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1/7/2012 - Health Care Meetings to Begin
By C.V. Moore, Register-Herald Reporter
On Tuesday in Pineville, West Virginians for Affordable Health Care (WVAHC) kicks off a series of meetings to explain to the citizenry the ins and outs of 2010’s federal health care legislation.
Gibbs Kinderman will speak on behalf of WVAHC at the meeting, with presentations in Beckley, Oak Hill, and Summers County to follow.
Kinderman says the goal of the session is to give people basic, factual information about what the act will mean for them.
“It’s very complex. It’s 2,000 pages long,” he says. “There’s a lot of confusion about what it really says, and a lot of sensationalistic statements about it.”
Rather than debate the merits of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Kinderman will simply explain how it works.
“It’s not a matter of selling it,” he says. “It’s a matter of letting people know what it really says.”
While some provisions went into effect last year, in 2014 other major components of the act that affect children, 18-to-24-year-olds, and low-income individuals will be implemented.
Kinderman says that currently two groups concern him the most.
“First are people 50 years and up who lost their jobs, because in 90 percent of cases they won’t get another one, and very few are eligible for any kind of coverage because they don’t have children,” he says.
“The other group is young families who don’t have good health insurance through work, or none at all. Those young families are going to be able to get coverage starting in 2014.”
Kinderman, a resident of Pocahontas County, became interested in health care 44 years ago when he helped create a neighborhood health center in Raleigh County, designed as a precursor to national health insurance.
“As a young guy, 24 years old, I was really concerned about people’s access to health care,” he says. “That program brought health care to a lot of people.”
While grants lasted, the Mountaineer Family Health Plan was free to those who qualified based on income. Even at its maximum price, the program cost only $60 per month for a family of four.
Kinderman says he has watched as multiple generations of politicians struggled to provide affordable health care to the American people, before the 2010 act finally sealed the deal.
“It’s kind of cool to be as old as I am and this thing I’ve thought was important my whole adult life became reality, and I get to help explain it to people,” he says. “It’s been a real treat.”
WVACH was formed in 2006 by people across the state who were interested in getting better access to health care, says Kinderman. When the Affordable Care Act passed, the group received a grant from the Claude Benedum Foundation to offer informational sessions to citizens.
The first session is Tuesday at noon in Pineville, at the Department of Health and Human Resources building, hosted by the Family Resource Network. Call Kathy Brunty at 304-923-4280 for more information.
Then Jan. 19, Kinderman visits the Raleigh County Family Resource Network at 11 a.m. for another public forum in Beckley. The event is at the Raleigh County Commission on Aging, 1614 S. Kanawha St.
The Fayette County Family Resource Network will host a meeting Jan. 26 at 1400 Virginia St. in Oak Hill. A forum in Summers County will take place in February.
7/31/2011 - Power of 32: Counties look across state borders for economic boost
By Ann Belser, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
CUMBERLAND, Md. -- The screaming at the top of Wisp Mountain is the result of economic development in Garrett County, Md. It's coming from rafters -- people who pay $50 a seat to ride 1,700 feet of rapids. They ride the rapids of a man-made river, then take a conveyor belt back to the top of the white-water course to do it again.
Garrett County is not relying on Garrett County for its economic well-being. Instead, realizing that people ignore the artificial boundaries laid down between states and counties, five counties that just happen to sit inside different states -- Maryland, Pennsylvania and West Virginia -- are working together for economic development. More
7/29/2011 - Scheduling births before full term can be risky
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Expectant mothers had various reasons for wanting to deliver their babies early.
They may have wanted their children born on a grandmother's birthday, or they may have become intolerant of the side effects of late pregnancy. And most thought it was safe to have a baby from 36 to 38 weeks gestation.
"It just had become so accepted," Nancy Tolliver said of the practice of inducing labor before 39 weeks.
And it wasn't always done at the convenience of the mother, said Tolliver, director of the West Virginia Perinatal Partnership.
