The Rural Development Center offered free ‘Spring Training’ workshops to assist local entrepreneurs who wanted to investigate starting a business,optimize current operations or explore expansions in April of 2009.

Each Practice included:

• Scout before you Play: market analysis – product acceptability and market share.
• Strategizing the Game: industry and product trends – your individual analysis.
• The Game Plan: Hone your skills in critical areas during these challenging times.
•  9th Inning: Make your exit your choice.
• Preparing for a Recession.

Each practice concluded with an open session for individuals to receive one-on-one specific training as the coaches were available.

The Rural Development Center is a managed system of entrepreneurial development services that strives to increase the region’s ability to serve the real and immediate needs of existing and proposed business ventures. Services are delivered to meet the demand, fill the gaps and go beyond what is currently available. Group and individual services can be requested along with access to ready product-to-market tools such as BuyIowaOnline.
 
Contact the RDC at 712-623-5521, or visit the website www.EnterprisingIowans.com for information or to schedule a consultation.

REGIONAL FOOD SYSTEMS

Southwest Iowans with an interest in regional food systems and local sustainable agriculture attended a planning meeting for an eight-county Regional Food System on Thursday, April 12th at the Cass County Community Center in Atlantic. There were two sessions to accommodate the most number of participants. Ken Meter made a presentation on "Finding Food in Farm Country", speaking about data he has collected on the subject over a number of years and how it relates to the regional food systems. His presentation was followed with a Q&A session. It was a challenging and fascinating presentation. On his website, crcworks.org, in one of the write-ups it notes that one needs to attend several of these presentations to take in all the information because of the detail in it. That certainly is an accurate statement. Included in his presentation was area specific data that brought the issues very close to home.

"This data often gives people a new way of looking at the farm and food economy. The analysis helps local participants gain a deeper knowledge of the conditions they face," said Meter. Those participating in the meeting were from numerous backgrounds including agricultural production, lending, economic development, political, education, health, retail, and others.

This and future gatherings are the first steps in the development of a strategic plan for a Regional Food System for this area. This plan is called for in a $20,000 grant awarded by the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture and the Value Chain Partnerships for Sustainable Agriculture to a local group known as the Cultivators. The Cultivators is a working group of the Wallace Foundation for Rural Research and Development comprised of organizations from Iowa State University Extension, National Center for Appropriate Technology, Cass County Memorial Hospital, Harrisdale Homestead, and Global Horizons. People interested in more information about the Regional Food System study or to be involved at some level should contact Keith Booth at kbooth@iastate.edu.

Targeted Industry Analysis for free

The industrial assessment process (TIA) will bring insight and information so that scarce resources in rural areas can be maximized towards promoting economic growth and regional stability.

Members might recall Dave Swenson and Lisle Eathington of the Department of Economics at Iowa State University. Swenson presented to Coalition members a top-end, regional industry analysis report a little more than a year ago. Funding is being provided by EDA with matching support from the Department of Economics and CIRAS.

The method by which the data is analyzed provides a working tool for economic development initiatives on either a multi-county or county-specific area. The report, which will be issued, will isolate the region's industrial structure, strengths and opportunities for entrepreneurship. This research, in this type of detail, is not offered by any other public service agency in the state.

Counties within the Southern Iowa Council of Governments are scheduled to have their targeted industry analysis conducted in January. From there, Swenson and Eathington will move to the west and complete the remaining counties that comprise the Coalition membership.

Swenson and Eathington suggest a formal, facilitated process to assist a regional planning group in translating the research-based information into regional policies and regional actions to support economic development.

Turn-out of members and local residents impressive to the Iowans for a Better Future

Iowans for a Better Future (IBF) was originally formed to promote implementation of the Iowa 2010 Strategic Planning Commission - a comprehensive plan to achieve strong and viable growth.

In order to capture grassroots ideas, suggestions and concepts for meeting the state's growth and development issues, the IBF designed a day-long program that it could facilitate at 30 sites throughout the state — the Grow Iowa Tour (not to be confused with our own Grow Iowa Foundation). IBF then contacted the Coalition through referral to see how it could manage the program to capture information from smaller communities recognizing its limitation of 30 sites statewide.

IBF Board Chair, Brad Parks, the SWICO board and coordinator designed a rural tour throughout the Coalition member region. The sites were strategically selected to introduce the IBF board members to the individuality of the region's communities, geography and available development resources.

It was short notice but Coalition members rallied to get out the general public and other members along the tour. Along the stops in Harlan, Malvern, Sidney , Bedford and Greenfield , attendees were present to discuss and share regional development challenges and some examples of local solutions. The tour ended at the Coalition office site in Red Oak for group facilitation. 100 members and residents attended a site convenient to them along the tour — not bad for the middle of a work-week and travel involved.

Brad Parks dubbed it a great day, and further stated that they had visited with more people during the rural tour than they had at any other, one location that had previously hosted the program throughout the state.

