Success Stories

Community Projects That Work

Index

Alternative Transportation Project
Boone & Bowling Rock, NC

Barbour County Office of Economic Development
Barbour County, W. VA.

Boys, Girls, Adults Community Development Center
Marvell, AR

Clifton-Choctaw Reservation
Rapides Parish, LA

Delta Community Development Corporation
Seven Counties in Arkansas Delta

Denmark Community Outreach Enterprise,
Denmark, SC

East Prairie/Epworth Enterprise Community,
East Prairie, MO

Eastern Orangeburg Enterprise Community,
Holly Hill, SC

Federation of Southern Cooperatives,
Greene & Sumter Counties, AL

Flat Woods Community-Based Development Corp.,
Eastern Kentucky

Hale Empowerment & Revitalization Organization,
Hale County, AL

Immokalee Foundation,
Collier County, FL

Kemper County Economic Development Authority,
Dekalb, MS

Little Dixie Community Action Agency,
Hugo, OK

Minnesota Corn Processors,
Marshall, MN

Missouri U.S. 36/I72 Association,
Chillicothe, MO

Mountain Enterprise Community,
Webster County & City of Richwood, W. VA.

Newton County Resource Council,
Jasper, AR

PATHWAYS Community Development Commission,
Dermott, AR

Perry County Commission/Chamber of Commerce,
Perry County, AL

Project 70,
Embarass, MN

Raton Chamber & Economic Development Council,
Raton, NM

Salem Area Community Betterment Association,
Salem, MO

Southern Mutual Help Association,
St. Mary Parish, LA

Van Buren County Hospital,
Keosauqua, IA

Williamsburg Enterprise Community,
Williamsburg, SC

Willapa Bay,
Southern Washington
 
 

Abbeville, SC, taps riches of past for economics of future

Strategic plan focus:
• Instituting Heritage Corridor
• Forming regional partnerships
• Preserving historic neighborhoods
• Promoting area's culture & history

The small town of Abbeville, South Carolina, came into being in 1755 as a result of a treaty with the Cherokee Indians. People were drawn to the area because it offered a source of fresh water. Over 200 years later, people are still drawn to the area, to search old churches and graveyards for family roots, to delve into the rich Indian heritage, or to simply enjoy the beauty of this spot nestled between Lake Russell and the Blue Ridge Mountains. Townspeople know the area has much to offer, and they are capitalizing on its rich history as a vehicle for economic development.

In the late 1960s, Abbeville embarked on an historic preservation program, which led to the restoration of its 1908 Opera House, which doubles as city hall, and renovation of the downtown square. In 1971, the entire town was declared a National Historic District. One of the town's famous historic spots is the Burt Stark House, where Jefferson Davis met with his council of war to dissolve the Confederacy.

But during the 1990s, the business community realized it needed help.

"We need to work together as a region," said Anne Clarke, executive director of the Abbeville County Development Board. "We can't do it ourselves; we are too small and too rural."

So the town joined forces with a number of other communities and the idea of a Heritage Corridor was born.

The Corridor would run the length of the state, from the mountains to the sea, and incorporate parallel trails a Heritage Trail and a Recreation Trail. The state Department of Transportation awarded a $300,000 grant to study the proposal and soon consultants hired for the project are to present their plans.

The effort is the result of grassroots work, Clarke said. It began about five years ago when a popular antique store in Abbeville burned. While people still came to town on weekends to attend performances at the Opera House, weekday traffic dropped dramatically when the antique store closed. Tourist dollars went elsewhere.

Hosting town meetings

The state Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism stepped in to help the town look into ways to restore the number of visitors. It was soon apparent that the town needed to work with other communities in order to broaden the scope of what could be offered to tourists.

Meetings were held in every little town in the county. Everyone agreed on the desire to present the area's culture and history to visitors. The project soon blossomed into a two-county destination plan. And then Charleston heard about the effort and wanted to participate. The idea for the Heritage Corridor was off and running. 

Clarke said those involved in the project are hopeful it will receive designation from the National Park Service as a national corridor, of which there are only a few.

The effort to establish the Corridor has brought many people together in a common goal, Clarke said.

Early in Abbeville's efforts to reclaim its heritage, the Department of Interior (Historic Preservation) offered help, as did faculty from the University of South Carolina and the State Archives and History Department (through which federal money wasaccessed). The state Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism and Department of Transportation have also assisted.

"The bottom line of all this is preservation and conservation, but also economic development," Clarke said.

Abbeville , SC . . . has a population of 5,778 people, of whom 54% are white and 46% are black. Average per-capita income is $10,284.
 
 

Boone & Bowling Rock, NC, aiming for "alternative transportation plan"

Strategic plan focus:
• Alternative Transportation Improvement
• Providing tourist transportation
• Adopting Boulder, CO, transportation web

However, Schofield, a recent graduate of Appalachian State University (ASU), says, "Two miles outside the city limits of Boone, the landscape and socio-economics change dramatically."

Schofield's mentor, Professor of Anthropology Harvard Ayers, is also chair of the Sierra Club's Southern Appalachian Highlands Ecoregion Task Force and project director of the ATP.

Ayers elaborates, "Boone and Bowling Rock are mountain communities with an elevation of 3,500 feet. They are constrained by a topography that makes transportation planning difficult. Appalachian State University is the heart of Boone. Bowling Rock is a retirement and tourism community." The towns are seven miles apart in the northwest corner of North Carolina.

Strategy #36 in Boone's EZ-EC strategic plan reads: "Implement an alternative transportation plan." In early 1993 both Boone and Bowling Rock had adopted comprehensive plans that called for alternative transportation. Next, Ayers' Sierra Club Task Force and the Watauga County League of Women Voters organized a steering committee of local citizens to draft grant proposals and develop an ATP.

By year-end 1993, the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, Kathleen Price and Joseph M. Bryan Family Foundation, Janirve Foundation, Sierra Club Foundation, two bike shops, both town councils, a bicycler's organization and a merchant had all contributed to a $44,000 project budget.

The primary beneficiaries of the ATP will be students and tourists.

"Tourism," emphasizes Schofield, "is the number one industry in Boone and the state. Tourism is driven by recreational, visual and aesthetic amenities. We're nestled in one of the most environmentally attractive places in the world, the Blue Ridge Mountains. It's a natural draw, but we can't keep visitors here very long. Once people visit historic downtown and ride the Tweetsy railroad, there's nothing else to do. No rails-to-trails or greenways, no mountain biking. No way to get anywhere without a vehicle. We're following the model of Boulder, Colorado, creating a web of alternative modes that will take citizens and visitors anywhere they want to go."

