The partner connection, Oct. 2010

October, 2010

In This Issue
DCA Team Wins Governor's Award

DCA Team Wins 4th Annual Governor's Customer Service Award

Georgia Downtown Awards
New WaterFirstTM Community

Congratulations to the GCSV Team! The staff of the Georgia Commission for Service and Volunteerism is the winner of the annual "Team of the Year" award for state agencies, presented at the 4th Annual Governor's Customer Service Awards ceremony on October 12th.

Recycling Grants

Energy Code Pilot Study

GICH Grads!

CHIP Grants Announced

POPULAR RESOURCES
American Recovery and Re-Investment Act
DCA Home
Exceeding

Governor Perdue is shown with the GCSV Award-Winning Team (L to R - Burney, Gleaton, Turner, Governor, Webb, and Beatty;
back row - Gunn and Ivery)
The award recognizes GCSV's work during the first six months of this year to take over the Learn and Serve program in Georgia and also start a statewide VISTA project sponsored by the commission. John Turner, DCA Office Director for GCSV, accepted the award on behalf of the team from Gov. Sonny Perdue and Chief Operating Officer Trey Childress. Winners in the fourth year of the Governor's Customer Service Awards were selected from among more than 580 nominations from 42 different agencies across Georgia. GCSV was one of ten team finalists, and walked away with top honors! Nominees demonstrate "above and beyond" service that is helpful, courteous and
knowledgeable.
Mr. Turner states, "This award truly represents a team effort in every sense and we were honored by the support we received from Department of Community Affairs Commissioner Mike Beatty and the DCA leadership. I want to thank Kate Webb, Candice Gunn, Ruben Burney and Zaneta Ivery (AmerCorps program managers) for their dedication to our mission, their hard work and their long hours during some difficult moments during the past year. We are also grateful to have been joined this summer by new staff members Kiana Sullivan, training and communications, Ryan Coskrey, disability, Lori Bodine, Learn & Serve, Jamora Jackson, finance, Amieko Watson, AmeriCorps administrator, and also VISTA Team Leader Bonnie Roberts."

Excellence
Did You Receive Excellent Service From A DCA Staffer? DCA's "Exceeding Excellence" Customer Service Recognition Program Allows You To Recognize A Job Very Well Done. Please consider nominating a DCA staffer that's gone above and beyond! DCA's "Exceeding Excellence" recognition program affords DCA team members and our external customers the opportunity to recognize DCA team members for providing excellent customer service. Information is available from the DCA website front page www.dca.ga.gov, Click on the "Customer Feedback" link and complete the information.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT ASSISTANCE
Georgia Downtown Winners Recognized at Statewide Conference
The Georgia Downtown Association and the Georgia Department of Community Affairs announced the winners of the Annual Downtown of Excellence Awards. Presentations took place during the annual Georgia Downtown Conference September 29 - October 1, 2010 in Augusta, GA.

The Georgia Downtown Association presents the Downtown Excellence Award, this year recognizing the Dahlonega Better Home Town program.

Dahlonega BHT Receives GDA Excellence Award

The Georgia Dept. of Community Affairs presents an Outstanding Leadership Award, presented this year to Kirby Glaze, President of Community Development Partners, Inc., pictured at left with his wife.

Kirby Glaze Accepts the Outstanding Leadership Award

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Georgia Main Street Program. The conference theme, Main Street at Work: Building Jobs and Preserving Downtowns focused on the economic impact of downtown revitalization statewide. Since the program's inception over $2.6 billion has been invested and over 47,000 jobs have been created in the 100 Georgia Main Street and Better Hometown programs.

Downtown Celebrates 30th Anniversary The event brought over 200 of Georgia's downtown professionals together to develop strategies for bettering their downtown business district. Featured speakers included Donovan Rypkema of PlaceEconomic, LLC in Washington, DC and Lauren Adkins of the National Trust for Historic Preservation Main Street Center. "Georgia continues to serve as a leader in downtown revitalization nationwide," said Adkins. Rypkema also added that despite the economic downturn seen on the national and statewide levels, Georgia's Main Street cities continue to show an increase in net new businesses and net new jobs over the past 5 years based on the economic data submitted monthly by program cities.
For a complete list of winners, please visit www.mainstreetgeorgia.org.

