From another list, more on community development and microenterprise.  You’d think with the latest job and unemployment numbers, Bush & Co. would be interested in small not monopoly enterprises to create jobs.   - KWC

 

People First in Tupelo Model of Development

During the past several months we have looked at different models of community development and their strengths and weaknesses. These include such recognized efforts as Enterprise Facilitation, Economic Renewal, and Asset Based Community Development.  This month we're focusing on the Tupelo Model, a successful economic and community development example. The Tupelo Model presumes that economic development cannot be achieved without community development.

 

From the case study Hand in Hand: Community and Economic Development in Tupelo, authors Vaughn Grisham and Rob Gurwitt describe the guiding principles of this model's success.

Local people must address local problems. Each person should be treated as a resource.

The goal of community development is to help people help themselves.

Meet the needs of the whole community by starting with its poorest members as partners.

Leadership is a prime ingredient. Community development must be done both locally and regionally.

Never turn the community development process over to an agency that does not involve the people of the community.

Expenditures for community development are an investment - not a subsidy.

 

The process can best be illustrated as a pyramid. The base of the process is human development. Much like the core of the Center's community revitalization work, social capital is the target for the Tupelo Model.

 

Capital campaigns and industrial sites cost communities millions of dollars. According to the Tupelo Model, what makes more sense is to invest some time, money, and energy into people first before recruiting business. Broad ownership of the community's economic development will have long-term rewards.  Contact: Michael L. Holton, [EMAIL PROTECTED]

 

Google yielded this for Tupelo model:  http://www.berea.edu/BrushyFork/toolboxHTMLs/tupelo.html

 

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New Homestead Act Introduced in House of Representatives

A companion bill to the New Homestead Act (S. 602) already introduced in the U.S. Senate, has now been introduced in the U. S. House. Sponsored by Rep. Tom Osborne (R-NE) and Rep. Earl Pomeroy (D-ND), the legislation (H.R. 2194) includes the same language as the earlier Senate bill.

 

The New Homestead Act specifically targets counties suffering significant population loss. It takes a development approach customized to rural communities rather than trying to transplant urban business incentive models to the country. The bill recognizes that individual entrepreneurship and microenterprise are the job creators for rural areas and provides appropriate provisions.

 

Sponsors of the Senate bill are Sens. Byron Dorgan (D-ND), Chuck Hagel (R-NE), Sam Brownback (R-KS), Norm Coleman (R-MN), Tom Daschle (D-SD), Richard Durbin (D-IL), Tim Johnson (D-SD), Zell Miller (D-GA), Conrad Burns (R-MT), Kent Conrad (D-ND), Mark Dayton (D-MN), Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and John Rockefeller (D-WV).

 

And here is Center for Rural Affairs Summary of the New Homestead Act @ http://www.cfra.org/resources/summary_newhomesteadact.htm

 

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