She outlined this scenario. A pregnant woman has pains and thinks she is going into labor. She is taken to the hospital, a two-hour drive away. But she isn't; labor is still several hours off. Although it's best not to admit her, the doctor is afraid to send her home. She is admitted, but there's a time limit on how long she can stay. So her doctor decides to induce labor. More
7/21/2011 - Arts-in-Education Awards announced
By MICHAEL ERB, Parkersburg News and Sentinel
The Arts-in-Education Awards, ranging from $2,700 to $5,000 each, will be used to support art-focused school projects at schools throughout the region. Our Community's Foundation includes the Parkersburg Area Community Foundation and regional affiliates of Doddridge, Jackson, Little Kanawha area, Mason and Ritchie counties.
The grants were made available through a partnership with the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation of Pittsburgh which provided similar support to The Community Foundation for the Ohio Valley and the Eastern West Virginia Community Foundation. The grants are to support projects that integrate the arts with core education disciplines and to stimulate partnerships between local schools and community artisans and arts organizations.
Among the grants received was $2,700 for Wood County Schools for "Two Famous Fuses," a countywide grant to commission development and presentation of an original ballet based on four science personalities - Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs- in partnership with a local ballet studio.
Parkersburg South High School received $5,000 for "Instruments of Appalachia." Students in the school's manufacturing arts-technical education programs will work with a retired educator and local instrument makers to learn about Appalachian instruments, including historic research and actually constructing musical instruments.
McKinley Elementary School will receive $5,000 for "Drawing Conclusions," an art and weather program. Blennerhassett Middle School will receive $4,500 for "Everlasting Art," a project combining watercolor painting and science activities.
Among the other projects and grant amounts approved were:
New Haven Elementary- $4,800 for "Budding Artists."
Spencer Primary School - $4,000 for "Exploring the World."
Ripley Middle School - $5,000 for "Phases of the Moon."
Wirt County High School - $4,000 for an "Outdoor Classroom."
Ripley High School - $5,000 for "Educational Elements."
Ripley Elementary School - $5,000 for "Embracing Arts."
Doddridge High School - $5,000 for "Music Technology."
Wirt County Primary Center - $5,000 for an "Art and Learning Garden."
Some programs are receiving additional project dollars from other sources.
"We are really excited about the opportunities this special initiative allows Our Community's Foundation to offer to our region's schools.," said foundation Executive Director Judy Sjostedt. "We know the students will really enjoy participating in these projects and improve their knowledge in the process."
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 involves 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
6/28/2011 - School of public health moving ahead with plans
The West Virginia University Health Sciences program has created five separate academic departments to put the pre-accreditation process in motion of the new School of Public Health.
This process is being led by Alan Ducatman, chairperson and professor of community medicine, has appointed four committees to aid in the planning.
These committees are comprised of about 50 faculty representatives from all the Health Sciences schools and from the other divisions at the University.
The leaders of the committees include: Kimberly Horn, Marybeth Mandich, Department of Physical Therapy, co-chair, for education, Terry Jones, chair; Kim Innes, co-chair, for infrastructure, Matthew Gurka, chair; Suresh Madhavan, School of Pharmacy; Jeff Coben, Injury Control Research Center, co-chair for research; Chris Martin, M.D., chair; and Michael McCawley, Ph.D., co-chair, for service.
"This process has brought the people who were eager and excited to start the planning together," said Suresh Madhaven, co-chair of the research planning committee.
WVU has also recently obtained a $185,000 grant from the Benedum Foundation to assist further planning.
The money from the grant was used earlier this month for a planning event retreat for the planning committees and other University leaders. It was also used to cultivate relationships with other agencies and other successful public health schools.
Currently, there is an accredited master's degree program with approximately 100 students enrolled, as well as 19 doctoral students.
"We've put ourselves on a short timetable," Ducatman said. "We are moving quickly, faster than most schools".
Ducatman said that in spring 2012 the committees plan to submit a formal request for accreditation, which once accepted, will be another two-year process to carry out. Their goal is to receive accreditation from the Council on Education for Public Health for undergraduate and graduate programs.
Five interim department chairs have also been named – Biostatistics: Matthew Gurka; Environmental Health: Michael McCawley; Epidemiology: Anoop Shankar; Health Services Administration and Policy: Michael Hendryx; and Social and Behavioral Health: Keith Zullig.
Ducatman said he was anxious to begin the next chapter in WVU history as soon as possible.
"It is a thrill to be starting a new school, especially one that is really important to the university", Ducatman said.