Thank you to all the members who assisted with communication and site hosting at the local level.

The IBF is publishing a report on each community (region toured in our case) which will be posted on its Web site at betteriowa.com.

Using Entrepreneurship as a Regional Economic Driver

Don Macke has provided a link to an audio version of his presentation at the June rural summit for those who were unable to attend. You can cllck HERE to download the PowerPoint presentation and listen to the audio.

There is valuable information and accompanying reasearch pertinent to the economic development work in which many of the Coalition members are involved. The September Summit will build off of the conversations and information from the June Summit, so you may want to take some time to listen in and send your suggestions for future exploration about regionalism to the office for committee consideration.

Grow Iowa Expands its Lending with More than $800,000 in New Funding

Grow Iowa Foundation recieved $328,219 from the USDA for its revolving loan fund pool and another $500,000 from grant from the Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund Program of the U.S. Department of the Treasury. These funds will allow Grow Iowa to expand its lending for small business and industrial/manufacturing projects in southwest Iowa. 

The CDFI Fund announced the awards, which total over $52 million to 62 organizations serving economically distressed communities across the nation. It is a highly competitive granting process - the CDFI Fund received 452 applications from organizations across the nation requesting more than $529 million in funding under the FY 2009 round of the CDFI Program.

Rural Development Center previously known as Southwest Iowa Entrepreneurial Center is now a reality

The United States Department of Agriculture - Rural Development announced a $300,000 grant award to the Southwest Iowa Coalition from the Rural Community Development Initiative grant. For more than four years, a working group of regional, primary partners, with a vision to establish a rural development center to support the business start and expansion needs in their rural area, have been piecing together the funding necessary to capitalize the initiative. This latest award, coupled with additionally secured funding, puts the final piece in place to formally begin operation of the Southwest Iowa Entrepreneurial Center with a total of $646,000.

The technical assistance grant program was created by Congress in 2000 to assist in the development or increase the capacity of nonprofit organizations, low-income rural communities or federally recognized tribes to undertake projects in the areas of housing, community facilities, and community and economic development in rural areas. Nearly $6.7 million in technical assistance grants from this funding pool was awarded in March to assist 31 nonprofit community-based development organizations and low-income communities or federally recognized tribes for development initiatives in 20 states.

The Southwest Iowa Coalition, a 14-year old, grassroots, volunteer driven rural advocacy organization, was able to make the application for the grant for use by primary partners committed to founding the Southwest Iowa Entrepreneurial Center. These partners include the Grow Iowa Foundation, Wallace Foundation for Rural Research and Development and Iowa State University Extension to Communities and Economic Development.

"I am proud to be associated and working with the Coalition whose years of success and stability as a regional organization gives us the capacity to secure critical resources when they become available for our rural, local development needs. As it has in the past with other projects, the Coalition and primary partners will support this Center as it develops its organizational structure for sustainability and moves into independency creating one more legacy of success as the Coalition forges ahead with its mission of rural advocacy," states Southwest Iowa Coalition President, Jim Offenbacker of Taylor County's Bedford Area Economic Development.

The Center will serve as the mechanism which can bring all existing providers in the region of technical assistance, programming and education into relationship in order to conserve resources currently being expended to serve business starts and expansions of all sizes. It will be able to provide additional resources that will increase the availability of assistance and then fill the gaps that exist in the region for business development. In addition the Center will have at its disposal concrete product-to-market tools for small and micro-businesses that will allow for them to affordably expand their market in order to increase sales revenue. Because of the Southwest Iowa Coalition's membership of business owners, local governments, chambers of commerce and economic development organizations, the Center will be able to respond in a timely manner to requests for services and programming needed in local communities.

Basic to the success of the Southwest Iowa Entrepreneurial Center is a physical communication and working site that will eliminate the loss of potential business starts and expansions that are inherent in the current networking scenarios between providers. Supporting and collaborating with the primary partners is Southwestern Community College. Its support has led to the commitment of three offices within the Red Oak Technical Center rent free for a two-year start up phase for the Center. Staff and mobile specialists will be hired to serve through the Center and travel as needed and requested into communities at satellite locations throughout the region that will be established.

Counties eligible to be served by the Center are those within the membership and service areas of the primary partners that have a desire to participate. These counties can include: Adair, Adams, Audubon, Carroll, Cass, Clark, Crawford, Decatur, Fremont, Greene, Guthrie, Harrison, Madison, Mills, Monona, Montgomery, Page, Pottawattamie, Ringgold, Shelby, Taylor and Union. Development leadership not currently attached to the project is encouraged to contact the Coalition office at 712/623-5521 or swicomail@mchsi.com for specific community and county inclusion for service or visit www.swico.org. Additional details will also be announced at the April 25th regular Coalition membership meeting. These meetings are open to the public, and reservations can be made by contacting the office.