ENTREPRENEURSHIP INITIATIVES

by Mary Emery

Supporting and generating entrepreneurship is increasingly on the radar screens of economic development organizations across the country. Here in the North Central region, many communities are turning to Extension to help them learn more about how focusing on entrepreneurship can help revitalize their economies and encourage young people to return. In order to provide a forum so we can learn from one another, the North Central Regional Center for Rural Development has engaged in three new initiatives.

Listening Sessions on Entrepreneurship
in Rural America

Entrepreneurship has become a national buzzword as well as a national priority for many organizations and agencies working in rural America. When the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the Corporation for Enterprise Development put out a call for proposals to create Rural Entrepreneurship Development Systems, the response from organizations, agencies and communities was staggering—182 collaborations representing more than 2,000 organizations and agencies applied for this grant opportunity.

In an effort to provide a support system for entrepreneurship, the four Regional Rural Development Centers working with Dr. Jim Zuiches, drafted a proposal to the Kellogg Foundation to initiate the formation of the National Coalition for Rural Entrepreneurship that would create the Rural Entrepreneurship Development Program. The focus of the National Coalition for Rural Entrepreneurship is developing entrepreneurial capacity in rural communities and organizations through education, training, technical assistance, research, extension, outreach and demonstration projects.

The RRDCs then organized listening sessions across the country with the collaboratives that applied for the initial Kellogg grant and other groups and organizations interested in rural entrepreneurship. We wanted to learn about what is working well to generate and support entrepreneurship in rural America and how it might work better. The listening sessions were supported by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation; the Northwest Area Foundation; the Farm Foundation; Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service; and numerous local and regional funders, entrepreneurial service organizations, and state Extension programs.

We had originally planned to hold four listening sessions in the North Central region. However, the response astounded us. Interest and demand required that we more than double the number of listening sessions we had planned nationally. In the North Central region we have conducted 10 state-focused listening sessions, one listening session in Indian Country co-hosted by United Tribes Technical College, and one joint state/tribal-focused session co-hosted by Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College.

Those attending the listening sessions often used their own resources to support their parti­cipation and that of others because of their belief in the vital role entrepreneurship plays in reshaping local and regional economies. The listening session participants not only provided excellent input for the national policy agenda, they also made concrete suggestions for organizational efforts at the state, regional and national levels. Most importantly, the listening sessions have facilitated on-going activities, plus stimulated new actions at the state level. On the ground examples include projects in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan and Indiana.

We are looking now for funding to build on the considerable momentum emerging from the listening session process with follow-up work in each region to create region specific councils plus support action at the national level.

Building Local Economies of the Future:
An eXtension Community of Practice

Building on the Entrepreneurship Listening Sessions Initiative, the four Regional Rural Development Centers developed a team to submit a proposal for “Pioneer Communities of Practice” within the Cooperative Extension Service system. Titled Building Local Economies of the Future: Entrepreneurship Education and Information Systems for Rural People and Places, this effort involves building a community of practice around entrepreneurship. The Centers have created a two-step community of practice system—a regional entrepreneurship resource team in each of the four regions, and a core community of practice entrepreneurship team that is national in scope.

The entrepreneurship community of practice is designed to make available nationwide important information and useful tools related to entrepreneurship as an economic development and community-building strategy. The entrepreneurship community of practice consists of one group focusing on the entrepreneur as the end user, and another group focusing on finding, creating and disseminating information for communities interested in becoming more supportive of entrepreneurial activity.

For more information on the eXtension entrepreneurship community of practice contact Mary Emery at memery@iastate.edu, (515) 294-2878.

A Regional Entrepreneurship
Resource Team

As part of the eXtension entrepreneurship community of practice, a regional entrepreneurship resource team has been created in the North Central region. A listserv has been set up, and the group has had four conference calls to date. A face-to-face work session is being planned for the near future. The regional team is interested in sharing ideas about how to help communities become more supportive of entrepreneurship, youth entrepreneurship and business succession planning.

If you are interested in joining the regional entrepreneurship resource team contact Mary Emery at memery@iastate.edu, (515) 294-2878.

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North Central Regional Center for Rural Development
Iowa State University
107 Curtiss Hall
Ames, IA 50011-1050
(515) 294-8321, (515) 294-3180 fax

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Last updated October 13, 2006 .