Proposals from three local agencies and programs have been chosen to receive the Robert S. Smith Award for community progress and innovation. This is the fourth year of the award.

The winners of award funding for 1997 are the Partnership, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County and Cornell University's Department of Natural Resources.

Established at Cornell in 1994 through a grant of $100,000 by the Tompkins County Trust Co., the Robert S. Smith Award is named for the bank's former board of directors chairman who is the W.I. Myers Professor Emeritus of Agricultural Finance at Cornell. The award is intended to generate program partnerships between the university and the citizens of Tompkins County.

The Partnership, an organization which develops and coordinates volunteerism in the City of Ithaca, will be using its grant to expand volunteerism and to enhance volunteer linkages throughout the small towns and villages of Tompkins County. Specifically, the grant will help develop volunteerism between Cornell University and Ithaca College students and the community. Neil Giacobbi is the project supervisor.

Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County will use its grant to gather economic information and assemble an economic impact study on the Ithaca Farmers' Market. Monika Roth is the project supervisor.

The Department of Natural Resources in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell received one of the grants for a student-participation and demonstration project on agroforestry. The department will collaborate on the project with the Cayuga Nature Center and Ithaca schools. James Lassoie, chair of the department, is the project supervisor.

Last year's recipients were Literacy Volunteers of Tompkins County, the Southside Community Center and the Department of Design and Environmental Analysis in Cornell's College of Human Ecology, each of which completed a final project report as part of the award process.

The Literacy Volunteers of Tompkins County used their grant for the development of software for the tutoring/learning needs of low-level readers or nonreaders, providing a safe and inviting way for learners to exercise their emerging skills.

The Southside Community Center used their grant to hire a summer-project coordinator for the Cornell Student Sustainable Farm. The farm cooperated with the Southside Community Center to teach children how to grow and distribute produce through a community-owned and-operated farm stand.

Cornell's Department of Design and Environmental Analysis used their funds to design and model public-use kitchen and bathing facilities for Ithacare, a not-for-profit residential care facility for the elderly.