Forum draws 850 people

Ayers points out that the ATP process was unique because community groups (Sierra Club and the League of Women Voters) formed the impetus. Their success, especially in drawing 850 people to a planning forum, he attributes to the fact that the process was grassroots-based, not government-based. Usually transportation planning is done by government officials, who then hold minimally-advertised meetings for public comment that few attend.

By early 1994, the ATP steering committee had hired two consultants and established five committees -- Boone bikeways, Boone pedestrian, Boone mass transit, ASU and a combined committee for Blowing Rock. Each committee met at least twice, preparing preliminary proposals.

On April 11, 1994, 850 people attended the opening session of workshop week and gave their feedback to the preliminary plans. Probably 60% of those attending, says Ayers, were students. Schofield, a student environmental organization and committee members "put the word out in a big way." The right people were there to observe the turnout, including the Chancellor of ASU, the North Carolina Deputy Secretary for Alternative Transportation and Mass Transit and a regional engineer for the North Carolina Department of Transportation.

Largely complete by September 1994, the ATP reports the demand for alternative transportation and assesses current level of service. The crux of the plan are two pages that constitute a five-year Alternative Transportation Improvement Program (ATIP).

Ayers says the top priority is a seven-mile loop around Boone and a five-mile loop around Bowling Rock. Total estimated cost of the ATIP: about $4M.

Unfortunately, the State of North Carolina allocates only $2.2 million a year in Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) funds for bicycle projects of which the maximum annual funding per community is $300,000.

"Most of that money," says Schofield, "has gone to the Durham-Raleigh-Chapel Hill area." In contrast, "the state spends hundreds of millions for road projects. Because of culturalization and the centralized nature of the state department of transportation, it's going to be real hard to make a dent in the armor around road money. North Carolina is called `the road state.' We have more miles of road than any other state."

Competing for bike funds

But Boone and Bowling Rock, with the first ATIP in North Carolina, will compete aggressively for state bicycle funding. The community made such a strong political statement of support that Schofield has been able to channel City of Boone resources toward survey work and right-of-way and easement acquisition in order to fast track Boone's $300,000 proposal to construct a third of the town's seven-mile loop.

Because Bowling Rock's loop is entirely within state highway right-of-way, the Department of Transportation has already approved $300,000 to construct a 1.6 mile leg.

"The fact that Bowling Rock has received money so rapidly," Ayers says, "is evidence of DOT's pleasure about the comprehensive, community-based nature of our planning process."

Schofield and Ayers plan to take their model of ATP to other North Carolina communities.

"If every community did this, the pressure on the state would be such that the $2.2 million would balloon," Ayers says. In the meantime, they pursue other options. "We're looking at a $10 per student fee," he notes. "That'll raise $100,000 a semester."

To get the attention of ASU Chancellor Frank Berkowski, the student environmental organization entered a recent homecoming parade, bearing a huge sign: "Open the bank, Frank."

Barbour County, W.VA. at work on 5 main points of strategic plan

Strategic plan focus:
• Boat docks built
• Youth Build Program
• $500,000 state grant
• New industrial park

"Everyone began to feel the effects," resulting in a 19 percent unemployment rate, said Lisa Sharp, executive director of the Barbour County Office of Economic Development. The BCOED was created by the lead agency in this Champion Community's planning process, the Barbour County Development Authority.

Adding to the devastating unemployment rate was a community politically divided over whether a major landfill development would be invited into the county. Something was needed to bring Barbour Countians together. That something was the EZ/EC application process, which was marked by the creative manner of finding links among the goals which county residents wanted to pursue.

The process, and the hiring of Sharp at the front end rather than after the plan was completed, has helped Sharp act as a liaison among the five organizations under the BCOED umbrella.

"They were working on many of the same problems individually that we're addressing now; they just weren't able to create the linkages,' she said.

Beginning with the more traditional effort of recruiting industry to an area, here's an example of how Barbour County's linkages work:

Making linkages work

Business development doesn't come without infrastructure. One of Barbour County's main problem is the lack of public water to all areas of the county, Sharp said.

The source of the county's water is the Tygart River, a river popular with rafters in the spring and fall leading planners to the next link, tourism.

Boat docks have been built on the river and a hiking trail is being planned on an abandoned railroad right-of-way donated to the City of Philippi.

In addition, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been directing their efforts to the well-being of the Tygart River. The focus of their studies has been to preserve the river's fish population and to lessen the threat to two small municipalities in the county that are regularly flooded. And one thing leads to another.

The county is moving ahead in the pursuit of the five main goals outlined in the 10-year strategic development plan it produced for the EZ/EC application and at times, it makes needed adjustments.

For instance, housing and vocational education were a part of the application.

"We've needed to improve our housing availability for a long time. We now have an FBI fingerprint facility a half-hour away in Clarksburg, West Virgina, so we need more housing in order to be a `bedroom community,'" Sharp said.

"Youth Build" program

The creators of the EZ/EC strategy plan wanted to develop a training program for the county's young people tied to housing and to the manufacture of prefabricated housing components.

"But now, instead of doing it ourselves as in the plan, we've joined with a neighboring county's program called Youth Build," Sharp said.

The young people are trained to build homes, and they are paid for their work. The project provides affordable housing and each student gets a salary, the possibility of earning a GED, books and tools that they can keep.

"We are very excited about the opportunities that this program can provide to the residents of our county," Sharp said.

The state of West Virginia is lending a hand to Barbour County to implement its strategic plan with a $500,000 Small Cities Block Grant as first-year support of a two-year effort. The state has made the offer to each of its Champion Communities.

Many new employers have been enticed to the county's newest industrial park, including a plastics plant which will, when in full production, employ some 35 people. The county has also landed a furniture manufacturer employing 25 people, a limestone quarry and a 40-unit motel.

FEDA grant: targeting industry

A recently completed economic development strategy funded by a grant received from the Federal Economic Development Administration targets desired future industries and has initiated a database of industrial properties.

In pursuit of a well-educated and technologically literate work force, new curricula have been adopted at the Barbour County Vocational Center and Philip Barbour High School. County residents also now have Internet access at the Philippi Public Library.

To improve the delivery of health care services, the county is helping to develop a resource directory of area social service agencies and the services they provide. The West Virginia Rural Health Care Network is surveying area health care officials to better coordinate health care services and eliminate obstacles to rural health care.

Barbour County's goal to improve infrastructure to meet all other goals involves working with the WV Housing Development Fund on financial assistance and low-interest loan programs for low and moderate income families; working with government entities on multiple projects to improve highway access to and through the county; and in several current projects helping to renovate water and sewage treatment plants in the county.

"The planning processes we've gone through have really increased the understanding of people that it is necessary to plan for the future," Sharp said. "At first, it was difficult when we asked them to visualize what they wanted for the county in 10 or 20 years. It's hard to get them to dream."

