Department of Labor

High Growth and Green Jobs Initiative, Wake Technical Community College - $500,000

Wake Technical Community College
9101 Fayetteville Road
Raleigh, NC 27603

Wake Technical Community College is seeking federal funding to establish the High Growth & Green Jobs Initiative.  This initiative would provide targeted job training to address workforce demands locally and nationally in the simulation, video gaming, and green automotive technologies industries. 

Technology-driven industries like simulation, video gaming, and green automotive repair are growing and require highly-skilled employees.  The High Growth & Green Jobs Initiative will give community college students the skills and training they need to compete for these jobs and will help ensure that companies have an applicant pool that is adequate to meet their workforce demands.  Federal investments in job training are essential to our nation’s economic recovery. 

Department of Health and Human Services

Community-Based Mental Health Care Facility, Wake County - $500,000

Wake County
336 S. Salisbury Street
Raleigh, NC  27601

Wake County has traditionally relied on the aging Dorothea Dix facility to meet inpatient psychiatric and other mental health care needs.  At present, no public community hospital psychiatric beds exist in Wake County beyond those at the outdated Dorothea Dix facility, and the Dorothea Dix facility is inadequate to meet the County’s mental health needs.  To address the dearth of mental health care options, the State of North Carolina is completing a merger of Dorothea Dix and John Umstead Hospitals with a new Central Regional Hospital with campuses in Butner and Raleigh, NC that will significantly expand capacity for inpatient mental health care.  

Federal funding would help construct a 3-facility complex to provide comprehensive mental health services in Wake County as part of the new Central Regional Hospital.  The facility will include a Crisis and Assessment Center, an Acute Crisis Center, and an Acute Medical Detox unit.  Federal investments in health care infrastructure are essential to ensuring the health care system has adequate capacity to meet public health needs. 

Healthy Workplace Prostate Cancer Initiative, North Carolina Institute of Minority Economic Development - $75,000

NC Institute of Minority Economic Development
114 W. Parrish Street
Durham, NC 27701

NC Institute of Minority Economic Development is seeking federal funding to establish the Healthy Workplace Prostate Cancer Initiative.  The Initiative would screen men for prostate cancer and to build on-the-ground infrastructure to ensure consistent, sustainable outreach and testing services.  The initiative is targeted toward African-American men, who have the highest incidence of prostate cancer and are more likely to die of prostate cancer than any other demographic group.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), prostate cancer is one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers in the United States.  Early screening is important to ensure prompt diagnosis, intervention and treatment.  Federal funding for this initiative would improve access to early diagnostic screening, promote sustainable prostate screening services, and address a significant racial health disparity by implementing a program designed to specifically target African-American men.

Missions of Mercy Project, NC Dental Health Fund - $500,000

NC Dental Health Fund
1600 Evans Road
Cary, NC 27513

The NC Dental Health Fund is expanding its Missions of Mercy (MOM) program, which offers free onsite dental care to low-income uninsured and underinsured Triangle residents.  Federal funding would be used to purchase a mobile dental van equipped with X-ray equipment.  The new equipment would eliminate MOM’s X-ray bottleneck, allowing the all-volunteer dental teams to see more patients.

Although oral health and general health are inextricably linked, many Americans do not have insurance coverage for dental care and cannot afford to pay for it out-of-pocket.  Federal support will enhance the reach of the MOM program, which cost-effectively addresses significant unmet dental and public health needs using practitioner volunteers.

Program in Racial Disparities and Cardiovascular Disease, University of North Carolina - $500,000

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
6022 Burnett Womack Building, CB 7075
Chapel Hill, NC  27599

UNC’s Program in Racial Disparities and Cardiovascular Disease is assembling the computational resources necessary to better understand and address racial disparities in cardiovascular disease.  Federal funding would provide for the staff resources and computing capability needed to integrate the nation’s existing cardiovascular disease genomic, genetic, and population research into a comprehensive database cross-referenced with demographic data, accelerating research to identify causes of racial disparities.