5/24/2011: Looking For Partners In Warmth
WCHS Radio
The Dollar Energy Fund is looking for Partners in Warmth.The West Virginia Utility Assistance Program has a two-year grant from the Benedum Foundation to promote the new initiative.
Assistance Program Director Danielle Snidow says the program will partner with businesses, churches, schools and civic groups across West Virginia. "They will agree to do some type of in-house fundraiser for us to help the West Virginia families in need or they could do a direct contribution," Snidow said. Top fundraisers in several different categories will be recognized during the Warmathon broadcast on Nov. 17.
Snidow says each dollar raised will be fully matched by the seven major utilities in West Virginia that take in the Dollar Energy Fund.
Snidow says the fund has assisted more than 10,000 state residents with utility assistance totaling $3.5 million since the program went into place in 2008. She says the Partners in Warmth program can help even more.
"This is really to take it to the next level, outreach statewide, to really help our West Virginia families in need who need a hand up during trying times," Snidow said. The assistance program has seen an increase this year in those seeking help. Snidow says the need was up for 40 percent in March and she expects the numbers to grow. Those eligible for utility assistance must meet several requirements including having a utility shut off notice or already having the service disconnected.
More information on the Partners in Warmth Network is available at dqualls@dollarenergy.org or by calling 304-552-0515.
West Virginia Radio Corp. is a Partner in Warmth.
4/26/2011: Local foods movement gaining in popularity
By Julia Sendor, For the Register-Herald
BECKLEY - Fresh, homegrown food nourishing healthy families and healthy communities: That’s at the heart of a rapidly growing movement to support more locally produced foods.
In southern West Virginia and across the state, real results are taking root. A series of regional roundtables as well as a workshop held by the Appalachian Regional Commission have taken important steps by gathering a wide range of players in West Virginia’s food system: from farmers to chefs, concerned consumers, educators, parents, food pantry volunteers, farmers market managers, government officials, and other community members.
The first half of the regional roundtables, held earlier this month in Wheeling, Hico, and Parkersburg, drew over 100 participants.
“The roundtable was like a big shot of natural compost, where we all got together and looked at each other, and said, ‘All of us are into this?’” described Joy Marr, who runs Gourmet on the Gorge catering and event planning near Fayetteville and attended the roundtable in Hico. Marr’s business emphasizes local products, both farmed and gathered from the wild.
The roundtables prompted an outpouring of innovative and concrete ideas to support local farmers and get more fresh, local products to the plates of all West Virginians. Roundtable participants proposed projects ranging from kids getting their hands dirty in school gardening programs, to affordable local produce cooperatives organized through community colleges, to health care cooperatives for self-employed farmers.
The roundtables are laying the groundwork for long-term plans for a stronger farm economy and more affordable local produce, thanks to a partnership of the W.Va. Food and Farm Coalition, WVU Extension Service, the W.Va. Department of Education, Rural Support Partners, the W.Va. Community Development Hub, and other statewide and local partners.
Key players including the West Virginia Department of Agriculture and WVU’s Small Farm Center have supported development, and funding from the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation made the series possible.
The final three roundtables, during the first week of May, will invite community members and groups from the Berkeley Springs, Philippi, and Charleston areas. Visit http:// www.wvhub.org/wvffc/west-virginia-food-charter for a full schedule of roundtables.
“All over the state, farmers, business owners and community leaders are coming up with great ideas for how to build our food economy and improve access to healthy food. They are also identifying some challenges,” said Savanna Lyons, program manager of the West Virginia Food & Farm Coalition, which is providing logistical legwork for the roundtables.
“The roundtables are an opportunity to get all of those thoughts into the same place so that we can problem-solve together, and then figure out what our statewide action items need to be.”
The roundtable meetings mark the first phase of a four-part process to create a West Virginia Food Charter. A food charter lays out a vision for how a local food system can work, including how specific local and statewide policies can strengthen that food system. The West Virginia Food Charter, modeled loosely off of Michigan’s, will use widespread public input, much of it from the roundtable discussions, to set goals for West Virginia’s food system.
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On a broader scope, the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) is exploring local foods and sustainable agriculture as a possibility for serious investment in “Appalachia’s untapped resources for economic development.”
