APB agenda 082003 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Golden LEAF is the only foundation of substantial size operating from a rural base in North Carolina. This is significant, at least during these formative years, because Golden LEAF is in large part about rural people, about jobs for people who have lost jobs, about preserving a way of living and a way,:df' making a living. We are close to many of the people and com- munities that we serve, and where we are as we begin this Foundation's work makes a statement about who we are. Over the years these communities have had few philanthropic resources as they have struggled to adjust to changes in the economy and agricultural practices and the con- tinuing inequities that exist between urban and rural areas. Studies show that dollars and other assistance seldom have made their way to the countryside. Change is inevitable in the rural parts of our state, but we can manage that change so farms continue to be farms, so people have good - paying jobs close to their roots, so "development is a positive word, and so people remain parts of small communities that nurture them and instill succeeding generations with solid values unique to rural North Carolina —to rural America. The decline of the tobacco economy has taken its toll in the cities also --on workers in factories, in auction houses, and elsewhere in cities like Winston -Salem and Durham. Golden LEAF is addressing problems in those areas and across the state, but for the first time a major North Carolina foundation is going about its work with its feet firmly rooted in the rich soil of the State's farmland. That says something about Golden LEAF and its mission.