Now, Barbour County residents have been able to set aside their differences, Sharp said, adding that "We've learned a good lesson about the benefits of working together."

Delta town helps kids by helping their parents:

Strategic plan focus:
• Job training for mothers
• Special programs to help young black men
• Parenting, literacy and child care programs
• Operating three community businesses

Serving the Marvell School District, population 6,700, BGACDC was a partner to Champion Community Mid-Delta Community Services, the submitting agency for the EZ-EC application.

What began as a project to save young African American men, has evolved into a comprehensive community development organization.

Marvell: An impoverished town

Beatrice Clark Shelby, executive director since 1982, says, "We found out children weren't going to school because they didn't have current immunization. Every time we did one project, we found another piece missing. We discovered that to serve youth, you had to develop a holistic approach of helping parents."

Shelby pictures poverty in the Marvell area as, "dilapidated housing, children running around with no where to go for recreation, no pools, no movies, no jobs, no bowling alley or up-to-date library and streets with holes."

The goal of BGACDC is to produce a community with affordable housing, a health system accessible and affordable to all residents, an education system that promotes the education of children and adults, no spousal abuse and young adolescents -- especially young black men -- encouraged andenabled to reach their full potential. In short, Shelby says the goal is to make a model community of the Marvell School District.

With a core staff of four, BGACDC operates on a $700,000 budget, of which $90,000 is rental income from a 39-unit, low-income housing complex purchased with $1.4 million in Farmer's Home Administration financing. Another $18,000 is income from a restaurant and $11,000 is from child care services provided.

BGACDC's many supporters

Foundations like W.K. Kellogg, Robert Wood Johnson and Winthrop Rockefeller chip in, so do agencies like Arkansas Better Chance, the Delta Health Education Center and the State Alcohol and Drug Use Prevention program.

Revenues fund an array of projects, a sampling of which includes: a summer day camp where staff train youth in reading and literacy while providing arts and cultural programs and nutritional meals; a Job Training Partnership Act program to train mothers in construction trade skills; a first-time home buyers program for low-income families; and a HIPPY (Home Instruction Program for Pre-School Youngsters) program that prepares mothers to become their children's first and most important teacher.

In addition to its holistic approach, another key principal at BGACDC is shared-decision making.

The Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation is putting BGACDC staff through a training program called Training Community Organizations for Change (TCOC). It also applies to BGACDC's relationship with their clients.

An eleven-member board of directors, 300 dues-paying members, an advisory committee for each BGACDC program component and regular parent meetings are strategies to make BGACDC representative.

But being representative isn't difficult when "we're providing services for ourselves, our brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews. We live with the people we serve."

Louisiana tribe producing 300,000 pine seedlings in '96

Strategic plan focus:
• Straw-baling project
• Forest Service pine seedling project
• Pine seedling nursery
• American Indian arts/crafts shop
• Working to upgrade access road
• High school tutoring program

Recognized by the State of Louisiana but not yet by the federal government, Neal points out that the Clifton Choctaw are ineligible for the various and sundry economic development programs that target recognized tribes. Nor does Louisiana provide assistance.

"Indians are on the bottom of the totem pole," she says.

Established in the early 1800's by runaway Indians from the Trail of Tears, the Clifton Choctaw are struggling to trace genealogy and meet the seven criteria for federal recognition, a process that Neal describes as taking 10-20 years. However, Neal adds, "The tribal council not only serves Clifton but also 13-14 nearby communities of poor whites who are worse off than we are because they have no leadership."

Presently 326 Clifton Choctaw live in the area, about 85 households. Neal considers the EZ-EC program "business-as-usual" because it left her tribe out in the cold.

Well, maybe not cold. Not in west Rapides Parish where the real problem isn't weather but the worst road -- "crooked with pot holes all over the place" -- in the entire parish.

That road and access for a new tribal business are high priorities of Neal, who says, "We need help with infrastructure to attract industry."

After a successful straw baling venture between Kisatchie National Forest and the tribal council, the Forest Service offered the Clifton Choctaw tribe the opportunity to become the first and only growers of containerized long leaf pine seedlings in the state.

Five-year-contract

Neal says it's a good business because "they're cutting everything in the world down here, and my people are familiar with trees. We grew up in the forest and swamps."

1994 was the first year of a five-year contract to supply the Forest Service with containerized seedlings. Neal and her husband helped capitalize the first growing season, which produced 100,000 seedlings. An FMHA loan financed the second season when the tribe produced 200,000 seedlings.

Next, the Administration for Native America -- just about the only federal agency, says Neal, that will help unrecognized tribes -- provided a grant that will fund the cultivation of 300,000 seedlings in 1996. Now the tribe wants a grant from FMHA for an access road for the nursery off Highway 28 West.

500,000 seedlings by '98

Adjacent to the nursery is the American Indian Arts/Crafts Shop built with a $19,000 grant from the Campaign for Human Development. With contract production increasing annually by 100,000 increments, the Clifton Choctaw will supply the Forest Service with 500,000 seedlings by 1998.

The growing season begins in late April, when workers plant seeds in greenhouse flats. Several times over the growing season, workers prune back the seedlings. In December or January, the Forest Service plants them. The seedling business provides four year-round jobs and Neal hopes to develop another 15 or so seasonal jobs.

"You have to understand that our people are the last hired and first out," she says. "If someone can get $100 a week, they can pay a utility bill. Right now young men have to travel to south Louisiana to work any oil field job available to pay utility bills and feed their families."

Education ranks right up there with roads. Neal is "in cloud nine" that four Clifton Choctaw young people graduated from college in 1992, with another two to three in college now.

No more drop-outs

"College used to be a foreign word. Matter of fact, high school was a foreign word," she says.

Just five years ago 85-95% of students dropped out. No longer. For the last five years, not one Clifton Choctaw student has dropped out. Neal credits the accomplishment to a program that provides tutoring services two evenings a week.

But there's always the possibility that having Anna Neal knock at the door is another incentive.

"I tell my people the only way out of poverty is education," Neal says.

Using Ford Foundation CDC model, community creates many programs

Strategic plan focus:
• Adopted Ford Foundation CDC model
• Founded agriculture park
• Operating fish processing plant
• Planning other value-added farm products
• Issues microloans to community entrepreneurs
• Teaching business skills to low income people
• Church Project works on jobs, daycare centers

"We don't have any jobs over here," explains Executive Director Martha Locke. "Plants have moved out. Job opportunities are very, very slim."

The seven-county population dropped from 175,974 in 1980 to 160,405 in 1990. To further clarify the situation, Locke adds, "When you grow up and your neighbor is in the same shape, you don't realize you're poor. You think it's a way of life. You may or may not go to school. We have a lot of unmarried mothers and low birth-weight children."