Cardiovascular diseases are the most common cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States, accounting for nearly half of all deaths and health care expenditures, and their incidence is magnified in minority populations.  African-Americans are 2-3 times more likely to develop cardiovascular disease and stroke than are Caucasians.  Federal investments in this research would improve our understanding of cardiovascular diesease and address a public health disparity. 

Shared Biotechnology Resource Facility, Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences - $500,000

The Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences
6 Davis Drive (P.O. Box 12137)
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709

The Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences and The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Schools of Medicine and Pharmacy recently launched the Center for Drug Safety Sciences to address key gaps in science and technology outlined in the 2007 FDA Science and Mission At Risk Report.  CDSS scientists integrate clinical medicine with cutting-edge systems biology and computer-based modeling platforms to make drugs safer and accelerate drug development.  Federal funding would be used to purchase state-of-the-art videoconferencing and communications equipment to support biotechnology research, training, and commercialization at the center.  The equipment would allow scientists from across the nation to partner and advance new, safer treatments for diseases. 

Federal investments in support of this collaborative biomedical research model would accelerate the translation of biomedical research created in universities and life sciences companies into safe and effective medications to treat numerous diseases affecting Americans. 

WakeMed Children’s Hospital - $500,000

WakeMed Health & Hospitals
3000 New Bern Avenue
Raleigh, NC 27610

WakeMed is seeking federal funding to build a 45-bed Children’s Hospital that would increase the region’s capacity to provide quality health care to infants and children.  The hospital is designed to integrate a child-friendly environment with state-of-the-art medical technology, to eliminate overcrowding by adding pediatric observation beds, to improve efficiencies by consolidating pediatric services in one location, and to enhance the role of family involvement in a patient's care. 

Federal investments in health care infrastructure are essential to ensuring the health care system has adequate capacity to meet public health needs.  WakeMed's Children's Hospital will increase access to primary and specialty medical care for the region's 350,000+ children and will improve patients' health outcomes. 

Department of Education 

Computing MATTERS Project, Shodor - $300,000

Shodor
300 W. Morgan Street, Suite 1150
Durham, NC 27701

Shodor is seeking federal funding for the “Computing Mentoring Academic Transitions through Experience, Research, and Service (MATTERS) Project.”  MATTERS would help RTP-area high school students master 21st-Century work skills first as apprentices and interns at Shodor and then as ambassadors to younger students at area community centers.  Federal funds would be used to provide for materials, computing costs, internet access, student stipends, and staff for this successful and highly evaluated program. 

Federal investments in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics education are essential to develop a highly-skilled workforce and to maintain our nation’s global competitiveness.  In order to encourage new generations of students to enter into STEM disciplines, early exposure to innovative and engaging STEM educational opportunities is critical. Computing MATTERS’ use of quantitative reasoning, computational thinking and multi-scale modeling would be an important complement to existing STEM initiatives.

Engineering is Elementary, North Carolina State University - $219,000

North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC  27695

North Carolina State University is seeking to establish Engineering is Elementary to introduce engineering as a curricula integrator for K-12 students in underserved schools in Wake, Durham and Orange Counties.  The Engineering is Elementary (EiE) project aims to foster engineering and technological literacy among children through a research-driven, standards-based, and classroom-tested curriculum that integrates engineering and technology concepts and skills with elementary science topics.  EiE lessons promote K-12 science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning through integration with literarcy and social studies. 

Federal investments in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education are essential to develop a highly-skilled workforce and to maintain our nation’s global competitiveness.  Engineering is Elementary would foster student interest in STEM education at an early age.

Institute for Black Male Achievement and Leadership, North Carolina Central University - $500,000

North Carolina Central University
1801 Fayetteville Street
Durham, NC 27707

NC Central University is seeking federal funding to establish an Institute for Black Male Achievement and Leadership.  The Institute would provide academic preparation, development, and training to help black male high school students prepare to pursue careers in science and technology.