Henry County Designated As Georgia's Twentieth WaterFirstTM Community
"Top notch," said the State's WaterFirstTM reviewers when asked to describe the Forsyth County's team.
At a ceremony filled with Henry's "top notch" team, DCA Assistant Commissioner Mike Gleaton announced the designation of the state's twentieth WaterFirstTM Community. The ceremony, attended by community leaders and local and state officials, was held on October 5th at the Henry County Board of Commission Meeting.
Henry County Leaders Accept WaterFirst Designation
"Henry County has joined an exclusive group of communities committed to water stewardship. The state's WaterFirstTM communities have a demonstrated track record of implementing solidly-developed strategic plans that support long-term excellence in water resource management," said Mr. Gleaton. He added, "Earning thisdesignation took a lot of effort and required significant teamwork. The WaterFirstTM reviewers were especially impressed with their award winning education program. They have an impressive watershed protection plan that ensures the protection of their water from five reservoirs, and ensures a plentiful water supply for the community. They also have an ordinance that restricts private decentralized waste collection systems to ensure maintenance of these systems. Today, DCA is very pleased to recognize the staff, citizens, and leaders of Henry County for their stewardship of our water resources by designating them as Georgia's Twentieth WaterFirstTM Community."
The WaterFirstTM Community Program, led by the DCA's Office of Sustainable Development, is a voluntary partnership between local governments, state and federal agencies and other organizations working to improve the management and protection of our shared water resources. For more information about DCA's WaterFirstTM program, visit www.dca.ga.gov/development/EnvironmentalManagement/programs/water_first.asp Henry County is the 20th entity to receive a WaterFirstTM Community designation. Previously designated WaterFirstTM communities include the City of Braselton, Cobb County, Cobb/ Marietta Water Authority, Columbus Waterworks/ Columbus Consolidated Government, Forsyth County, City of Gainesville, City of Griffin, Gwinnett County, City of Hartwell, City of Hinesville, Oconee County, City of Rome, City of Roswell, City of Savannah, Douglasville/Douglas County WSA, City of Tifton/ Tift County, City of Tybee Island and City of Winder.

Coca-Cola Recycling and Keep Georgia Beautiful Announce Georgia Curbside Acceleration Grants
At the Georgia Recycling Coalition /Keep Georgia Beautiful Board Development Institute Annual Conference, Coca-Cola Recycling LLC proudly announced a partnership with the Keep Georgia Beautiful Foundation to offer up to $1.5 million in funding to cities, counties and NGOs in Georgia to help make existing single stream curbside programs more efficient and/or to implement new programs. GRC will act as a partner to assist in soliciting grant responders and in promoting the programs and results of the awardees. Applications should be available soon. For more information, please contact Program Manager Lynn Cobb with the KGB Foundation, lynn.cobb@dca.ga.gov.
Georgia Selected to Participate in Energy Code Compliance Evaluation Pilot Study
The U.S. Department of Energy's Building Energy Codes Program, in partnership with the Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance, has selected Georgia to participate in a 10 month "State Energy Code Compliance Evaluation Pilot Study." This study kicked-off with a training session on September 20 and will include a survey of local jurisdictions' energy code administrative practices and evaluations of 44 randomly chosen commercial buildings for compliance with the energy code. The study will assist the state in meeting the requirement of all construction being at least 90 percent in compliance with the 2009 International Energy Conservation Code or ASHRAE 90.1-2007 within the next 7 years as stated in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The Department of Community Affairs has contracted with B&F Technical Code Services to carry out the evaluations and will submit a final report detailing the findings of the study in April 2011. For more information on the Pilot Study please visit www.energycodes.gov or contact Ryan Meres at (404) 679-3109 or ryan.meres@dca.ga.gov.
New Board Member for Georgia Commission for Service and Volunteerism
Governor Sonny Perdue announced the following appointment to the Georgia Commission for Service and Volunteerism Board.
D. Glen Wilkins, Lawrenceville - Wilkins is the senior manager of public affairs for Wal-Mart, Inc. in Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina. He is the vice chairman of Hands on Georgia and a member of the DeKalb County Chamber of Commerce. He served on the board of the Georgia Retail Association. Wilkins earned a bachelor's degree from the University of New Mexico. He and his wife, Nicole, have two children.
"We are excited to have Glen join our board, said John Turner, Executive Director of GCSV. "He brings a lot of experience in the volunteer community through his work on the board of Hands On Georgia and we look forward to benefiting from his commitment to improving the lives of Georgians through the Georgia AmeriCorps program at DCA."

