News

Rural North Carolina in good position to compete globally as long as we innovate, think regionally, Drabenstott says
North Carolina has been hit hard by global economic restructuring in recent years, leading to thousands of manufacturing layoffs. But the state is poised to secure a competitive advantage in the new global economy thanks to key investments the state has made in innovation — the driver of the global economy. And that, according to Mark Drabenstott, one of the nation’s leading rural policy analysts, is why North Carolina’s rural communities are better positioned than many other rural areas of the country today. Drabenstott, the newly-appointed director of the Center for Regional Competitiveness at the University of Missouri-Columbia, was a featured speaker at the center’s 2006 Rural Partners Forum Sept. 13, along with UNC President Erskine Bowles and Lt. Governor Beverly Perdue. Drabenstott told the more than 500 people gathered for this year’s partners event that of the 310 counties in the nation that led the way in economic growth last year, only eight are rural. Rural areas are swimming upstream in the global economy for a number of reasons, he said, but there are key strategies they can and should adopt. First, rural leaders must come together and form economic regions that will think and act as a single unit. Within those regions, public-private partnerships, business alliances and community collaborations should work cohesively. Crafting a regional strategy based on assets and resources is also critical, he said, and should be built largely around entrepreneurs, nonprofits and colleges and universities.

Farmland preservation biggest challenge to agriculture today, farm leaders say in new Rural Center report
With its new report, Fertile Ground: North Carolina leaders speak out on the future of agriculture, the Rural Center presents frank discussions with 20 farm leaders from across the state. The report was released at the center’s 2006 Rural Partners Forum on Sept. 13 as part of a special presentation by state Sen. Charlie Albertson. In it, farmers and policy leaders speak openly about what it means to be a farmer in North Carolina today, how they are struggling to meet the challenges facing the state’s $68 billion agribusiness industry, and the innovations and state polices they believe have the power to ensure farming’s viability for future generations. The report offers a look at the day-to-day realities of keeping a farm in business in the midst of falling commodity prices, vanishing farmland and the shift from a consumer-driven market to one driven by value-added products and emerging technologies such as biofuels development. The farmers and leaders interviewed for the report agree that farmland preservation policies are desperately needed to stem the loss of farmers and family farms, in particular. To receive a copy of the report, contact Courtney Tieman in the communications office at (919) 250-4314.

Many rural small businesses growing fast, center study finds
A surprising number of small businesses in rural North Carolina are growing rapidly, according to the new Rural Center report Creating Entrepreneurial Communities: Facts about high-growth entrepreneurs in rural North Carolina. The report finds that one-third of rural companies doubled in sales and/or employment between 2001 and 2005. The report also finds that the typical rural high-growth business has been in operation 15 years, and is still small, with 20 full-time and two part-time employees. Construction and manufacturing industries accounted for a large proportion of high-growth firms. The center embarked on the study to better understand the factors that drive high-growth entrepreneurs and their ventures because research indicates that these businesses that have the ability to create and sustain homegrown jobs in rural communities. The report is based on 1,145 responses to a questionnaire mailed last spring to businesses that had between five and 250 employees and were either single-establishment firms or had headquarters in North Carolina. The survey was conducted in cooperation with the N.C. Small Business and Technology Development Center of the University of North Carolina system. The two organizations are now engaged in a follow-up study involving in-depth interviews with 20 to 25 rural high-growth entrepreneurs. To receive a copy of the report, contact Courtney Tieman in the communications office at (919) 250-4314.

top of page

Reports and Research

Back on Track: 16 Promising Practices to Help Dislocated Workers, Businesses and Communities
A joint publication released in September by the Rural Center and CFED profiles 16 programs and initiatives from across the nation that have shown success in preventing or mitigating the impact of worker dislocation. The report, Back on Track: 16 Promising Practices to Help Dislocated Workers, Businesses and Communities, offers a variety of options for dealing with the five challenges faced by those who assist displaced workers and their communities: taking preventative action, minimizing the drop in living standards, improving access to reemployment, enhancing workforce skills and fostering entrepreneurial initiative. To receive a copy of the report, contact Courtney Tieman in the communications office at (919) 250-4314.

