Welcome to "The Pine Needler," your go-to source for all things happening in the Central Pines Region! We're here to keep you in the loop with our bi-monthly updates on upcoming events and regional news. Stay connected with us as we bring you the latest happenings and stories that will surely make your day pine-tastic! | |
- Member Survey Thanks!
- FEMA Public Assistance & Disaster Recovery Training
- Falls Prevention Awareness
- Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Blog Post
- Welcome Grace Berry, Lead for NC Fellow
- Golden LEAF Foundation Rural Internship Initiative
- Staff Picks: Fave School Subject!
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- Popular Links & Resources
- Career Opportunities
- Upcoming Events
| | FEMA Public Assistance & Disaster Recovery Training | |
Recover faster. Protect your local budget. Is your community prepared to recover quickly after a disaster? The FEMA Public Assistance program can provide critical reimbursement funding - but navigating the process takes preparation and capacity.
That's why CPRC is offering a self-paced, six-hour eLearning course on Disaster Recovery Financial Administration. This training equips local governments to secure funds, strengthen financial systems, and reduce recovery time after a natural disaster.
| Free licenses are available for CPRC member governments. Additional licenses may be purchased for $100 per person. | | | Falls Prevention Awareness Week is September 22-26 | Join the National Council on Aging September 22-26 for Falls Prevention Awareness Week! This nationwide observance event aims to improve falls prevention awareness, reduce falls, and help older adults feel safe and confident in their daily lives. Check out this video to learn more! | You can find resources such as Falls Free CheckUps, videos, handouts, infographics and more in the toolkit linked below. Preventing falls is possible, and we want to empower older adults to act and reduce their risk of falling. | | | Expiring Low-Income Housing Tax Credits: What's at Stake for the Region | |
For decades, the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) has been the nation's largest tool for creating and preserving affordable rental housing. In the Central Pines Region alone, more than 17,000 households rely on LIHTC-supported units.
But many of these affordability agreements will expire over the next decade - raising urgent questions about displacement, housing supply, and how local governments can respond.
Central Pines Regional Council has released a new blog post exploring what these expirations mean for our region and how we can prepare together.
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Welcome Grace Berry, 2025-2026 Lead for NC Fellow! | |
Central Pines Regional Council is excited to welcome Grace Berry as our 2025–2026 Lead for North Carolina Fellow, serving on the Member Support & Strategy team.
Grace will contribute to key regional initiatives, including:
- Data collection and analysis for Connected Region 2050
- Resources to assist local governments with disaster recovery and FEMA reimbursements
- Research on how AI can support local government work
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Raised in Washington, NC, Grace earned both her BA and Master of Public Policy from UNC-Chapel Hill as a Morehead-Cain Scholar. She brings experience in policy design, nonprofit leadership, and research through roles with TABLE NC, the Jessie Ball duPont Fund, and WomenNC.
As Alana Keegan, Local Government Services Director, shared, "Grace's passion for public service and the betterment of our region is infectious - welcome Grace!" We look forward to the positive impact Grace will make during her fellowship year.
| | | | Golden LEAF Rural Internship Initiative | The Golden LEAF Rural Internship Initiative provides Golden LEAF Scholars with professional work experience related to their career field in a rural North Carolina community. You can learn more about the opportunity here. Golden LEAF fully funds intern wages. Sites are responsible for any expenses related to hosting an intern (providing a workstation, etc.) | Golden LEAF Scholars are responsible for identifying a site to complete their internship. To support this process, Golden LEAF gathers information from entities interested in hosting an intern next summer (summer 2026). Sites can complete the form here. | This opportunity is limited to our Golden LEAF Scholars (we award 215 new scholarships each year, so there’s about 600 eligible to participate) and sites must be in a qualifying rural community (see list here). Students are able to intern in a wide range of settings, including businesses, governmental entities, and nonprofits. | This list will be shared with Scholars this fall as a resource for locating internship sites. Students will be responsible for reaching out to sites from this list. If you have any questions, please contact the Golden LEAF Rural Internship Initiative team at rii@goldenleaf.org. | | |
Staff Picks: Favorite School Subject | Since the kids have gone back to school, we asked our staff what their favorite subject was in school! |
- Jenna Kolling: Band
- Beth Seidel: English & Creative Writing
- Autumn Cox: Math
- Tyler Queen: History
- Erin Young: English
- Melissa Lowell: Psychology
- Jasmine Wilson: Math
- Jillian Hall: Psychology
- Jennifer Link: English
- Hunter Fillers: History
- Thomas Porter: History
- Ashley Price: Art
- Dolly Hall-Quinlan: Chemistry
- Carolyn Pennington: Psychology
- Gherian Foster: English
- Lee Worsley: Recess!
- Chris Lawson: History
| | | | | | Work Local in the Central Pines Region | |
There are so many amazing career opportunities to serve your community and work for local government in the Central Pines Region. Check out the most recent job postings here!
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