Recommendations for the user of this Powerpoint presentation

1. Recommendations for the user of this Powerpoint presentation • This is a template, the first section tells the global view of the EZECCCREAP program. The second half is where you tell your community’s story. • Please customize as needed, adding slides as necessary, editing titles etc. • It is recommended to add pictures as appropriate, to add life to the presentation and to better convey your community’s story. • Please make sure to delete this slide when done. • Questions: suzette.agans@wdc.usda.gov

2. Rural Empowerment Program Lessons Learned www.ezec.govwww.rurdev.usda.gov Created 5-07

3. Presentation Format • National Perspective • Implementing the program – community perspective • Questions from the Audience

5. Empowerment Program: Quick Look • 1994-2009 • Three application and funding rounds • Ten-year designation/community • Annual funds: $167K-$4million/community • Approximately 60 communities • Only highly distressed communities (35%+ poverty rate) (2 exceptions: outmigration) Benchmark Review

6. Empowerment Program: Quick Look (cont’d) • Wide range of acceptable purposes • Community driven • Objective: Progress during the 10 years • Objective: Sustainability after the 10 years • Leveraging of funds (17:1) • No new applications currently accepted • For more info: www.ezec.gov • EZ-EC urban program at HUD

7. Lesson #1 • This approach works! Many highly distressed rural communities can organize themselves to successfully build a stronger present and future Board –Griggs/Steele EZ

8. Lesson #2 • Target outside financial assistance to make a big difference • Lesson #2A: Support small staff and administrative costs • Lesson #2B: Provide seed money for leveraging • Lesson #2C: Provide reliable funding over ten years

9. Lesson #3 • Target outside technical assistance to make a big difference • Lesson #3A: Provide vehicles (especially conferences) for peer sharing • Lesson #3B: Focus TA on processes with long-term benefits (e.g., broad community participation, board development, financial management, benchmark tracking)

10. Lessons #4 & #5 • Lesson #4: Utilize broad community participation • Lesson #5: Use this opportunity to develop new cadre of leaders Northwoods NiiJii EC

11. Lessons #6 - 9 • Lesson #6: Conduct community assessment • Lesson #7: Develop community strategic plan • Lesson #8: Use evaluation and feedback • Lesson #9: Track progress on plan implementation

12. Lessons #10 -14 • Lesson #10: Work with nearby communities • Lesson #11: Network with other communities • Lesson #12: Build effective partnerships • Lesson #13: Capture and use knowledge from many sources • Lesson #14: Encourage a positive can do attitude

13. Your Community • Insert map for geographic orientation

14. best to show 2 different periods – could include population changes, economic changes, age changes as appropriate to your community Demographics

15. Organizational Structure • Board structure, changes, staffing, and how this has may have changed or the lessons learned.

16. 3 Accomplishments • Good to show pictures along with statements of these significant accomplishments

17. Secrets of Success • Describe how you were able to get to success, especially those items or processes that others in your audience may not know about.

18. Biggest Surprise

19. Cross-Community Collaboration • Lesson learned in this area

20. Challenges • Describe Current or future changes the community faces.

21. Sustainability: the FUTURE • Describe how your community is going to get there or has gotten there.

22. Lessons Learned • Describe others types of lessons learned

23. Conclusion • Conclude with impression or overall lesson learned you want your audience to walk away with.

24. Thank You Questions and Comments?