A model promoted by the Ford Foundation , Community Development Corporations (CDCs) are nonprofit organizations dedicated to revitalizing urban neighborhoods or rural areas.

Established in 1991, Delta's first major project was a panelized house manufacturing plant. It went bankrupt due to undercapitalization and management problems. The number one lesson, says, Locke, is "You need someone to work with the project that knows what they're doing." Delta is responsible for the defaulted $275,000 loan. "It's still choking us. We have to repay it without anything to show, and it put Delta in a bad position with creditors."

From that failure, "The board of directors learned a lot and want to make sure they run the fish plant differently."

The fish plant is part of a fifty-acre agriculture park funded by $1.5 million from Farmer's Home Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services. Ten of the acres are presently allocated to a Delta-owned, for-profit venture designed to fund the nonprofit operations.

Morning Fresh fish plant

Morning Fresh is a 11,200-square-foot facility with a fish-processing plant on one side and vegetable processing planned on the other. The strategy is to add value to local commodities. Nearly operational, Delta is in the process of hiring a management team to operate the fish plant, which will hire thirty workers and produce catfish filets, steaks and breaded products. Presently, Delta has leased the other forty acres for soybeans but is considering other ventures.

"We're looking at waste recycling and producing catfood, dogfood or compost from fish by-products," she said.

Aside from direct job creation at the plant, Delta hopes a local processing facility will encourage more farmers to go into fish production.

"We figured if we did a for-profit ourselves, we could expand our own business skills and create capital for other ventures," Locke says.

Loan funds aid entrepreneurs

Having good business skills within the organization (four paid staff, one Americorp volunteer and one Vista volunteer), is crucial, considering Delta's major focus on loan programs.

Delta uses funds from two federal lending programs -- Small Business Administration (SBA) microloans and the Rural Economic and Community Development's Intermediary Relending Program (IRP) -- to capitalize entrepreneurs who have a solid business plan but can't get credit from a bank. Delta gets about $140,000 in 2% money from SBA a year and has made thirty microloans ($1,000-$25,000 in amount) for projects like daycare centers, working capital and an ethnic clothing store.

"These are loans that banks say are too small or cost too much to write up," Locke says.

IRP money can finance loans up to $150,000. Delta applied for and received $1 million of the 1% money of which they have lent $600,000 for a fish farm, a beauty/barber boutique, a washateria in Albury and a granary in Cotton Plant.

Delta offers technical assistance classes and individual tutoring on topics like inventory control. They are in the process of creating videos of their training program. Locke says, "We help people work on whatever they're weak on."

Grant funds Church Project

Funded with $130,000 from Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, another key initiative is the Church Project -- economic development to black churches.

"The ministers are working on job creation projects. Some have established daycare centers and CDCs," she said.

With 127 churches working collaboratively, the Church Project is focusing on developing a resale business for slightly damaged goods. Soon a delegation of ministers will travel to Africa to explore markets there.

Denmark, SC strategic plan: Focus on helping youth & families

Strategic plan focus:
• Summer youth recreation
• School tutoring program
• Families First Program
• Business development plan
• Historic renovations
• Promoting tourism
• Building a park, gazebo

Elona Davis became Denmark mayor on the platform, "Every citizen is an asset." Once elected, she initiated a public involvement process that entailed public meeting upon public meeting, and the new tradition continues.

"A small town can die," she says, "if everyone doesn't feel a part. It takes diversity to make a small town, or any town prosper."

Tapping into the genuine interests and concerns of citizens has led to a renaissance in this Champion Community. "I get a warm , such a warm feeling from our meetings," Mayor Davis says. Every action in Denmark seems to breed more action; now a quilt of initiatives patches holes in the community fabric.

The origins of poverty in Denmark go way back. Before integration, black students attended the Episcopalian Voorhees high school and junior college where teachers had a caring attitude and a concern for families.

After integration, black students moved into the previously all-white high school where teachers, often from out-of-town or out-of-state, did not have the same caring concern for families. As white families transfered their children to private schools, public schools suffered financially.

Later, the Sunbeam plant, a mainstay of the local economy, closed. "When there is no job to go on to, some families don't place a value on education," explains Davis.

Illiteracy, teen pregnancies, no jobs

Poverty and breakdowns in the economy and social structure have all contributed to a high drop-out rate. Not adequately prepared or qualified for meaningful jobs, young drop-outs would start a family and have a lot of children.

Shortly after Davis' election, a group of young adults came to her and "expressed concern about the condition of young people. They felt deprived of cultural, recreational and social activities."

This group, initially composed of twelve young adults, became the Outreach Committee. The first thing Mayor Davis did, in consultation with the committee, was to set-up a summer recreation program. Over 300 youths attended daily.

Looking at youth concerns

This success gave the youth more hope and inspired them to participate in the EZ-EC planning process. One student ran (albeit unsuccessfully) for city council; others, help with an after-school tutoring program. Now the Outreach Committee is more representative of the community at large, but it continues to look at youth concerns and the dynamic of poverty. One strategy is social development; the other, economic development.

The Denmark Creative Learning Center and the Families First program deal directly with the community's social context. "When young people realize they have support and interest it makes a difference; it restores confidence and creates an interest in learning," Davis says.

Creative Learning Center

In a building leased by the city, Denmark Creative Learning Center operates an after-school homework center. Volunteer teachers, including students from Voorhees College and Denmark Technical College, assist children from primary, middle school and, occasionally, high school between 3:00 and 6:30 weekdays. Suspended students, who before spent their days downtown on the streets, are a new target for Learning Center services.

Meanwhile, the Families First program bridges the gap between the State Department of Social Services and the interfaith community. Representatives of various churches cooperate to both identify and meet the needs of individuals. For example, an elderly woman without family needed transportation for medical treatment. The young manwho agreed to provide transportation got so involved with her that he visited regularly and helped her move.

The Outreach Committee's economic development efforts center on attracting new businesses and encouraging tourism. "All viable downtown business spaces are now occupied," says Mayor Davis. Additionally, she has three new prospects on the line.

Known as the dogwood town, Denmark is becoming a tourist attraction. Hometown artist Jim Harrison created a dogwood stencil that citizens painted on the city water tank. Through forestry grants, the community planted $40,000 in new trees.

The City of Denmark, at minimal expense, financed the restoration of the old railway depot, which won a South Carolina Downtown Development award.

Park, gazebo, block cleanups

With $240,000 in Intermodal Service Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) funds, the city will construct a new park and gazebo downtown. City-wide block clean-ups are a new routine and so is dealing with abandoned homes.

"We're also renovating the old Dane (as in Danish, as in Denmark!) Theatre downtown, as a civic center. It was one of the first theatres in the area," Davis says. "The Downtown Development Association solicited contributions to purchase the theatre, then the city took over ownership, holding fundraisers and allocating money for renovation. With a minimal amount of work, people couldn't believe what they saw."

