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Connecting community assets to market demand to build lasting livelihoods.

Economic Development Success Stories

Appalachia Energy Efficiency

Clean and lean: Building wealth… efficiently!

Appalachian Kentucky, where coal has been king, is a region in need of new economic engines. Persistent poverty and high unemployment mark the landscape. There is hope, however, in clean energy market opportunities that emphasize energy efficiency and renewable sources...

Appalachia Wood Products

Wealth from forests: Doing wood right

Small sawmills and woodworking shops — a staple across central Appalachia — have been hit hard by rising overseas competition and the recent economic recession. Early attempts to encourage a viable green construction materials industry in the region fell short of the mark. But a new social enterprise is showing success...

Arkansas Biofuels

Camelina: Biofuel for thought

Thanks to its agrarian roots, the Arkansas Delta has a surprisingly strong tradition of small business entrepreneurship. That enduring heritage may soon find renewed vitality, thanks to a breakthrough green energy technology, a group of enterprising family farmers, and a gutsy local development collaborative...

Black Belt Arts and Crafts

Education Amplifies Arts and Crafts Value Chain

In the early 2000s, Alabama Tombigbee Regional Commission, Ala-Tom Resource Conservation Development Council (RC&D), and the University of Alabama Center for Economic Development worked together to inventory assets for a tourism initiative...

Deep South Community Agriculture

Back to the future: Food, farms and renewal

The Deep South has a strong agricultural history, but too many resources are concentrated in the hands of a few. Now a group of African American farmers in Mississippi and Alabama are banding together to serve local customers in three budding “hot spots,” to increase their yields and application of...

Mid-South Food LINC

Growing the Local Food Economy through the Mid-South Food LINC Value Chain

Growers in the Mississippi River Delta areas of Arkansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee have a long history and deep knowledge base of growing a variety of types of produce and other crops. Communities Unlimited (CU), a nonprofit community development organization that works in seven southern states...

Montana Entrepreneurship

Lewistown, MT: Building Strength from the Center

The small city of Lewistown is situated near the geographic center of Montana, a picturesque community that lies along the banks of Big Spring Creek surrounded by five mountain ranges. Its location has inspired the town to embrace the slogan “Find Your Center” as part of its tourism promotion efforts...

New Hampshire Recreation

Rec after hours: Human-powered recreation brings partners together

The bonds between natural resources, communities, and generations of travelers run deep in New Hampshire’s North Country, home of the White Mountain National Forest. But efforts to increase tourism in high-amenity areas like this can threaten natural resources and their value to both residents and visitors...

New Mexico Cooperatives

Cooperative Model Brings People Together

In Mora, New Mexico, approaching challenges cooperatively has created benefits and opportunities for this small, rural community. Most residents are low income, and many are also of Native American or Spanish descent. The local nonprofit Collaborative Visions, along with county commissioners, business owners...

North Carolina Textiles

Employee Ownership Pays Off

Successful pairing of demand for American-made textiles with the work of small firms in western North Carolina and regions in the surrounding states is making the region’s economy more resilient. These businesses provide not just jobs for the region’s residents, but opportunities to build wealth and control...

Oregon North Coast Seafood

Lifting All Boats in Northwest Oregon

Efforts to develop the small-scale seafood value chain in Garibaldi and Tillamook County date back to 2013 when Rural Development Initiatives (RDI), an Oregon-based non-profit that supports economic development in rural communities, launched a pilot program to encourage rural regions throughout the state...

Southeast Ohio Food

Marketing Scales up Regional Food Systems

Rural Action, ACEnet, and their partners work to increase economic success for the region’s residents by providing connections to potential buyers and seeking opportunities to add value to the region in several ways. Farmers can market directly to household consumers and to buyers for restaurants, food banks...

Upper Peninsula Tourism

Come on UP: The Great Waters fine!

Michigan’s Upper Peninsula (UP) is a region rich in natural, cultural and tourism assets, but until recently, these assets were disconnected from the outside world and one another. Building on a creative vision and strategic commitment of a regional non-profit, eastern UP stakeholders came together to collectively develop...

Specialties: Local Food, Placemaking, Renewable Energy

States served: Minnesota

Additional details: Enhancing the vitality and quality of life in Cass, Crow Wing, Morrison, Todd and Wadena counties is the mission of Region Five Development Commission. Resiliency, inclusion and collaboration are guiding concepts in achieving mutually shared goals that continue to evolve with local municipalities, state, federal, philanthropic, non-profit and social advocacy agencies.

