chefs train locally
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Santanah Gardner, 16, plans one day to open her own seafood restaurant in Florida. Jeffrey Kersey, 17, aspires to be TV's next Top Chef.
The two high school juniors are working toward their dreams in the ProStart program at Riverside High School.
Gardner, Kersey and 15 other students are learning how to control portions, how to follow a recipe, how to measure and how to perform many other tasks involved in the culinary arts.
"I love to cook, and this class has given me a lot of confidence," Kersey said.
Donna Wilkes, ProStart coordinator for the West Virginia Office of Hospitality and Education, said the national program offers 56 ProStart 1 and ProStart 2 programs for juniors and seniors across the state.
"Almost any student in any county has access to ProStart," Wilkes said.
Up to 1,400 students across West Virginia are involved in ProStart. In Kanawha County, students can take part in the free program at St. Albans and Riverside High Schools.
Even more students are pursuing culinary training at the post-secondary level, and institutions around the state are responding. There are now programs in most of the state's cities, including Charleston, Fairmont, Beckley, Huntington and Wheeling. Almost all are experiencing rapid growth.
Wilkes said the two-year ProStart program provides a sound foundation in culinary and restaurant management in the classroom and kitchen. Students also are required to work 450 hours in the food service industry.
The ProStart certificate of achievement is nationally recognized so credits can be transferred to a post-secondary program. That is ideal for Gardner, who plans to attend the Culinary Arts School at The Art Institute of Pittsburgh after receiving a degree in business management from West Virginia University.
Ashley Stricker, who teaches ProStart at St. Albans High School, has seen the number of students rise.
"This year we had a big growth," Stricker said. "Sixteen students is a lot for our little classroom. I think a lot of reason for the growth is that West Virginia is full of hospitality and tourism jobs; it is a stable field here. Plus the boom of the Food Network."
02/2010: Grant Promotes Healthy Mouths
MORGANTOWN -- West Virginia University received $250,000 to improve the state's poor record in oral health.
The state leads the nation in tooth loss, according to officials from the School of Dentistry officials.
"Edentialists don't have any teeth. West Virginia is the highest state in terms of edentialism," said the school's interim dean Louise Veselicky. "We absolutely have to change that."
So they're starting young. The Benedum Foundation grant will help fund a new "Lesson in the Lunchbox" program in some West Virginia schools.
Dentists and students from the university will visit some West Virginia schools in low-income areas. They'll educate the children on the proper way to take care of their teeth, with regular brushing, flossing, and a diet low in carbonated drinks and refined sugar.
The lunchboxes themselves have a reflective mirror for students to get a look at their teeth after lunch. Inside, a carrot container holds a toothbrush and floss. The cap can be used for fluoride rinse.
That program is in addition to another young program called CHOMP. It brings students from Mylan Park Elementary in Monongalia County to the dental clinic, and it's already shown success after just a few months.
"Most of these kids have never seen a dentist," Veselicky said. The care even affects their behavior in class.
"One teacher noticed a total change in a student, and now she behaves," Veselicky said. "Instead of being a student who's struggling, a student who's excelling in school, getting a long with peers and so we're really excited about that."
The program will expand in the coming year. Schools in neighboring Harrison and Preston County have expressed interest in participating. Veselicky said they want to see students in the dental clinic every day.
"That would be our ideal situation," she said.
Another aspect of the school's outreach through the grant is trying to increase the number of dentists in under-served areas of the state, specifically McDowell and Pocahontas Counties.
Veselicky said in the next decade, she wants to see West Virginia lead the nation in ways to improve health.
"The best way to do that is to change the perception of oral health," she said. "Have people realize that their mouths are a part of their body and a healthy mouth can help maintain a healthy body."
"It's time to stop this chain."
2/2010: HADCO to pave way for new biotech jobs
Huntington, West Virginia-based Huntington Area Development Council (HADCO) continues to take initiatives to support creation of new biotech jobs.
HADCO, which was created in 1992 as a public/private partnership, is working with Marshall University in getting contacts to help occupy three new labs that will be included in a biotech incubator, housed in Marshall's new Forensic Science Center Addition.
The mission of the Council is to attract new employers to Cabell and Wayne Counties, West Virginia, to retain existing employers, and to help all employers expand their businesses.
In the past, in an effort to promote the bio-tech assets at Marshall University, HADCO had created the Biotech Alliance, offering assistance with business planning and investor involvement to help launch commercialisation projects. According to the Council, key to commercialisation efforts is the ability to capture and keep the spin-off companies in the area.
HADCO obtained $1 million in federal funds to develop a biotech lab and has partnered with Marshall University's Forensic Science Center on the development of a building that was to serve in part as the location for HADCO's Biotechnology Incubator. Construction on this facility was completed in August last year.
The Marshall University Forensic Science Center Addition is a three-story, 15,000-square foot, $4.2 million project which houses HADCO's Biotech Incubator labs, classrooms, and a digital evidence laboratory. HADCO provided nearly $1 million in support of this new facility. HADCO also received a $150,000 grant from Verizon Verizon West Virginia and a $100,000 Benedum Foundation grant to support this technology project.
The incubator labs house new biotech spin-offs generated from Marshall.
HADCO's new president, Marc A. Sprouse, is the former president/CEO of Guaranty Bank. Sprouse is only the second president in HADCO's 17-year history, replacing Jerry McDonald who resigned in 2009, but Sprouse has been involved with HADCO from the start.
This year, HADCO also has a new chairman of the board, Dick Bolen, a partner with Huddleston Bolen, LLP. He's returning to the position after being HADCO's first board chairman in 1992.
Heating assistance is available
MARTINSBURG - Kathryn Bradley knows that a long, cold snowy winter can be tough in more ways than meets the eye.
That's because Bradley, who is employed as the state Department of Health and Human Resources community services manager, has seen from professional experience what this type of winter can mean to area residents' heating bills.
Whether people use electricity or heat with oil or propane, the cold temperatures also can have a chilling impact on budgets and make it hard for them to afford, Bradley said.
Fortunately, a couple of options exist for helping residents pay heating bills, including the West Virginia Low Income Energy Assistance Program and the nonprofit Dollar Energy Fund, she said.
Applicants must meet certain income criteria to be eligible to qualify for both programs. LIEAP, which is a federally funded program, provides regular assistance as well as emergency help, Bradley said.
Although it's too late to apply for the regular assistance, emergency LIEAP funding began to be distributed on Jan. 19 and is still available. It will continue through March or as long as the funding lasts, she said.
Qualified applicants can receive up to $400 under emergency LIEAP funding, Bradley said.
Applications may be obtained at the DHHR office or at the agency's Web site at www.wvinroads.org. The Martinsburg office is located at 433 Mid Atlantic Parkway.