Heritage Corridors

Denmark is in an envious position geographically located at the intersection of Highways 78 and 321, two new "Heritage Corridors" destined to draw visitors. The Highway 78 Corridor runs from Charleston on the coast to Oconee County, Georgia, while the Highway 321 Corridor runs from Colombia, South Carolina to Savannah, Georgia.

"People who say `it can't be done' or `you'll never change things'," according to Mayor Davis, have been the biggest hurdle.

But Governor David Beasley didn't acknowledge Mayor Davis with a Rural Summit Leadership Award last year for nothing. "I respond that even if you have differences, if you have common goals, you can work together."

EZ/EC brightens future for residents of East Prairie, MO

Strategic plan focus:
• Constuction of recreation complex
• Education incentive program
• Welfare-To-Work Progam
• Family developmemt programs
• Futures Program for teen parents
• Senior citizen and youth latchkey programs
• Industrial park & job training

The City of East Prairie, Mo., and the Epworth Bootheel Family Learning Center proposed a joint project to improve its workforce. One part of the plan, the big part, will build a $1 million recreation complex. Another part, a smaller one, is to offer a season's free pass to the swimming pool for students who don't miss any school during the year.

"We think that's one of the reasons for our success," said Kathie Simpkins, East Prairie city manager. "We listened to the people in our community."

Although agriculture "has been our salvation" and has stayed steady or grown, due in part to crop diversification, "more is needed," Simpkins said.

About 56 percent of the population age 25 and older has no high school diploma; there is a high illiteracy rate, a high drop-out rate, many unskilled workers, and many on welfare.

The plan calls for the development of a Systematic Education Incentive Program. "We'll go into the schools and find out what it is that would motivate students to stay in school." Community leaders are being trained to work with schools and make contact with students.

Incentives are possible for older people, too, Simpkins said.

"In the 25-60 year old group, if they're on the Welfare-to-Work program, we could give them credits toward making a down payment on a car if they get their G.E.D. We've even talked about an incentive program toward getting a down payment on a Farmers Home Administration house."

Family development programs are high on the East Prairie-Epworth list. To combat the high juvenile delinquency rate, the Epworth Center has established a program for high risk kids.

"Epworth sees the family as a unit. They have 30 families in their program now, who are on assistance. The adults are now in G.E.D. and the family receives self-esteem classes to help them learn to change their lives, how to make a budget and how to communicate," Simpkins said. 

Epworth sees an expansion to 60 families thanks to the EC designation. The state Economic Development Department has helped toward that goal with a $117,000 tax credit. A local bank that owns the facility will donate the building to Epworth.

The City has also contracted with the State Division of Social Services under its "Futures Program." A case manager has been hired to work with teen parents, the result being that 22 teenagers are now back in school or have graduated, and are in college or vocational technical school. The program provides transportation and child care, and the students pay the program back by producing a newsletter and going into the schools to discourage other students from getting pregnant or dropping out of school.

Other family programs will be centered around the East Prairie Recreation Corp.'s family recreation facility. Once the facility which will include softball, baseball, tennis and lots of other recreation is constructed, two latchkey programs are planned. One will target students who are at high risk of dropping out; it will provide tutoring (with the aid of the parents) and require 45 minutes of homework right after school. Then it will organize activities for play. A similar program already underway at Epworth has seen grades on standardized tests rise above the state average.

The second latchkey program will serve senior citizens with programs in addition to the noonday meals they now can receive.

By 1997, this Enterprise Community plans to have a two-family model duplex. One would be a crisis facility to shelter women and children from abuse; the other would house a model family who has been trained through Epworth, who have overcome their own family problems, to serve as mentors to the crisis families. To build these duplexes, local carpenters are training interns a link with the need for job training since there is no building trades program at the high school anymore.

The city plans to purchase land for an industrial park and to construct a 50,000-square-foot "speculative" building to try to attract new industry to East Prairie. With luck, the job loss seen in the county in the last four years more than 500 jobs when Brown Shoe Company, a printing company and others closed can be turned around. The City has secured the property owned by the bankrupt printing company and a new industry which employs 130 people started production in August, 1995.

Hurricane, recession & defense downsizing wrack SC county

Strategic plan focus:
• Seeking nonprofit 501 status
• High school level job training
• Emergency medical service
• Water supply plan
• Creating scenic loops
• Revamp/build city parks
• Weekly church letters

The Champion Community (composed of the towns of Bowman, Holly Hill, Providence, Santee, Vance and Elloree in eastern Orangeburg County, South Carolina) is now incorporated by the state and working on 501(C)(3) nonprofit status.

According to S.B. Marshall, chairman of EOEC, "We're on a shoestring budget. Funding is a problem. Businesses and churches have supported us some, but businesses could donate more, support us more." Marshall is also chairman of the school board, pastor of two churches and owner of a funeral home.

Public Outreach

EOEC does, however, maintain an office staffed with volunteers and Americorp workers. Outreach is one thing that EOEC does very well. Rotating from community to community, meetings of the steering committee continue monthly.

"We have three or four newspapers, so they all send reporters to publicize what we do. That helps a great deal. We send publicity letters to churches that are read on Sunday morning," explains Marshall. EOEC also uses radio announcements.

The goals developed for EZ/EC haven't changed, Marshall points out, "but the timeline has because we haven't had the wherewithal." The current impetus is in job training, health care, infrastructure development and beautification.

Career opportunity alliance

An alliance between the high school and Holnem Cement Plant has led to conferences between teachers and plant staff and workshops for students. By making students aware of career opportunities with Holnem and developing a curriculum that produces qualified workers, Marshall hopes that "people can stay home and make a good living."

"Jobs at Holnem start at $30,000 and go up. Georgia Pacific is working with us also in the same capacity. We have to find jobs for these young people to keep them here," Marshall says.

He adds: "We're concentrating on health also. We have an emergency set-up now between Holly Hill and Vance. The response time is shorter. Before, it was a trip of 65-70 miles."

EOEC got emergency medical service by going up "in great numbers" to lobby the county council.

The simple, indispensable ingredient of water oftenforestalls economic development in rural areas.

"Our area -- the lower eastern part of Orangeburg County and the upper part of Dorchester County -- are joining together. We'll have an ample supply for any industry coming to the area," Marshall says.

Beautification projects

Margaret Uzzle, another civic leader, explains beautification efforts.

"Part of the idea is to attract tourism, part is to generate pride," she explains.

The Highway 78 "Heritage Corridor, a trail to attract tourism into rural counties" runs just south of Bowman. The idea of a Heritage Corridor came from Abbeville, South Carolina, which had parking problems that led to a county meeting that led to the idea of attracting tourists in route to the Olympics in Atlanta.