SAFE AND AFFORDABLE HOUSING
Calhoun, Cordele, Douglas, Griffin and Toccoa New GICH "Graduates"

Leaders from

Calhoun, Cordele,

Douglas, Griffin,

and Toccoa

received awards

in recognition of

each community's

completion of the

Georgia Initiative

for Community

Housing (GICH)

program. These communities join

GICH Communities and Partners, Fall Conference 2010

Camden County,

Cartersville,

Colquitt, Dalton/Whitfield County, Fort Valley, Hall County, Metter, Milledgeville, Moultrie,

Newnan, Sylvester, Thomasville, Tifton, Valdosta, Waycross, and Waynesboro which

completed the program in 2007, 2008, and 2009.

The City of Columbus hosted the September 15-17, 2010 retreat which was attended by 180 community leaders and housing advocates. The retreat included facilitated sessions to assist each community in further developing their housing work plans. Representatives also enjoyed speakers on current issues as well as an opportunity to see housing successes in Columbus. Launched in November 2004, the GICH program offers communities a three-year program of collaboration and technical assistance. Through the program a community works to create and launch a locally-based plan to meet its affordable housing needs.

DCA, the Georgia Municipal Association and UGA's Housing & Demographics Research Center serve as GICH's primary partners. The initiative is funded by Georgia Power Company, Wachovia Wells Fargo Foundation, and USDA Rural Development. Georgia Electric Membership Corporation and UGA's Archway Partnership Program serve as GICH's implementation partners.

Other communities throughout Georgia have also been quick to recognize the value in the GICH program. The communities of Brunswick, Hawkinsville, Rome, Sandersville/Tennille/ Washington County, and Vienna were accepted into the program in 2009; Americus/Sumter, Covington, Gray/Jones County, Thomson/McDuffie County, and Winder were accepted into the program in 2010. These communities are scheduled to complete the program in 2011 and 2012 respectively.

GICH accepts applications from prospective program participants each year. For additional information about GICH, please contact Program Director Karen Tinsley at (706) 542-4949 or klt@uga.edu or visit http://www.fcs.uga.edu/hace/hdrc/gich.html.

$5.1 Million in CHIP Grants Announced
Commissioner Beatty has announced DCA's award of over $5.1 million in grants to local communities and nonprofit organizations under the state's FY 2011 Community HOME Investment Program (CHIP). Thirty-two applications were received under the program, totaling $9.5 million in requested funds. DCA's award of grant funding to 15 local governments and 2 nonprofit organizations will provide locally administered down payment and/or homeowner rehabilitation assistance in these communities. Scoring results of DCA's application review are available at this link:
http://www.dca.ga.gov/housing/housingdevelopment/programs/homeinvestment.asp.
How Many Homeless People are in Your Community?
DCA is looking for communities that are interested in participating in the third Statewide Homeless Count in January 2011. The count will be conducted in a broad sample of Georgia's counties from its urban centers to its most rural communities. Many of Georgia's communities have residents with serious housing needs. This count will provide a way to identify the homeless and those who are unstably housed in order to better formulate your community's housing goals and strategies. The 2008 and 2009 Homeless Counts provided valuable information for the state as well as the communities that participated.
The homeless count utilizes surveys collected by service providers and volunteers for a one week period in late January. DCA will provide the survey instrument, training, technical assistance, data input, and data analysis for participating counties. Some limited funds are available to offset the direct cost of conducting the count. DCA is looking for agencies (local governments, non-profits, planning groups, or other organizations) willing to organize the count in their county and willing to designate a staff person as the count coordinator. If you are interested in coordinating or assisting with the count in your community, please contact Lindsey Stillman, Planning Coordinator, at (404) 327-6813 or lindsey.stillman@dca.ga.gov.
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