Empowering Arkansas’ Rural Communities

New Program is making counties better prepared for industry and worthy of a closer look.

By Daniel Christopher

Every rural community is unique, but many of them face the same challenge: not having the resources to devote to full-time community and economic development.

In Arkansas, a new and highly innovative program is tackling that challenge. In the process, it is empowering leaders in rural counties to drive their own growth and be better prepared for the industry that comes calling.

The program, called "Powering Rural Development" or "PRD," is a collaborative effort of Arkansas State University’s (ASU) Delta Center for Economic Development and the Electric Cooperatives of Arkansas, one of the top electric generation and transmission cooperatives in the nation. PRD is provided at no cost to qualifying counties and offers a well-organized approach to building critical mass that can attract jobs and corporate investment.

Over three years, a total of nine Arkansas counties will be chosen through a competitive selection process to participate in the project. The counties will receive on-site training and technical assistance along with coaching in rural strategic planning, organizational development, collaboration and project management.

Through involvement in the program, the rural counties will develop a comprehensive strategic plan, which will include an implementation, organizational and resource mobilization plan. Entrepreneurship, technology and regionalism also will be emphasized in the process; all with the goal of helping communities become better business locations.

Program organizers note that PRD is not a cookie-cutter approach. Rather, it is designed to be responsive to individual community needs and to identify the best development approach for a particular area. "As each county is different, we build the strategic planning process in concert with community leaders to ensure appropriateness and buy-in," says Jerry L. Smith, director of ASU’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) University Center for Regional and Community Development. "Our job is to bring the latest and best in regional economic development training, education and facilitation to the process, so that the communities are empowered to continue it on their own."

While the program is still in its early stages, two counties officially have been designated as PRD participants. They are Sharp County in northwest Arkansas and Poinsett County in the northeast part of the state. PRD, though it has only been up and running for a few months, already has brought previously competing towns together, Smith says, and has generated excitement and hope within the two selected counties.

Increasing Community Partnerships

Smith notes that one driving factor for PRD is the recognition that rural communities must pool resources to truly compete. To participate in the program, counties are required to develop partnerships with at least one adjacent county, encouraging neighboring areas to work together as they prepare for growth. When communities pool resources, they have more to offer a prospective company. Locating companies also win since they don’t have to give up on parts of their "wish list" to choose a rural area.

"The idea (for PRD) originated on our way home from a countywide meeting on economic development," Smith says. "There were three neighboring towns represented at the session, each with populations around 3,000. None of them had a full-time economic development professional nor did any of them have a strategic plan for economic development. Individually, they lacked sufficient resources and economic development assets to operate effective and sustainable economic development programs."

Rallying County Leaders

In addition to bringing neighboring towns together to build critical mass, PRD also is mobilizing county leaders to be more involved in building their local economies. Generally speaking, county leaders are primarily involved with providing funds or in-kind support for new plant infrastructure. Today, in PRD counties, leaders are preparing to take a more active role.

"We felt that as long as communities relied solely on volunteer efforts and had a go-it-alone approach, their effectiveness would be greatly hampered in today’s economy," Smith adds. "Obviously, they need to work together to acquire the sufficient critical mass necessary for such a program. We began to think about what would facilitate bringing them together, and decided that county government was the common denominator."

"Most of our smaller towns just lack the resources to go it alone," says Kirkley Thomas, manager of economic development for the Electric Cooperatives of Arkansas. "County government is their common denominator. It is the strong neutral organizational base that can, at least initially, help neighboring towns combine their economic development efforts into viable strategies."

As PRD matures and touches more counties, organizers have high hopes that its programs will turn many of the state’s rural communities into outstanding, well-equipped business locations. "We hope to have enough variety in how to plan and organize a sustainable countywide economic development program that all of the rural counties in the state will see a way and be motivated to institute their own initiative. We want to ensure that no town is left out and that collaboration and regionalism are the rule of the day," Smith says.

"We are really excited about this program and our partnership with the Electric Cooperatives," he adds. "We think it’s the right program at the right time for rural Arkansas."