Abbeville County applied for a grant from the state Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism (PRT), who then got interested. "It was a grassroots effort. PRT now manages the program; they consult to help counties develop resources along the route," Uzzle says.

Scenic loops off Highway 78 will draw tourists deeper into the flatlands of eastern Orangeburg area. One attraction will be the renovated depot at Holly Hill. CXS Railroad donated the building, while the city purchased the land. Next they secured Intermodal Service Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) funding to renovate the building, which will become a civic center.

"There will be a pictoral museum on the walls; it will honor different people of all races," says Uzzle.

Repairing & building parks

United Telephone is funding work at Roy Gilmore Park that will restore damage done by Hurricane Hugo.

"It's a quiet park with pathways and places to cook out with families," she says.

A retired banker donated the land for new J. Francis Folk Park, which Uzzle describes as an active, as opposed to a quiet, park with Little League and other athletic fields.

"When asked what he considered the impediments to the strategic planning implementationprocess, S.B. Marshall said, "We have a multiracial group working together, but we always have a segment of those who would rather not be multi-racial."

Federation of Southern Cooperatives wins EZ/EC designation

Strategic plan focus:
• Expanding existing industry
• 1,000 new jobs in 10 years
• Rural Training Center
• Loan & equity investment fund
• Infrastructure investment fund

The process was the planning that led to a successful Enterprise Community application of Greene-Sumter Counties, including six census tracts that are among the poorest in the state.

"Here was a project where blacks provided for the community something that couldn't otherwise be available," said John Zippert, director of operations for FSC.

The Federation, a community-based organization, had brought in many dollars since 1967 when it was founded, "but much of the money before was considered special interest," Zippert said.

The EZ/EC Program offered incentives to draw people together who hadn't been on board before, Zippert said.

"There was some resistance between the two counties at first, some turf battles. Some people went with us (FSC) on faith. When people have needed help in the past, we have come to their aid," Zippert said.

But FSC's main reason for success, Zippert said, "is that the EC program is from the bottom up, as democratic and as open as possible, with participation from the unemployed to the president of the bank."

Zippert said that developing a willingness to work is hard. "Once you get there, people are willing to volunteer their time hundreds of hours of time in meetings, taking surveys. It's a collective spirit. The poorer among them know they don't have the resources on their own, but if they pool what the do have, you begin to make progress."

In the midst of progress, it's important to "keep the mission in front of us. We try not to get clouded now that the money is coming," Zippert said.

The money will be used for a wide range of goals outlined by the EC community. One thousand new jobs in 10 years is the anticipated result of expanding existing industries, recruiting new ones and developing small businesses.

Rural Training Center

Literacy, basic adult education and employment skills through the Rural Training Center sponsored by the FSC and Land Assistance Fund (LAF) fall under the plan's education and job training targets.

Other goals include improving infrastructure, health care, housing, environmental quality, transportation, recreation, culture and law enforcement.

Partnerships formed by the planning process have brought in many players who weren't at the table before, Zippert said.

"We have banks, business interests who weren't in before, and county and city officials who had done a little with housing before but this has really opened up a lot of possibilities," he noted.

The Credit Union and Farmers Association were members of FSC before the application. "We have good representation on steering committees, good communication through our community network," Zippert said.

Tapping the resources

The EC plan builds on natural strengths and locational advantages, Zippert said. The EC leaders identified the natural resources of the area (timber, sand, gravel, limestone, lignite coal, good soils and forestry) as well as the "people resource." Despite few educational opportunities, "we have a large workforce of skilled, semi-skilled and trainable people," Zippert said. He estimates 11,000 workers in the two counties.

The workforce will be interested in the jobs created by the location of a new Mercedes Benz automobile plant in Vance, Ala., 50-75 miles away. "This makes us a prime location for spin-off and suppliers industries," Zippert said.

Among the EC's successes here is the securing of a plant to mount and balance tires which will employ 30-40 persons.

Zippert is proud of the economic development, but he recognizes the need for community development as well. "This is an area of tension that remains," he said. "Some people say the money should be used only to create jobs. But what about day care? It's needed too."

Zippert says this kind of tension is healthy. "Every project will have to go thorough multiple screens."

But he has seen the traditional kind of economic development fail. "We got the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway and Black Warrior River Barge project. There never was much development," he said. " Infrastructure by itself doesn't bear up."

Establishing loan funds

The plan for $2.6 million of the EC money is to set up three flexible funds: a revolving loan and equity investment fund of $1.5 million; an infrastructure investment fund of $500,000; and an education and training fund of $600,000. The remaining $350,000 will be matched to cover costs for staff, operations and administration.

Zippert has problems with one of the directions the operational money has to go.

"The state of Alabama is taking 3 percent of the money as an administrative fee. We bargained them down from 10 percent. That equals $88,500. If Japanese industrialists were coming in here to build a $3 million plant, the state wouldn't charge them to locate a plant here. Why do they need to take 3 percent of this money?"

Still, Zippert is excited about how FSC has proved that it can bring people together and be successful in such a large proposal. "We are getting some measure of grudging support from those who thought we'd mess it up. Now that we have the grant, people treat us like a person with lots of money."

FSC's strength is success. "We are a community-based organization with 25 years experience of being on the outside and knowing how to organize to get political representation and funding for the projects we sponsor."

HERO's welfare-to-work program:

Strategic plan focus:
• PRIDE Center
• Family resource center
• Hiring office staff
• Juvenile detention center

"Up in the north part of the county, near Moundville, they're benefitting from the rapid growth of Tuscaloosa," said William (Sonny) Ryan, chairman of the nonprofit organization which was the lead agency in Hale County's EZ/EC application. "They're just 15 miles from Tuscaloosa; we're more rural down south."

But the division isn't stopping Ryan and others from all parts of Hale County from being HEROs members of the Hale Empowerment and Revitalization Organization, now a Champion Community.

Springing from a solid strategic plan to improve the plight of more than one-third of the county residents who live in poverty, HERO will soon be hiring a director and a staff of four or five.

"We're about to get $400,000 from the state of Alabama and various agencies and nonprofit corporations," said Ryan. "They like what we've done."

What they've done since they got together to make a bid for EZ/EC funding is join hands with a local industry, and with help from the state and local universities, alter dramatically the lives of many of Hale County's poor people.

The industry is Southern Pride Catfish, which employs 600-700 people in Hale County where most of Alabama's catfish production is centered. Southern Pride purchased a mobile home and named it the "PRIDE Center."

"They work with the Department of Human Resources and screen the women who come in there for welfare. DHR picks out 12-15 women who are unemployed and the women report to work at the PRIDE Center to work and also get life skills training," Ryan said.