“The member states of the Appalachian Regional Commission are funding more and more food-related job creation projects to take advantage of Appalachia’s resources,” said Louis Segesvary, public affairs officer for the ARC.
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For information on the roundtables and the West Virginia Food Charter, visit www.wvhub.org/wvffc/west-virginia-food-charter
For information about the local foods work through the West Virginia Food and Farm Coalition, visit http://www.wvhub.org/foodandfarmcoalition
3/10/11: Can Arts Education Be a Savior to the Economy?
West Virginia State Journal
Special Column by Jim Denova, of the Benedum Foundation and Gregg Behr, of The Grable Foundation.
In 2005, the National Academy of Science, National Academy of Engineering and the Institute of Medicine issued a report, “Rising Above the Gathering Storm.” This report was a wake-up call to America’s loss of a competitive edge in technology and economic growth. A set of recommendations called for new investments in research and technology, and it challenged the educational system to increase the number of scientists and engineers in our work force. This spurred the educational system to accelerate efforts to recruit and prepare students in courses of studies and careers in what came to be known as STEM, which stands for Science Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Across the country and in West Virginia, we saw the birth of STEM summer camps, STEM outreach programs and STEM Academies.
The traditional STEM disciplines, however, do not sufficiently address another important ingredient in national and international competitiveness: creativity. A recent Newsweek cover story cited an IBM poll of 1,500 CEOs who identified creativity as the primary competency necessary in our work force to lead our nation to a prosperous future. So, creative talent, too, must be nurtured in our future hires.
How, then, do we cultivate creativity as something to be taught in our educational system? It is almost trite to say that the arts inspire creativity, but arts education is often relegated to the margins of formal education as something leisurely, non-academic or unrelated to employment or the economy.
Luckily, some educators see the intersection of the arts and traditional academic disciplines, and launched a new movement called STEAM, which stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics. It is the next generation of STEM, and it elevates creativity to the pivotal role that glues the other disciplines together.
In education, STEAM is evident in some of the most advanced educational technology. Robots, for example, have long been a tool used to teach the STEM skills. By building, programming and activating robots, students must master physics, math and technology. Traditionally, educational robots resembled martial machines that compete in tournaments. With the advent of STEAM, educational robots have introduced design, and battling machines are being replaced by animatronic robots that represent animals, plants and fantasy characters, which are increasingly more appealing to young female students and students for whom art is the dominant form of expression. Another example of STEAM is game design. Many schools in West Virginia have adopted Globaloria, a game design curriculum that calls for students to work in teams and to apply programming, graphic design and music to solve a problem in a particular subject area. By using game design, the students are encouraged to fail (i.e., practice and try new things) repeatedly until they learn what works best. Globaloria has been integrated into biology, math, science and language arts classes, and it has been adapted as an elective course in several technical schools.
Educational tools like Globaloria and the broader integration of arts across the educational spectrum are key to West Virginia’s educational aspirations. West Virginia took a significant step forward when it became the second state in the union to join the Partnership for 21st Century Learning. As a result of this affiliation, the West Virginia Department of Education adopted a new and challenging set of standards, now named Global 21. These standards require students demonstrate not only content knowledge but also skills related to critical thinking, creativity, group problem solving and communication. And all of those are skills that are honed through the arts. In the arts-rich city of Pittsburgh, an ever-growing group has similarly recognized the importance of imparting such skills to young people, so they have come together for the principal purpose of fostering creative play and learning among children and youth. Known as “Kids+Creativity,” the group’s ranks include not only artists but also teachers, multimedia professionals, gamers, technologists and social workers. They meet in person and online; and during the past two years, Kids+Creativity has grown to become an engaged network of more than 200 people including executives of such museums as the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh and the ToonSeum, the CEOs of such companies as roBlocks and Kiddix, and even representatives from the West Virginia Department of Education and several West Virginia arts organizations. Importantly, they have forged new partnerships and enhanced existing STEM and arts initiatives as well as launched new STEAM projects.
One such project involves Carnegie Mellon University and Marshall University. A team of CMU computer science and design experts developed an educational tool called GigaPan, a panoramic robotic camera that allows students to create expansive and extremely detailed vistas of their environments. Student-generated photos and commentaries are then shared with classrooms around the world via the Internet. Through the CMU-Marshall partnership, Kellogg Elementary School in Wayne County is using GigaPan to join classrooms in Trinidad/Tobago, South Africa and India in a truly global international studies and foreign language program.
