Rural Broadband Campaign
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Budget
Raised to date: $75,000.00
Estimate to complete: $125,000.00
Total Estimated Budget: $200,000.00
The budget numbers above are accurate as of 01/25/2009
Key Personnel
Edyael Casaperalta
Program and Research Associate
Edyael joined the full-time staff of Rural Strategies after working as a consultant in our efforts in the Gulf Coast during the fall and winter of 2006-2007. Edyael continues to contribute to the Gulf Coast work, and is one of the contact personnel for our Rural Broadband Campaign. In this capacity, she helps coordinate our collaborative work with grassroots, beltway, and public interest media policy groups. In addition, Edyael coordinates the work of the Rural Broadband Committe, a group of rural broadband advocates that emerged from the 2008 National Rural Assembly. Edyael received her BA from Occidental College in Los Angeles and a MA in Latin American Studies from Ohio University in Athens, OH. She lives in Elsa, south Texas.
Tim Marema - Vice President for Communications
Tim entered the non-profit media field after a seven-year career in daily newspaper journalism. In 1988 he helped found the Chapel Hill (North Carolina) Herald, a daily edition of the Herald-Sun of Durham. He served as editor of the newspaper for five years before joining Appalshop as development director in 1992.
Tim has been a grants panelist for agencies such as the National Endowment for the Arts, the Kentucky Arts Council, the National Telecommunications Infrastructure Administration, and Kentucky's AmeriCorps program. He has also been active in regional organizations such as the Coalition on Religion in Appalachia and the Kentucky Appalachian Commission Citizen's Council.
He is a graduate of Berea (Kentucky) College and holds a master's degree in journalism from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He lives in Norris, Tennessee.
Dee Davis - President
President Dee Davis is the founder and president of the Center for Rural Strategies. Dee has helped design and lead national public information campaigns on topics as diverse as commercial television programming and federal banking policy.
Dee began his media career in 1973 as a trainee at Appalshop, an arts and cultural center devoted to exploring Appalachian life and social issues in Whitesburg, Kentucky. As Appalshop's executive producer, the organization created more than 50 public TV documentaries, established a media training program for Appalachian youth, and launched initiatives that use media as a strategic tool in organization and development.
Dee is a member of the Rural Advisory Committee of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation, the boards of directors of Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation, Appalshop, Fund for Innovative Television, and Feral Arts of Brisbane, Australia. He is also a member of the Institute for Rural Journalism's national advisory board.
He received an English degree from the University of Kentucky. Dee lives in Whitesburg, Kentucky.
Funders
| Name | Amount | Date | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Media Democracy Fund | $50,000.00 | 01/01/2009 | |
| W.K. Kellogg Foundation | $25,000.00 | 06/01/2008 |
Short Synopsis
The Rural Broadband Campaign seeks to position rural advocacy organizations as a strong voice for positive change in national Internet and broadband policy. The project will research policy and develop materials for rural audiences; organize rural advocates around alternatives that increase access, empower local voices, and protect net neutrality; educate regional and national policy makers; and educate media reform leaders about rural policy needs and explain the strategic importance of rural constituencies in policy advocacy.
Description/Treatment
The Center for Rural Strategies seeks support for a project to position rural advocacy organizations as a strong voice for positive change in national Internet and broadband policy. The project will:
1) Conduct journalistic research and reporting on key Internet and broadband policy debates. The project will produce a series of reports on relevant broadband topics such as "white spaces," efforts to revise the Universal Service Fund to support rural broadband access, the relationship of broadband access and entrepreneurial development and economics, examples of success and failure in rural broadband deployment, and policy barriers and opportunities. These will be written for general audiences and tailored to address rural concerns. Rural Strategies' research will serve as source material for creating tools to use in organizing activities described below. The pieces will be published on Rural Strategies online news journal, www.DailyYonder.com.
2) Organize an emerging coalition of rural advocacy groups that are pursuing community-focused Internet policy solutions. Rural Strategies will work through an emerging coalition of rural organizations concerned about rural broadband policy. This coalition grows out of the National Rural Assembly, a network of rural advocates that seeks more effective rural policy. Rural Strategies is fiscal agent and lead organizer of the National Rural Assembly, which includes more than 200 organizations in 40 states.
3) Build opportunities for rural constituents to educate and inform regional and national policy makers about broadband issues. Rural Strategies will share its findings with regional and national policy makers. Staff will create educational materials for advocates to use in conversations with policy makers. Working with the National Rural Assembly advocacy system, Rural Strategies will ensure that broadband reform is part of testimony before a fact-finding session of the House Agricultural Appropriations Subcommittee, one-on-one constituent meetings with congressional staff and members, and meetings with FCC regulators. Rural Strategies will ensure that rural residents and rural leaders participate in these briefings with policy makers.
4) Share information about rural strategy and policy opportunities with Washington, D.C.-based media reform organizations. To be effective, this work must be accomplished with a diverse group of stakeholders. A strong rural voice will benefit from D.C.-based advocacy, and, conversely, D.C. advocates will find strength through rural inclusion. Rural Strategies has already begun developing solid relationships with D.C.-based public interest groups. This project will allow Rural Strategies to continue this process of relationship building. Emphasis will be on providing information to these groups about the policy needs of rural America and the strategic opportunities for strengthening the media reform movement by including rural voices in these advocacy efforts.
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