Contact: Cheryal Lee Hills, 218-894-3233

Mailing address:
200 1st Street NE, Suite 2
Staples, MN 56479

Alternative contact: Dawn Espe, 218-894-3233

Website: http://www.regionfive.org

Specialties: Food, Forestry/wood products, Tourism

States served: Idaho, Oregon, Washington

Additional details: RDI was formed in 1991 in response to the timber industry crisis facing the Pacific Northwest. Our nationally recognized programs and services help communities help themselves with effective and results-oriented training and resources necessary for individuals living in rural communities to build and sustain a better future in their communities. Our work is based upon our genuine commitment to build rural capacity through Leadership Development programs and strengthen Rural Economic Vitality through moving capacity into action.

Contact: Amy Hause, (541) 255-9590

Mailing address:
Rural Development Initiatives
91017 S Willamette St
Coburg, Oregon 97408

Alternative contact: Heidi Khokhar, (541) 684-9077 ext. 7011

Website: http://www.rdiinc.org/

Specialties: Food, Forestry/wood products, Housing, Tourism

States served: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming

Region details: RCAC serves 13 western states including: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. We also work in the U.S. territories of the Marianas Islands, Marshall Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Additional details: RCAC Value Chains, economic development and Wealth Works are embedded in RCAC’s Building Rural Economies program. With over 10 years of experience in these arenas we technically assist communities who wish to envision and create their future.

Contact:
Carol Cohen, 435-671-7068

Mailing address:
3120 Freeboard Drive
Suite 201
West Sacramento, CA 95691

Alternative contact: Ellen Drew, (575) 421-0261

Website: http://www.rcac.org/community-economic-development/wealthworks-west

Specialties: Energy efficiency

States served: Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming

Additional details: Midwest Assistance Program (MAP) has been helping communities and tribal nations find solutions to their infrastructure and development needs through information, resource management, expertise, and technical assistance since 1979.

Contact: Chris Fierrros, 660-562-2575

Mailing address:
303 N Market Street, Suite 2
Maryville, MO 64468

Website: http://www.map-inc.org

Specialties: Bio-energy, Food

States served: Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas

Region details: Communities Unlimited serves seven southern states: Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee. Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Alabama. This is an area that includes 60% of this country’s persistently poor counties, including large percentages of African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans.

Additional details: Communities Unlimited has 40 years of community economic development experience in the South. It seeks to move rural and under-resourced places toward prosperity by identifying a community’s assets and the market demand for the products or services created from those. We then build value chain collaboratives based on WealthWorks principles to create new economic opportunities. Since 2013, we are demonstrating the success of this approach through a farm-to-fuel value chain in the Arkansas Delta.

Primary Contact:
Martha Claire Bullen, 479-443-2700

Alternative Contact:
Ines Polonius

Mailing address:
3 East Colt Square Drive
Fayetteville, AR 72703

Alternative contact: Debbie Luther, 870-509-1331

Website: https://www.communitiesu.org

Specialties: Arts, Food, Forestry/wood products, Tourism

States served: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont

Additional details: Community Roots, LLC is a Vermont firm specializing in rural community and economic development consulting. Melissa Levy of Community Roots, LLC has been working with the WealthWorks framework over the past several years. She’s been a trainer, coach, workshop facilitator, and presenter in the WealthWorks community.

Contact: Melissa Levy, 802-318-1720

Location: Hinesburg, VT

Website: http://www.community-roots.com/wealthworks

Specialties: Arts, Energy efficiency, Food, Forestry/wood products, Manufacturing, Tourism

States served: Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia

Additional details: The Central Appalachian Network is a regional network of six anchor organizations that pursue collective sustainable economic development strategies across the Appalachian region of Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee. CAN builds regional partnerships and also works deeply at the sub-regional level around sectors and opportunities including local food value chains, forestry, new energy, small business development, social enterprise, recycling/upcycling, implementation-focused research, advocacy, and organizational capacity-building. CAN’s members are Appalachian Center for Economic Networks (ACEnet), Appalachian Sustainable Development (ASD), Coalfield Development Corporation, Community Farm Alliance (CFA), Mountain Association for Community Economic Development (MACED), Natural Capital Investment Fund (NCIF), and Rural Action.

Contact: Leslie Schaller, 740-592-3854

Mailing address:
1456 C Patton Avenue
Asheville, NC 28806

Website: https://www.cannetwork.org