Another partnership also involving Carnegie Mellon University has attracted 75 school districts and approximately 50 organizations in western Pennsylvania (including libraries, museums and early learning centers) in helping children to capture stories about their hopes, dreams and ideas and then use all sorts of devices from Internet portals to story boxes and even talking teddy bears to advertise their stories in public places. Apart from teaching narrative and self-worth, it’s a project aimed at confronting the public with the creativity of local kids.
And it’s that very creativity that we must cultivate and develop. Children are naturally creative. They are inquisitive, they like to explore, they like to build things, and self-directed creativity is the natural way they learn. They make pretend phones out of juice boxes, and they design pretend computers using felt pieces and old cell phones. Educators must exploit kids’ innate creativity and uncover those things that attract children — whether it’s dance or video games, drumming or battling robots — and connect the neurons in their right and left brains in ways that prompt remarkable learning and subsequent thinking.
It happens when, for instance, chemistry and arts teachers come together to teach their students about the compounds of glass while their students make new pieces of art glass. It happens when librarians and technologists jointly mentor youth in a space full of both books and Apple’s latest gadgets. And it happens when parents ask their children to make a home film about their science projects.
Simply put, creativity is something that can be taught — in schools, at libraries and even in our own homes. More importantly, creativity is something that must be nurtured in all children. It’s not an exaggeration to say that our very future depends upon it. It’s what will keep that “Gathering Storm” away.
Jim Denova is vice president with the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation. His primary responsibility is for program development and grantmaking in the areas of education and economic development. Gregg Behr is executive director of The Grable Foundation, a foundation dedicated to improving the lives of children.
2/17/2011: WVU College of Law Entrepreneurship Law Clinic receives support from Benedum Foundation
MORGANTOWN — The Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation - long-time supporters of West Virginia University’s Entrepreneurship Law Clinic - has awarded the clinic a $127,000 grant for its services.
"It’s all about service, and that service is instrumental in what lawyers will be doing in the future or wherever they lead," said Patricia Hureston Lee, director of the Entrepreneurship Law Clinic, on the role the clinic plays in providing start-up companies, small businesses, non-profits and individuals legal services.
"We get to see entrepreneurs begin to create their dreams and create jobs for their communities and to me that’s exciting, that’s a success."
The funds are intended to continue the clinic’s legal assistance to entrepreneurial business, assist in opportunities for placement of law students in business development and economic development organizations and the training of law students to serve entrepreneurs and organizations that could not otherwise afford legal assistance.
The Entrepreneurship Law Clinic gives third-year law students, under the supervision of faculty, the opportunity to gain invaluable experience by supporting clients in areas of counseling for a product plan or business organization; licensing; employee and contractor agreements; intellectual property; financing and venture capital; planning and negotiation; dispute resolution; and generalized assistance in business formation, planning and strategy.
The WVU College of Law’s Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Law Program was recently recognized as a Global Entrepreneurship Week/USA 2010 Distinguished Partner by the Kaufman Foundation, the world’s largest foundation devoted to entrepreneurship. The program was recognized for its contributions in shaping the next generation of entrepreneurs.
The WVU College of Law’s Entrepreneurship Law Clinic is one of a variety of legal services provided by the college’s Clinical Law Program including: the Child and Family Law Clinic with its Medical Legal Partnership in cooperation with the WVU Children’s Hospital, International Human Rights and Immigration Clinic, Tax Clinic and the national Innocence Project that brings together the College of Law and WVU’s forensics program to help exonerate prisoners who were wrongly convicted in West Virginia.
To inquire about engaging the services of the Entrepreneurship Law and Innovation Program, please download the ELC Intake form located at http://elc.wvu.edu or call 304-293-0955.
1/25/2011: WV e-Directive Registry
West Virginia is poised to become the first in the country to implement a statewide electronic registry for advance directives including medical powers of attorney, living wills and do not resuscitate orders.
Click on the link below for the audio and article:
http://www.wvpubcast.org/newsarticle.aspx?id=18568
1/2011: Oral Care Promoted
January 12, 2011
PARKERSBURG — Wood County commissioners agreed to provide a letter of support for proposed oral health care projects the Mid-Ohio Valley Health Department is working to develop.
