By Tim Gardner
Dogwood Health Trust’s mission is to dramatically improve the health and well-being of all people and communities in the 18 counties and Qualla Boundary of Western North Carolina. In total, Dogwood made more than $81 million in total community investments last year, according to its recently released annual report.
That included a total of $1,477,451.00 for Avery County.
The $1.4 million given to Avery County includes grants to its based nonprofits as well as other organizations that serve the county, but are based elsewhere.
Dogwood Health Trust provided grants totaling $726,760.00 to four organizations based in Avery County. Those organizations and the total grant amounts received were:
*The Crossnore School & Childrens Home – $468,600.00
*YMCA of Avery County – $160,000.00
*Feeding Avery Families – $10,000.00
*OASIS – $88,160.00
There are additional organizations outside of Avery County, but operate across several counties and can use a percentage of the funds to support work in Avery County.
Headquartered in Asheville, Dogwood Health Trust invested $73 million in traditional grant awards, nearly $800,000 in grant-writing and capacity building support, and $5.4 million in impact investments, in 2022. Dogwood Health Trust also adopted a new grantmaking approach that consists of two grant cycles for its four strategic priority areas — housing, education, economic opportunity, and health and wellness — and rolling applications for other opportunities. The new process helps clarify timelines so partners can better plan and prepare applications, according to a news release from the organization.
“Dogwood’s third full year of operation in 2022 saw considerable progress across the region, thanks to the work of hundreds of partners,” said Dr. Susan Mims, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Dogwood Health Trust. “Our investments are built upon the trusting relationships we’ve cultivated with our partners to support their community-focused and community-led work. They continue to go beyond ‘business as usual’ to create innovative and collaborative solutions to many of the challenges our region faces in terms of housing, education, economic opportunity and health and wellness.”
In addition to providing funding, Dogwood released five commissioned reports in 2022 and hosted webinars with research experts to share the contents with the community, which initiated additional conversations within groups across the region. The reports included: A landscape analysis of K-12 education; An examination of the North Carolina TEACH early childhood scholarship program; The current early care and education landscape in Western North Carolina; Western North Carolina capital landscape assessment; and Opportunities for AgriFood tech in Western North Carolina.
Additionally, the North Carolina Rural Center (NCRC) has received $1 million from the Dogwood Health Trust to expand its Collaborative Broadband Initiative to 18 counties in Western North Carolina, including Avery.
The other counties it also covers includes: Buncombe, Burke, Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Haywood, Henderson, Jackson, Macon, Madison, McDowell, Mitchell, Polk, Rutherford, Swain, Transylvania, and Yancey.
Bill Holmes, Senior Director of Communications for the NC Rural Center said of the Collaborative Broadband Initiative: “We’re really honored that the Dogwood Health Trust has given us this opportunity to support the work that so many others are doing, including local governments, councils of governments, nonprofits, and businesses. We’re hoping to help them continue the improvements they’ve been making to improve broadband service in Western North Carolina.”
Avery County officials have prioritized obtaining Broadband Internet service for all the county’s residents and businesses and have used county funds and grant money to achieve that goal.
Avery’s Board of Commissioners has committed $3,000,000.00 of the American Rescue Act funds to implement the Connectivity Access Broadband (CAB) Internet program in the county. The CAB Program is a competitive bidding program that provides an opportunity for individual North Carolina County governments to partner with the North Carolina Department of Internet Technology (NCDIT) to fund broadband infrastructure projects in unserved and underserved areas of each county.
Avery County is also a beneficiary of a grant that Spectrum was awarded that will bring gigabit high-speed internet access to more than 230 homes and small businesses in Avery County. It’s funded by the North Carolina Growing Rural Economies with Access to Technology (GREAT) Program and is approximately $2.25 million in value. Combined with funding from the County of $250,000, that was used from the Federal American Rescue Plan (Coronavirus Pandemic Recovery) money it received, the total project investment is nearly $2.65 million ($2,646,740.00 precisely).
Spectrum is part of Charter Communications, Inc., an American telecommunications and mass media company. Its services are branded as Spectrum. Its Fiber-Optic buildout will connect Gigabit Broadband in the county with starting speeds of 300 Megabits per second (Mbps).
The GREAT grant is one of nine already awarded to Spectrum to expand fiber-optic broadband infrastructure to areas of the state that currently lack access to high-speed connection. Spectrum is North Carolina’s largest broadband provider, serving 2.8 million customers and employing nearly 11,000 residents in the state.
“All our citizens and businesses, other county officials and myself are deeply appreciative of the grants and funds Avery has received from Dogwood Trust for various needs, including Broadband Internet, as well as those from the NC Rural Center, Spectum, and other entities that are helping get Broadband service throughout our county. In fact, we could never thank them enough,” said Martha Hicks, Chairwoman of the Avery County Board of Commissioners.
Patrick Woodie, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Rural Center, stated: “The timing of this grant could not come at a more important time in North Carolina. Properly advising and engaging our rural communities and broadband service providers will help assure no one is behind in a globally connected economy.”
“Broadband access has an impact in every one of Dogwood Health Trust’s strategic priority areas – housing, education, economic opportunity and health and wellness,” Mims also noted. “The issue of access, especially in rural areas, is something that no single organization can address alone, so we are delighted to support the expansion of this collaborative approach in Western North Carolina.”
North Carolina will get $1.5 billion from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s (NITA) Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program funding. The state is also conducting several other initiatives that will improve broadband coverage, digital equity, and digital literacy.
The Rural Center has operated its broadband initiative in 15 counties in northeastern North Carolina since 2022. The program helps with infrastructure mapping, public engagement, developing action teams and action plans and working with last-mile broadband service providers.
According to NC Rural Center officials, the work in Western North Carolina will begin on August 1.
The NC Rural Center has worked for the past 36 years (since 1987) to develop, promote, and implement sound economic strategies to improve the quality of life of rural North Carolinians. The Rural Center serves the state’s 78 rural counties of its total 100 counties, with a special emphasis on people with low-to-moderate incomes and communities with limited resources.
To learn more about Dogwood Health Trust, log onto its web site: dogwoodhealthtrust.org; call (828) 771-6710; or via U.S. Mail at Dogwood Health Trust, 890 Hendersonville Road, Asheville, NC 28803. More details about the North Carolina Rural Center can be obtained on its web site (ncruralcenter.org), by calling (919) 250-4314; or through U.S. Mail at NC Rural Center, 4021 Carya Drive, Raleigh, NC 27610.
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