New report offers insight into building collaborative networks
A new report from the IBM Center for the Business of Government serves as a primer for public leaders who are interested in building collaborative networks across agencies and programs. The report discusses four main types of networks: service implementation networks; information diffusion networks; problem solving networks; and community capacity building networks. The authors emphasize that networks rely on trust and reciprocity as the levers of collaboration and require attention to the management tasks of accountability, legitimacy, conflict, design and commitment. View A Manager’s Guide to Choosing and Using Collaborative Networks.

top of page

Meetings and Events

Teleworkshop for microenterprise professionals to be held Oct. 10
Microenterprise professionals from across North Carolina are encouraged to register for a teleworkshop that will take place Oct. 10 from 10 to 11:30 a.m. The workshop, “From Earned Income to Social Enterprise: Creating a Social Venture for your Nonprofit Organization,” will give microenterprise professionals valuable information on the theory behind social enterprise from REDF, a leader in the field of social enterprise. REDF representatives will help participating organizations determine if a social enterprise strategy is appropriate for them and steps to consider in implementing such a strategy. The workshop is sponsored by CAMEO, the California Association for Microenterprise Opportunity. The only requirements are a telephone and Internet connection. The fee is $35 per phone connection. To find out more, contact CAMEO at http://www.microbiz.org.

E-NC Authority to host third annual wireless conference Nov. 13-14 in Chapel Hill
Registration is open for the e-NC Authority’s third annual Southeast Wireless Symposium and ICT Conference on Nov. 13-14 at the William and Ida Friday Center in Chapel Hill. Again this year, the conference will bring together national experts and community leaders to discuss the deployment of wireless networks. This year the e-NC Authority is expanding the scope of the conference to cover Information Communication Technology, a broader concept that encompasses information technology infrastructure generally, with specific emphasis on broadband Internet technologies and the powerful applications they deliver. This year's event will focus on the new and evolving technical, political, legal and financial issues surrounding municipal broadband deployment. Industry experts and community leaders will present research results and practical hands-on experience derived from case studies on applying ICT to create digital communities and enhance rural life. For registration details, visit the e-NC Authority website.

Center-led team to host Energizing Entrepreneurship training at Sunset Beach Dec. 6-8
A Rural Center-led team working to boost entrepreneurship in rural and minority communities across the state will host an intensive three-day entrepreneurship training in Sunset Beach Dec. 6-8 at the Sea Trail Golf Resort and Conference Center. The training will give teams of community and civic leaders from southeastern North Carolina the tools to improve delivery of services to small businesses and entrepreneurs and critical information on how to build a culture in their community that supports and nurtures entrepreneurship. The training is aimed at teams of three-to-five community leaders, who by day three will have developed local plans for using entrepreneurship as an economic development strategy. In developing the training, the N.C. Rural Center's Institute for Rural Entrepreneurship and the RUPRI Center for Rural Entrepreneurship are working together to adapt their national curriculum to Southern and minority communities. The tuition cost is $275 for each team, including meals and materials. Lodging is not included. Scholarships will be awarded on a competitive basis. For more information, or to register, contact Michelle Hall at the Institute for Rural Entrepreneurship at (919) 250-4314, mhall@ncruralcenter.org.

top of page

At the Rural Center

Rural Center, Department of Commerce award $1.75 million in grants for rural business incubators
The Rural Center and the N.C. Department of Commerce this week announced that seven rural counties and communities will receive a total of $1,750,000 to grow business incubators at sites that support business start-ups and increase the chances of their survival. The town of Bryson City, Hyde County, Jones County, Pender County, the town of Siler City, the town of Star and Watauga County were each awarded a Small Cities Community Development Block Grant. The N.C. Commerce Finance Center will administer the funding, with the center’s Institute for Rural Entrepreneurship providing training and technical services. Rural Center President Billy Ray Hall said the grants will provide the ‘bricks and mortar’ needed to get incubators up and running and attracting homegrown jobs in rural communities. The incubators will offer entrepreneurs the practical help they need to get their businesses off the ground, including free or low-cost office space and equipment, as well as financial, legal and marketing tools. To find out more, contact Leslie Scott at the Rural Center, (919) 250-4314.

