Chamber Federation Can Help Tackle Dropout Challenge

The North Carolina Chamber launched its dropout challenge campaign in March at its 66^th Annual Meeting in Greensboro. Our Chamber hosted a Special Session on Education prior to the Annual Meeting, which included a panel of business, education and non-profit leaders, who addressed how North Carolina businesses can help curtail the dropout rate. Panelists and 300 participants in the Special Session agreed that state businesses, non-profits and schools have the ability to keep students in the classroom, engage them in their work, and prepare them to be productive members of a globally competitive 21^st-century workforce.  

Following through with our Chamber’s commitment to play a leading role in addressing this vital educational issue, Chamber President and CEO Lew Ebert participated in a recent press conference and awards event to kick off Graduation Awareness Week at the invitation of Superintendent of Public Instruction June Atkinson.  Educators, community leaders, parents and students gathered at the event on Sept. 8 to recognize school districts that have made remarkable achievements to ensure students graduate on time and to kick off Graduation Awareness Week, which was Sept. 7^th – 13^th. 

Our Chamber’s relationship with our local Chamber Federation partners can only strengthen our efforts to tackle North Carolina’s 30 percent dropout rate. Collectively we will achieve more in terms of raising awareness around this critical issue and engaging and empowering North Carolina’s business community to get more of our state’s students to the high-school finish line. One important way that our local Chamber Federation partners can become a part of the solution is by becoming active in Communities in Schools of North Carolina and helping to ensure that CISNC is in all of our communities.

• Communities in Schools North Carolina:
  Championing the Connection of Resources & Schools
  
  The North Carolina Chamber is a proud partner with Communities in Schools North Carolina (CISNC), which is part of the nation’s largest community-based drop-out prevention program. CISNC provides the link between teachers and the community by facilitating the delivery of already-existing community resources in schools across the state. CISNC has been addressing the dropout challenge for over 20 years in our state and its network has grown and expanded to 39 local affiliates.  Within a school, CISNC works with repositioned service providers and school personnel so that they function together as a team to deliver services in a personable and accountable manner. In this way, they effectively and efficiently meet the needs of students and their families.

CISNC’s roots are in the business community. CISNC was born from Gov. Jim Martin’s Business Roundtable in 1989, and fostered and expanded during the administration of Gov. James B. Hunt, Jr. Most recently, CISNC has renewed its partnership with our Chamber’s Education Committee and is proud to continue all of its partnerships with North Carolina’s business citizens.

Our Chamber’s wants to help ensure that every county becomes involved in CISNC and we believe that local Chambers are central to making it happen and facilitating our collective effort to cure North Carolina’s dropout epidemic.  One of the most important questions your local Chamber can ask is whether CISNC is in your community.

Click here to locate local CISNC programs. If your local community is not involved with CISNC, spread the message to your members and click here for detailed information on how to become involved.  Together our Chamber Federation can help ensure that CISNC is effective in every community across our state to wipe out high school dropouts and maximize our graduation rate in every part of North Carolina.
               

Important Chamber Federation Announcements

• NCIOM Access to Health Care Study Panel
  Seeks Local Chamber & Business Representatives

The North Carolina General Assembly has directed the North Carolina Institute of Medicine (NCIOM) to convene a panel to "study issues related to access to appropriate and affordable health care for all North Carolinians."  The Institute and General Assembly are seeking to identify representatives of local Chambers, small businesses, or large businesses that have a large low-wage workforce to serve on this panel, believing that it is critical to have business representatives included in the study to examine ways to expand coverage and otherwise increase access to affordable health care.  (There are more than 1.5 million North Carolinians who lack health insurance coverage.)

The Access to Care Study Panel will meet once a month from 9:00-1:00 in the Triangle region on the following dates: Tuesday, September 23^rd; Tuesday, October 21^st; Wednesday, Nov. 12^th and Wednesday, Dec. 10^th.

The Institute and General Assembly recognize that Panel members may not be able to attend every meeting – therefore, meeting summaries and presentations from each meeting will be posted on the Web to keep everyone apprised of the task force's work.

Rep. Hugh Holliman, Sen. Tony Rand and Dr. Allen Dobson have agreed to serve as Co-Chairs of the study group.  Findings and recommendations will be reported to the 2009 General Assembly.

If interested in serving on this Panel or if your local Chamber can identify a small or large business that would be an ideal contributor and willing to serve, please contact Pam Silberman at pam_silberman@nciom.org or Kimberly Alexander Bratcher, Project Director, at kabratcher@nciom.org as soon as possible, but no later than Thursday, Sept. 18^th.

•  Chamber Federation Discusses Healthcare Policy

The North Carolina Chamber Federation held a meeting on Sept. 9^th at the Chamber’s headquarters. Our Chamber appreciates the involvement of all of our local Chamber partners that attended. Included on the agenda was an important and valuable discussion about small group health plans as a proposal to make health insurance more affordable for small businesses.  As we look to engage all of our local Chamber partners in an ongoing dialogue around this critical business issue, please look for the next issue of FEDERATION Insider to re-cap the discussion and offer opportunities for input. 

• Chamber’s 1^st Annual Tax Conference Nov. 13^th

The North Carolina Chamber will be hosting its 1^st Annual Tax Conference on November 13^th, 2008 at the Harris Conference Center in Charlotte. State and federal tax experts will address a number of tax issues most vital to North Carolina businesses, including an overview of recent tax changes made by the General Assembly and upcoming tax challenges that need to be addressed. Click here to register and find out more information about this conference.

Other upcoming North Carolina Chamber events include:

Jan. 5, 2009
The Economic Forecast Forum, presented by Progress Energy and Co-Sponsored by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, GlaxoSmithKline and S&A Cherokee (hosted by the North Carolina Chamber and the NC Bankers Association)
Raleigh Convention Center

Feb. 3, 2009
Second Annual Governmental Affairs Conference
Raleigh

March 30-31, 2009
67^th North Carolina Chamber Annual Meeting
Raleigh Convention Center