Mary Beth Shea, a registered dental hygienist who serves as the oral health coordinator for the Mid-Ohio Valley Health Department, along with MOVHD director Dick Wittberg met with the commissioners Monday to outline plans for upcoming dental care projects in the area.
"We are working on an adult oral health care program. We have been meeting with the dentists because we wanted to know what they wanted to do. The model we are developing is based on that input. What we hope to do is have the client present themselves at the health department, they will be screened, X-rayed, educated and placed with dentists in the community who are volunteering their time for their treatment. What we propose to do is pay the dentists a stipend for their overhead. We went to the Benedum Foundation to try and help fund some positions, like a coordinator and part-time office staff that will be needed for the program. We will bill the clients on a sliding scale, it won’t be free, although to some clients it will be free if they qualify," Shea said.
"It will virtually be free to many of them. They will only pay a small fee," Wittberg added.
"We hope, over time, the program will be self-sustainable with the generation of fees, but for the startup, we have received funding from Benedum. We also received a brand new digital X-ray system from Community Resources Inc. They will continue to partner with us," she said. "We don’t’ have room at the health department to have a clinic, so it will be strictly a screening facility."
"We have gone to the Legislature to help support additional funding for a 2-year pilot project in Wood County. The health department is regional, covering six counties. We feel this model could be duplicated elsewhere in the state where there are unmet needs. We also met with the new secretary of health and human resources. They seem interested in this model and in duplicating this model in other parts of the state," Shea said.
The health department officials said letters of support from community leaders are being solicited.
"We all support the program, and think this is wonderful. We can have the letter out by Thursday," commission President Blair Couch said.
"We hope to see up to 1,000 patients a year through this program. At the Mission of Mercy, during the two-day clinic we put on we saw 1,300 patients. This would be close to that type of service," Shea said.
Wittberg noted the Mission of Mercy clinic was held in the summer about 1 1/2 years ago.
"It was a huge event. There were people waiting in the rain, the line stretched all the way through the parking lot, the need was amazing," Wittberg said.
1/2011: Plan for Area Growth
BOY SCOUT RESERVE
By Taylor Kuykendall, Register-Herald Reporter
GLEN JEAN — A charitable foundation recently awarded the New River Gorge Regional Development Authority $90,000 to help plan for growth expected to come with the new Boy Scout reserve at Glen Jean.
The Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation awarded the grant to assist local officials in drafting a strategic plan in four “platform areas” or core components — community development, economic development, tourism/promotion and transportation/infrastructure/public safety. The reserve, a 10,600 acre site that will host the National Boy Scout Jamboree in 2013, is expected to bring long-term economic benefit to the area.
Judy Radford, executive director of the development authority, said the plan will get officials on track for what is predicted to become a major economic development for not only surrounding counties, but the entire state.
The authority focuses on Fayette, Nicholas, Raleigh and Summers counties. Among the things that will be necessary before the Jamboree, Radford said, is community cleanup, one of the many projects the Benedum donation will support.
“We’ll be looking at the four counties of the New River Gorge region to try to do some of the cleanup — the polishing — for these visitors that are coming in and different things like that,” Radford said. “The money from Benedum is to figure out what we need to do and then plan to make it happen.”
The Benedum Foundation encourages “human development” projects in West Virginia and Southwestern Pennsylvania.
Mary Hunt-Lieving, senior program officer for Benedum, said the award was granted based on the projects ability to transform the region.
“The Boy Scout Jamboree presents an ideal opportunity to develop informed strategies that can positively impact this region in the future,” she said.
The Boy Scouts reserve, dubbed a “game-changer” for the local economy by one official, is expected to host about 100,000 Boy Scouts annually once it fully opens in 2015. About 300,000 alone are expected for the Jamboree in 2013.
“Game-changer is a good way to put it, because of what this project will do over time,” Radford said. “In the beginning we will see new visitors coming in, bringing in new dollars to the community. The Scouts are like Marines, once a Scout always a Scout — they are businessmen, people who start their own companies. Eventually we expect to see opportunities to come back to the state. Not just the region, but the entire state.”
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.