The well-documented educational achievement gap between African-American males and other groups translates into limited employment opportunities, increased poverty, and increased likelihood of criminal activity.  Moreover, this gap leaves African-American men significantly underrepresented in critical academic, especially scientific, disciplines.  As these fields grow as a key element of our economy, African-American men are at risk of being left behind.  NC Central University’s Institute for Black Male Leadership would provide at-risk African-American males with support and training to ensure educational success and to open career opportunities in the growing science, technology, and engineering industries. 

National Projects 

Reach Out and Read - $10 Million

Reach Out and Read National Center
56 Roland Street
Boston, MA 02129

Reach Out and Read (ROR) is a national program that promotes literacy and language development in infants and young children, targeting disadvantaged and poor children and families.  Following fifteen years of peer-reviewed and published research, an extensive body of documentation now clearly demonstrates the importance of promoting early language and literacy skills so that children have the essential reading skills to begin school successfully.  Yet, a large number of children do not currently receive the necessary support and assistance to develop these skills and begin kindergarten ready to learn.

To close this gap, the federal government provides funding for a variety of literacy programs and strategies that reach children and parents, as well as the professionals who interact with them.  ROR has proven to among the most effective strategies to promote early language and literacy development and school readiness.  Through RoR, pediatricians and other healthcare providers guide and encourage parents to read aloud to their children from their earliest years of their life, and send them home from each doctor visit with books and a prescription to read together. 

Currently, nearly 50,000 doctors and nurses have been trained in ROR’s proven strategies, and more than 3,500 clinics and hospitals nationwide are implementing the program, reaching more than 25 percent of America’s at-risk-children.  Federal funding has been matched by tens of millions of dollars from the private sector and state governments.

Reading Is Fundamental - $28 million

Reading Is Fundamental
1825 Connecticut Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20009

Reading Is Fundamental, authorized by Section 5451 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, enhances child literacy by providing millions of underserved children with free books for personal ownership and reading encouragement from the more than 18,000 locations throughout all fifty states, Washington, D.C., Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Special Olympics Project Unify - $8 million

Special Olympics International (SOI)
1133 19th Street, NW
Washington 20036

Project Unify educates and informs US citizens, with a strong emphasis on youth, to activate them to volunteer in support of Special Olympics’ efforts to recruit more athletes and enhance the quality of the sports experience.  The program’s valuable service-learning curriculum is offered to elementary, middle and high schools free of charge to teach students about intellectual disabilities while empowering them “to be the difference” by learning values of inclusion, understanding and respect.  Currently 3,500 schools across the country utilize this curriculum. 

Additionally, the program strengthens and expands existing state efforts to develop quality sports training and competition programs, enabling more children, young adults and adults with intellectual disabilities to train and compete in one or more of the 26 sport programs offered by Special Olympics.  Special Olympics teaches skills and instills confidence in athletes to enable them to assume leadership roles both on and off the field.  Special Olympics also addresses myths and corrects misperceptions about people with intellectual disabilities by showcasing athletes as examples of the abilities and potential of this population. The program will include targeted messaging to young people tied to local program development and volunteer recruitment efforts.

Teach for America - $25 million

Teach for America
315 W. 36th St.
New York, NY, 10018
 
Teach for America is seeking federal funding for the recruitment, selection, placement and professional development of an estimated 8,200 first- and second-year teachers in 39 low-income regions across the nation.  These teachers will reach an estimated 525,000 underserved students.

Teach For America is a non-profit with a mission of enlisting our nation's most promising future leaders in the movement to eliminate educational inequality.  This national program includes outstanding college graduates and young professionals of all academic majors, career interests, and backgrounds.  Volunteers commit at least two years to teach in urban and rural public schools in our nation's lowest-income communities, providing effective classroom teachers for the highest-need classrooms across the country.