"These are women aged 20-40 who may never have worked in their lives to support themselves," he said.

Since May, the public/private partnership has been

instrumental in getting 40 women off welfare. "And Southern Pride gets a much higher retention rate from these employees," he said.

Approaching the problem of unemployment with training in mind, HERO proposes to build a Family Resource Center, a place where all social services can be housed together.

"It's like a one-stop for welfare, housing, classrooms for job skills training, day care and G.E.D. And the people using the facility will get parenting training as well because they will act as assistants for the day care center," Ryan said. A manufacturing plant on site, perhaps a sewing plant, will provide on-the-job training.

Juvenile center proposed

A partner with HERO is another organization Ryan chairs: the West Alabama Youth Services (WAYS). It has in the works a plan for a regional juvenile detention center to be built on the same site as the Family Resource Center. The detention center would provide work for Hale Countians, and the other buildings in the complex would provide much-needed services.

"We want to build a group home, a shelter for abused children, training for unwed mothers and alternative schools," Ryan said.

The alternative schools are needed to prevent the "planting of criminal trees," Ryan said. "The way the law is now, if a kid is found with weapons or drugs in school, he must be expelled. We need an alternative for these kids and also for those expelled for behavioral problems." Otherwise, said Ryan, who speaks with authority as a district judge, the youths often turn to crime.

HERO is also concerned about its residents' health care. The problem is getting there. "We have limited transportation, so it is difficult for people to get to the medical care providers." But, Ryan said, while public transportation needs to be expanded, another solu-tion would be to take the medical care providers to the people.

"WAYS has received $75,000 from two different state agencies to develop five centers throughout the county which would provide community centers as well as health services," Ryan said. "That way, everyone can get services just by traveling two or three miles, not 20."

Providing social services

Five agencies providing social services would also use the centers each one visiting one day a week at each of the five centers. The idea of bringing social services to the people has been done already at Southern Pride. "Employees can get their social services needs met while they're still on the clock," Ryan said.

Ryan said the innovative ideas of HERO are the product of "a good group." In a county where 60 percent of the residents are black, and traditionally black and white residents have not worked together, Ryan sees some hope.

"We held community meetings in rural churches and people would have meetings at their houses. Before this process, we seldom would have seen white people going to a black person's house for a meeting. When I saw that, I knew it would work. We have overcome the race barrier in HERO."

Laughing, Ryan tells of an even more unexpected partnership: "Why, we even got Auburn and Alabama working together!" The two universities, rivals in the sports arena, have given HERO invaluable help in planning and evaluation.

What's in the future for HERO?

Ryan sees the possibility of self-support through income from the juvenile detention center and the manufacturing center. If not, "we'll get a grant." After all, Ryan said, that's what has made HERO a success so far: "Perseverance."

Loans, grants help Florida county to address housing dilemma

Strategic plan focus:
• USDA RECD $6.3M loan
• New single-family housing
• Housing rehabilitation program
• Development of rental housing
• Airport Authority created
• Industrial Park proposed

Just 45 miles east of Naples, in an agricultural belt, is Immokalee with a per capita income of only $5,600, a pocket of poverty.

According to Fred Thomas, Vice-President of the Immokalee Foundation, 80% of vegetables and citrus grown in the United States between November and March are produced in the greater Immokalee area. The need for seasonal labor to harvest crops of tomatoes, cucumbers and oranges makes Immokalee a port of entry for new immigrants.

Thomas says the population around Immokalee is 65% hispanic, 11% Haitian and the rest are black or white.

"Housing is very short," Thomas stresses. "A farm working family often spends $175 a week for a trailer. People park RVs in their driveway for extra rental income or rent out their garages. Take an old crew bus, paint the windows, remove the seats and you can get $50 to $60 a week without interior facilities."

Founded in 1991 by descendants of the Collier family for whom the county was named and largely funded by a charity event called The Horse Trials, an equestrian event with dressage, stadium jumping and cross-country competition, the Immokalee Foundation set out to improve both the outside perception of Immokalee and the reality of poverty.

"Housing and economic diversity are our main needs," says Thomas. "NAFTA is having a major impact, causing packing houses to close down because of competition with Mexico."

Failing to attain Empowerment Zone status hasn't slowed the initiatives generated by the citizens of Immokalee. Thomas credits much of Immokalee's success to the personal interest shown the Champion Community by FMHA official Jan Shadburn, who visited Immokalee several times to help the community implement its plan.

USDA's Rural Economic and Community Development division has loaned $6.3 million for new single family housing, the rehabilitation of existing housing stock and development of rental housing for farm workers.

Other partnerships play a role in attracting capital. Funding for 80 additional units of farmworker housing is pending. To assist the project, Barron-Collier, a large farming corporation, donated 18.5 acres; Collier County waived all impact and other fees; and a local attorney donated legal services.

"Trying to identify resources is an ongoing barrier," states Thomas. Considering the $12 million in loans and grants approved for rural housing ($6.3 million) and water and sewer projects ($5.7 million), plus another $5.3 million pending for health care facilities and $5.2 million for farmworker housing, other communities might covet such a barrier.

Immokalee models a stick-to-it philosophy. Striking out on Empowerment Zone status, a bid for a USDA research lab and state of Florida Enterprise Zone status -- all big prizes -- Immokalee has moved its plan forward a piece at a time.

In addition to housing initiatives, Collier County and the business community of Immokalee are working together to update what Thomas calls a "jewel."

"It's an old World War II airport with long runways that were used for touch-and-go landing practice. It didn't have much infrastructure for an airport. We've created an airport authority and plan an industrial park there too," he said.

Other projects like a phased expansion of Naples Community Hospital into Immokalee and water and sewer projects are also making headway.

With 45% poverty, Mississippi county aims to boost business & jobs

Strategic plan focus:
• Speculative industrial building
• Community college "Rapid Response Team"
• Plan to boost civic pride
• County catalog of goods, services
• Small business incubator
• Family Matters Conference participation

"Mississippi has one of the better job-training systems in the nation," said Gary Matthews, director of the KCEDA, the lead agency in the community's EZ/EC application. "And we're in a strategic location," set in the middle of several hubs of economic activity.

"We're 25 miles from a major Indian casino, so that we can benefit from the tourism by commercial development along a local highway," he said, "and we're the same distance from Meridian (MS) which is in a major growth spurt."

Faced with massive unemployment, at times up to 26 percent, a 70 percent loss in population, 45 percent of its population in poverty and more than 50 percent of the county's residents commuting each day to work in another county, DeKalb was in a viscous cycle of poverty.

"Add to that the fact that of the people who do live here," Matthews said, "73 percent don't pay property taxes."

The tax exemption is available to persons in Mississippi who are qualified as disabled. "Many are not truly disabled," Matthews said. "Some just get a physician's excuse and present it to the tax collector, and the tax collector has to, by law, grant an exemption."

