Event Types: Seminar

Virtual Workshop Series
September 1, 8, 15, 22, 27
3:00 – 4:00 PM EST

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The Appalachian Regional Commission supports revolving loan funds across the region, but there are a number of other similar Federal programs supporting business investment. This series of workshops will help ARC RLF administrators reconsider their strategies, market positions, fund administration, and more.

Through virtual sessions on Zoom, a lineup of experts will offer guidance and facilitate discussions to help Appalachian revolving loan fund administrators make the best use of their funds during our economic recovery.

Members: $195

Non-members: $380

Virtual Training

August 16 – August 26, 2021

Live Sessions: August 17, 19, 24, 26 from 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM ET

Members: $195          |          Non-members: $390

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Rural areas across Appalachia face similar challenges in delivering broadband to homes and businesses: rocky and uneven terrain, profitability and sustainability concerns, and more. Local development districts are working to support broadband delivery to un- and under-served areas, but oftentimes leadership and staff need help getting up to speed in terminology, processes, and other details to get projects off the ground and running.

This training will introduce participants to fundamentals of broadband technology, institutions, infrastructure, regulatory issues, financing, and best practices. DDAA will deliver sessions virtually in a blended learning format.  Attendees will receive pre-recorded webinars and resources that will be released at the beginning of the first week of training (August 16).  The pre-recorded materials are available for you to review at your own pace.

In addition to the pre-recorded webinars, DDAA will sponsor four live webinars with an instructor to review the key concepts and discuss specific topics in greater depth.  These live webinars also provide you with an opportunity to ask specific questions you may have about grant writing.

Meet Your Instructor

This grant writing series will be led by Andrew Cohill, President of WideOpen Networks and Design Nine; both companies have headquarters in Blacksburg, Virginia. Cohill has been helping communities develop, build, and operate modern broadband fiber and wireless networks since 1993, when Virginia Tech appointed him the first Director of the Blacksburg Electronic Village, the world’s first Internet-based community broadband project.

Cohill has worked with more than 300 communities worldwide on telecommunications planning, design, and engineering of open access broadband systems. He has provided assistance to community broadband projects throughout North America, including Canada and the Caribbean. WideOpen and Design Nine provide broadband planning, network construction services, and network operations services for public and private clients throughout the U.S.

Virtual Training
March 1 – March 17, 2021

Pre-recorded session release: March 1

Live sessions: March 3, 10, 17

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In a time of constrained budgets and growing challenges across Appalachia, effective grant writing is more important than ever. This virtual training is designed for individuals and agencies that are new to grant writing or have only written one or two grants, primarily for the same federal agency. This is a “boot camp” version of this course that was previously taught in 2020 – designed to quickly get you up-to-speed for the 2021 grant writing season.

DDAA will deliver sessions virtually in a blended learning format. Attendees will receive pre-recorded webinars and resources that will be released at the outset of the course. The pre-recorded materials are available for you to review at your own pace, although the expectation is that you review the modules in order. Each module is no longer than 30 minutes.

In addition to the pre-recorded webinars, DDAA will sponsor three live webinars (every Wednesday from 3:00 to 4:30pm eastern beginning March 3rd and ending March 17th) with an instructor to review the key concepts and discuss specific topics in greater depth. These live webinars also provide you with an opportunity to ask specific questions you may have about grant writing.

Meet Your Instructor

This grant writing series will be led by Tara Kunkel, founder and Executive Director of Rulo Strategies. Prior to founding Rulo Strategies, Tara served as a Senior Drug Policy Advisor at the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) where she led the implementation of the Comprehensive
Opioid Abuse grant program authorized by the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act of 2016. Under Tara’s leadership, the COAP program grew from a $27 million grant program in 2017 to $187 million in 2019.

Prior to joining BJA, Tara served as a consultant, drug court administrator, and probation officer. Over the course of her career, Tara has served as the evaluator for over 20 projects at all points in the justice
system from diversion programs, pretrial supervision, courts, probation, and corrections. Tara has developed and overseen cooperative agreements and grants with a variety of government agencies
including planning, developing, and implementing multiyear grant proposals.

Tara has been awarded well over $30 million in grants that she has written over the past several years. Tara has also taught grant writing courses at several state conferences and is nationally recognized as an expert in grant proposal development, and grant management.

