USDA awards AAMU, AL Cooperative Extension System $950K in grants

By Birmingham Times BIRMINGHAM, AL — The awards are part of the USDA’s $30.8 million investment in research and extension at America’s 1890 historically Black Land-grant universities.& The investment, made through the National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s (NIFA) 1890 Teaching, Research and Extension Capacity Building Grants Program, supports research to address the nation’s toughest agricultural challenges. Heirs’ Property Danielle Rudolph, Site Director for the Virginia Caples Lifelong Learning Institute with Alabama Extension, received a $350,000 award for her project, “Saving the Family Property: Heirs’ Property Prevention, Resolution, and Land Use.” Heirs property is real property passed from generation to generation without clear title. “This grant will provide innovative customized legal services to resolve heirs’ property cases and helps reduce intergenerational family disputes,” says Rudolph. “The project will partner with local leaders, legal professionals, families, and collaborators to provide community education focusing on estate planning, heirs’ property education, resolving family conflicts, mediation, conducting genealogical searches, title searches, and land use strategies for income generation.” Rudolph says programming will occur around the state with initial concentration in Alabama’s Black Belt region and counties with a higher prevalence of heirs’ property. The two-year project will also train Alabama A&M University’s undergraduate and...