Only 27% pay property taxes

Matthews and others concerned with the impact of this law on small communities have gone before the legislature to try to change it. "The legislators aren't willing to end it because it's too popular."

With only 27 percent of the county's residents paying taxes, DeKalb has found itself hard-pressed to come up with the money needed to provide the infrastructure to lure industry to the area. So as early as 1984, residents began strategic planning.

"We now have the funds to build a speculative industrial building as a tool to offer industry moving in here," Matthews said. "And with the work we've already done, we've added 1,100 jobs. They're still low-income jobs, and we want to emphasize higher paying jobs, but we need the facility for that."

TVA & ARC fund building

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) are the funding agencies for the speculative building.

Once the building is completed in the 200-acre industrial park, Matthews said, the county can call in the "rapid response team" from East Mississippi Community College.

"When an industry is interested, the colleges come in and train the workers needed, whether it's fiber optics, laser or advanced computer logic, they can handle it."

Because Kemper Countians have, for so long, had to leave the county for work, making it a bedroom community to Meridian, "there is a lack of pride in our city," Matthews said.

So, KCEDA has plans for improving civic pride, as well. "We will make a major push in the next year," Matthews said. "The first is to organize the business people to work together toward a common goal."

With so many leaving the county every day for work, "there are few people left to do business here, and they are poor. We lost well over 60 percent of our businesses in the last 30 years."

The mentality, Matthews said, was to go to Meridian to shop, so the businesses in Kemper didn't work together. "They thought they were in competition for what little money was spent here," he said.

To help the businesses work together, and to help residents in the county understand what is available there, the KCEDA has developed a catalog of goods and services available in the county.

"The small businesses in the county are divided among rural routes and telephone exchanges, so that most calls within the county are long distance. People are reluctant to call around to find out where they might find what they want. With the catalog, residents know they can buy what they need right here in the county and keep the income and sales tax revenues here at home."

The catalog has been printed in mass quantities anddistributed through banks, city hall and other public places.

Another boost is the Small Business Incubator. "We're one of few rural incubators in the nation," Matthews said.

The KCEDA got several grants to get the incubator started and two more are helping expand it.

"It's a sheltered environment for new and expanding businesses. They share services and have low rent. We help them get up and on their feet, because most small businesses fail within the first five years," Matthews commented.

While an 80 percent success rate for small businesses incubated in such environments is impressive, Matthews warns small communities to be careful with incubators.

"It's the hardest economic development task to undertake, because you deal on a daily basis with struggling businesses. Every day is an emergency; their problems are your problems."

Another major area of concern for KCEDA is family issues.

"With help from the ARC, we're involved with other residents in the Meridian Trade Area, which makes it a two-state effort with Alabama," Matthews said.

Family Matters Conference

The Family Matters Conference in Merdian will teach financial management, parenting skills and communication skills to those who attend.

The KCEDA has asked for foundation funding to help some families afford transportation, and after the regional conference, "we hope to have a local conference," Matthews said.

Kentucky project capitalizes on local people, resources & culture

Strategic plan focus:
• Mountain Arts & Culture Center
• Attracting "cultural" visitors
• Promoting tourism
• Grassroots Database
• Marketing local products
• One-Stop Capital Shops

Encompassing all or part of four counties in eastern Kentucky's Daniel Boone National Forest, the Flat Woods project concentrates on using local products and people and on retaining capital locally.

"The people here know the problems of the area, and they need to develop solutions that blend into their culture," Arnett said. "For too long, the mountain poor have been encouraged to blame their own culture for their problems. This project is a way of embracing the culture as we find solutions."

Flat Woods was incorporated six months before the EZ/EC legislation was enacted. Although the project did not receive EZ/EC designation, Arnett sees Champion Community designation as an aid to other funding avenues.

At the heart of the project to create jobs and improve job training is the Mountain Arts and Culture Center. While it is designed to attract tourists and their dollars, thus providing strong incentive for the preservation of the area's natural beauty and the development of better roads, the Center also will serve as the hub of many community development endeavors and services.

"You can't view the Arts and Culture Center as a physical facility," Arnett said. "First of all, in addition to the multipurpose building planned, there will be centers of activity scattered throughout several hundred thousand acres.

"Beyond that, we see the project as a way of attracting not tourists, but what I call cultural visitors. Many of these will be people who had to leave Kentucky in the 1950s for jobs and who are retiring now. They have been visiting the area anyway, but now they'll have even more reason to come back for family reunions, community reunions and to teach their children and grandchildren more about their roots," Arnett said.

Supplying the lifeblood to the project is the Grassroots Database. It will be a repository not only of ideas and resources for planning and marketing local goods wood products, hand-made quilts, local produce but also of information about the local culture. It will even compile a list of former residents who have left the area and their whereabouts.

This establishes a link to outside markets more receptive to local products and provides a potential source of expertise to share with the local residents.

Tapping retiree expertise

"The people who left eastern Kentucky by the tens of thousands in the '50s still call Kentucky home," Arnett said. "They may live in Ohio or Michigan, but this is their home. We hope many of them will retire and return here, bringing their expertise to young Kentuckians, teaching them valuable job skills that will help sustain our economy."

Other job-creation ideas include tying placement of apprentices to the availability of financial assistance for new businesses, and the establishment of a "One Stop Capital Shop" to help small businesses or homeowners get the money they need.

"Eastern Kentucky has always had the natural resources and the human resources," Arnett said, "but we've never had the capital."

While local government does work to attract outside industry, Arnett said importing industry does little to sustain the local economy. "It may offer wages to our workers, but it drains wealth and natural resources and sends the profit out of state. We need to retain profit from industry."

Arnett said the Flat Woods corporation has begun preliminary discussions with Rural Economic Community Development toward a $2 million revolving loan fund for small business.

Working on housing grant

In addition, Flat Woods has been designated as a Community Development Housing Organization by the Kentucky Housing Corporation, a nonprofit organization through which Housing and Urban Development monies are distributed. Flat Woods has received a $10,000 administrative grant to begin work toward a half-million-dollar grant.

Ambitious though it may be, the Flat Woods project provides an inspiring model for Champion Communities. Serving one of the highest concentrations of poverty in Appalachia, the project seeks to educate and elevate its residents by helping them to rely on themselves.

Oklahomans unite; receive EZ/EC status in "last hope" effort

Strategic plan focus:
• $2.9M in EC funds
• $735,000 RECD loan/grant
• Creating tourism plans

Before the planning process, there was a separtist movement: each community for itself; each county for itself. And Stewart adds, "as much hostility between McCurtain and Choctaw counties as there used to be between Indians and whites."

Launching the process was a matter of staging a public meeting,