Registration:
DDAA Members: $195
Non-Members: $390

Download PDF Registration Form

Virtual Training

November 9 – 19, 2020

Classes: Nov 9, 10, 16, 17, 19 from 2:00-4:00 pm Eastern

Office Hours: Nov 9, 10, 16, 17, 19 from 4:00-5:00 pm Eastern

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A picture is worth a thousand words. Use data to state your case using easy-to-understand data visualization tools. Give your audience the freedom to adapt your data in new ways in interactive dashboards that answer immediate questions and uncovers new insights. Data visualization tools can help you communicate better both internally and with your partners.

With a deeper understanding of data visualization software packages, your organization can produce more intuitive data visualizations in less time and identify the best software solutions to optimize your team’s workflows. In this course, we will review best practices in data visualization design and use cases for Excel, Tableau, and R (programming language).

Learn how to clean and format data in Excel, create interactive dashboards in Tableau, and clean and visualize data in R. This course will help participants identify use-cases for each software package that maximize impact with minimal effort, expanding participants’ toolbox as an analyst. Join us to learn about how your organization can better leverage data visualization software!

Meet Your Instructor:

Lee Winkler joined the Center for Regional Economic Competitiveness (CREC) in 2018 after graduating with a Master’s in Public Policy from the George Washington University. He currently supports projects analyzing state-level certification and license attainment and the prevalence of educational and workforce credentials. Lee regularly uses Tableau to clean data, mine insights and create interactive visualizations and is excited to help the class find how Tableau can add value to their workflow.

Registration:
DDAA Members: $195
Non-Members: $715

PDF Registration Form

Virtual Training

October 19 – November 12, 2020

Pre-recorded content release: October 19, 26; November 2 at 9:00 am Eastern

Live instruction: October 21, 22, 28, 29; November 4, 5, 12 from 9:30 – 10:30 am Eastern

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Guiding LDD professionals in managing virtual work and virtual program delivery

COVID-19 has forced local development districts to completely revamp their operations and move to a virtual work environment. Even if many LDDs are now back to partial work at the office, traditional meetings with other organizations, conferences, trainings, etc. are now all done via webcam. This virtual training, to be held over several weeks from October 19 – November 12, will provide LDD staff and leadership skills in managing their own professional work, delivering their LDD’s programs and services, and managing the LDD’s internal operations using virtual platforms.

Registration:
DDAA Members: $195
Non-Members: $390

Virtual Training

September 14 – October 15, 2020

Pre-recorded content release: September 14, 21; October 5, 12 at 8:00 am Eastern

Live instruction: September 17, 24; October 1, 8, 15 at 2:00 pm Eastern

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In a time of constrained budgets and growing challenges across Appalachia, effective grant writing is more important than ever. This virtual training is designed for individuals and agencies that are new to grant writing or want to expand their understanding of the fundamentals of grant writing and the resources that are available through different Federal agencies.

DDAA will deliver sessions virtually in a blended learning format.  Attendees will receive pre-recorded webinars and resources that will be released every other week beginning September 14^th through October 15^th.  The pre-recorded materials are available for you to review at your own pace.

In addition to the pre-recorded webinars, DDAA will sponsor four live webinars with an instructor to review the key concepts and discuss specific topics in greater depth.  These live webinars also provide you with an opportunity to ask specific questions you may have about grant writing.

Meet Your Instructor

This grant writing series will be led by Tara Kunkel, founder and Executive Director of Rulo Strategies. Prior to founding Rulo Strategies, Tara served as a Senior Drug Policy Advisor at the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) where she led the implementation of the Comprehensive

Opioid Abuse grant program authorized by the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act of 2016. Under Tara’s leadership, the COAP program grew from a $27 million grant program in 2017 to $187 million in 2019.

Prior to joining BJA, Tara served as a consultant, drug court administrator, and probation officer. Over the course of her career, Tara has served as the evaluator for over 20 projects at all points in the justice

system from diversion programs, pretrial supervision, courts, probation, and corrections. Tara has developed and overseen cooperative agreements and grants with a variety of government agencies

including planning, developing, and implementing multiyear grant proposals.

Registration:
DDAA Members: $195
Non-Members: $390

PDF Registration Form