El Salvador RPCV Bianca T. Gentile named Director for the Beaufort County Program for the Rural Carolinas
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Director named for new county initiative
By RACHEL BROWN HACKNEY Executive Editor
After a year-long organization period, the Beaufort County Program for the Rural Carolinas has announced the hiring of a full-time program director.
Greenville native Bianca T. Gentile, a 2 1/2-year veteran of the Peace Corps, began working May 12. She brings to the program "an intense interest in community service," she says.
While in the Peace Corps, Gentile dealt with community development issues in El Salvador. The East Carolina University graduate is fluent in Spanish, a skill she agrees is valuable in a county that has seen its percentage of Hispanic residents grow sixfold between the 1990 Census and the 2000 Census.
"What we look to do is revitalize the economy" of the county, said Gentile (pronounced "jen-TIL-ly") in an interview with the Daily News.
Caption: Bianca T. Gentile, a 2 1/2-year veteran of the Peace Corps, dealt with community development issues in El Salvador. The East Carolina University graduate is fluent in Spanish, a skill she agrees is valuable in a county that has seen its percentage of Hispanic residents grow sixfold between the 1990 Census and the 2000 Census.
In September 2001, the Duke Endowment announced a new, five-year, $10.6 million rural development project in North Carolina and South Carolina. The program's goal, according to the Web site of its managing partner, MDC Inc., is to revitalize economically distressed, rural communities in the two states.
MDC's mission, according to its Web site, "is to advance the South through strategies that expand opportunity, reduce poverty, and build inclusive communities."
Leslie Boney, formerly of the N.C. Commerce Department, will direct the Rural Carolinas Program for the Duke Endowment.
Beaufort County received $500,000 for its project, according to officials working with the program. The Beaufort County Program for the Rural Carolinas will be a broad collaborative effort among the United Methodist Church, Beaufort County Community College, various social service agencies and Christian outreach groups within the county, according to a news release.
The Duke Endowment trustees accepted MDC's recommendation that the Rural Carolinas program have a two-fold approach, according to the Rural Carolinas Program Web site:
# Option 1 participants have shown they have the "will, potential, fairly high level of capacity, and the collaboration experience necessary to capitalize on their assets ...."
# Option 2 participants have "the interest and potential to undertake specific projects that will foster community development, asset building, or improved employment in distressed rural communities," but they are less well-positioned for a communitywide effort.
Only nine Option 1 counties were chosen to receive an initial grant over three years, according to the BCPRC news release.
"Once we received the grant from the Duke Endowment, our coalition of grant applicants established goals for the BCPRC and today, we look forward to realizing those goals," said the Rev. Billy A. Olsen, associate pastor of First United Methodist Church of Washington, in the news release.
Olsen is the chairman of the BCPRC's board of directors and one of the initiators of the grant application to the Duke Endowment.
Warren Chapel United Methodist Church located in Blounts Creek will serve as the fiscal agent for the program. The church's pastor, Linda Titus, is working with Gentile as administrative assistant.
"She's been a guiding light for me," Gentile said of Titus.
Current goals of the BCPRC are to assist low-income families in building financial assets, facilitating the creation of small businesses and developing a collaborative nonprofit organization, the news release says. To sustain the long-term goals of economic development within the county, the news release adds, BCPRC will assist the unemployed and those with limited skills in finding gainful employment and developing vocational and educational skills.
In addition, "We have earmarked funds for an economic research project that can be used to attract outside investors and developers," Olsen said. "Researchers from East Carolina University are being approached to develop a comprehensive study of economic development in our part of Eastern N.C. over the last 30 to 40 years. Hopefully this information will highlight the economic history of Beaufort County, as compared to our neighbors," he added.
"This research project can help us all make an honest evaluation of our past successes and failures. Beaufort County's economic renewal depends on progressive thought, not pessimism or envy of our neighbors," Olsen continued. "The BCPRC wants to help foster economic growth in every part of Beaufort County, for everyone in Beaufort County."
"We are working to unify Beaufort County as a whole," Gentile said, noting that the Pamlico River does divide the county into two distinct areas.
Although she visited Washington from time-to-time when she was growing up, Gentile said, she only recently has become familiar with a larger portion of Beaufort County.
"Pantego is beautiful," she said. "Belhaven is beautiful," she added, noting she was becoming familiar with Aurora's needs through the association of the Rev. Charles Smith with the program. Smith heads up the Southside Alliance for Neighborhood Empowerment, which has been working on economic development projects on the south side of the river.
Asked for specifics of the local Rural Carolinas program, Gentile said it would entail "anything that would bring Beaufort County together."
She added, "We're getting around, producing flyers, creating brochures."
Gentile also will be joining the Committee of 100, which has extended her a free membership. Olsen had told her, she said, that that would be a good way for her to get to know county leaders who might be able to provide help with various facets of the Rural Carolinas Program.
Office space for the BCPRC is being provided, rent-free, by Metropolitan AME Zion Church. Using the donated space, which adjoins the Zion Shelter and Kitchen, "helps make the most of our funds," Gentile said.
Ann Cephas, who works with various programs under the umbrella of Metropolitan Low Income Housing and CDC and Metropolitan Community Credit Union, is vice chairman of the BCPRC Board of Directors.
The BCPRC's mailing address is P.O. Box 2312, Washington, NC 27889. Gentile welcomes calls, she said, from people interested in learning more about the program and especially from people interested in becoming involved with it. Her phone number is 252-946-5862 Click on a link below for more stories on PCOL
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