top of page

From the N.C. Press

N.C. Associated Press: Ernesto caused $59 million in agricultural losses, Troxler says
Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler said last week that estimated crop damage caused by Tropical Storm Ernesto has now risen to $59 million, up $9 million from last week's estimates. "There's going to be a lot of hurting people down there, no question about that," Troxler told other members of the Council of State at its monthly meeting. Ernesto, briefly the season's first hurricane, dumped between 8 and 12 inches of rain on eastern North Carolina two weeks ago, causing flooding in Duplin and Pender counties along the Northeast Cape Fear River and forcing more than 100 people from their homes. "This could turn into a 20, 25 percent loss, and that will be pretty devastating," he said. But the damage amounts in some areas may not reach the threshold needed to surpass to receive federal aid, Troxler said. Gov. Mike Easley said emergency management officials are still tallying individual storm damage, but he doesn't expect the amount to reach levels necessary to receive a federal disaster declaration. That means the state, not the federal government, will cover 75 percent of the damages that qualify for emergency assistance.

Winston-Salem Journal: Hunt throws support behind immigrant education
Former Gov. Jim Hunt urged education leaders from across the country last week to help illegal immigrants gain access to higher education. Hunt threw his support behind a state bill proposed last year that would have given immigrants in-state tuition if they attended a North Carolina school for at least four years, graduated from one of the state's high schools and signed an affidavit promising that they intended to pursue citizenship. The bill died after a firestorm of counterattacks and after several legislators withdrew their support. "It's the right thing to do. They're children of God, and they ought to be treated right," Hunt said. Hunt was one of many speakers at a national higher-education conference on college access and affordability held this week at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. About 150 admissions, financial-aid and other higher-education officials from private and public colleges talked about how to educate an increasingly diverse generation of American college-age students, at a time when other countries are outpacing the United States in the number of young adults who have a college degree.

Winston-Salem Journal: Mountain population aging, according to Census Bureau
The elderly population in North Carolina's northwest mountain counties has increased markedly in the past five years, according to recent U.S. Census Bureau estimates. Census data in a statistical area made up of Ashe, Watauga, Avery, Mitchell and Yancey counties show that 17.6 percent of the household population now is older than 65. That compares with 11.7 percent of household population older than 65 in North Carolina as a whole. From 2000 to 2005, the Census Bureau reported a 15.7 percent increase in household population of people older than 65 in the five Northwest counties, increasing from 17,106 people in the 2000 census to 19,790 in 2005. Experts attribute the population growth to improved medical care and an increase in the number of people retiring to the region.

top of page

Copyright by N.C. Rural Economic Development Center, Inc. 2002. We encourage you to share this UPDATE with interested individuals, organizations, or agencies. Material may be reproduced in electronic or print form. We ask that you please cite the Rural Center as the source.

Your subscription to this electronic newsletter is for Rural Center use only. We will not distribute or share your email identification with others. To be removed from this mailing list, please send an email to ruralpartners@ncruralcenter.org with unsubscribe in the subject line.

The mission of the North Carolina Rural Economic Development Center is to develop, promote, and implement sound economic strategies that improve the quality of life of rural North Carolinians, with a special focus on individuals with low to moderate incomes and communities with limited resources.

N.C. Rural Economic Development Center
Michelle Taylor, UPDATE editor
Courtney Tieman, UPDATE production manager
Elaine Matthews, vice president for communications and development
4021 Carya Drive, Raleigh, NC 27610
(919) 250-4314 Fax: (919) 250-4325
www.ncruralcenter.org