CES Launches Two-Year Project
The Maryland Sea Grant College has awarded a $100,000 grant
to Washington College’s Center for Environment and Society
for a two-year project to implement visioning strategies, leadership
training and a technology toolkit for rural community planning
on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.
The project, “Visioning for Sustaining Rural Communities
on Maryland’s Eastern Shore,” follows the Rural
Communities Leadership Program initiative of 2002-2003. The
new program will help community leaders achieve more sustainable
futures for their communities. The visioning project will develop
user-friendly Geographic Information Systems (GIS)-based computer
applications that, coupled with leadership development and planning,
will allow communities to create alternative “visions”
of their futures and adopt preferred options. The project commenced
February 1.
“This is a proactive rather than the reactive
approach to preserving the rural character of our region and
its traditional economy based on farming, fisheries and forestry,”
said Wayne Bell, Ph.D., Director of the Center for Environment
and Society (CES). “Our communities need to develop an
understanding of how forces for change that are usually perceived
as negatives—for instance, the influx of population and
residential development pressures—can provide opportunities
rather than threats for sustainable community development.”
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