7/12/2006

On July 12-13, the City of Chattanooga is hosting a delegation of public and private sector officials from Guatemala. The seven members of the group are visiting the United States to study examples of the federal Renewal Communities program and how it can serve as a model for creating similar “opportunity zones” for economic development in their country.

 This official visit to Chattanooga and two additional cities is sponsored by the Inter-American Foundation (IAF), an independent agency of the U.S. Government. Chattanooga has been recommended as a particularly good urban case study by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), along with its very successful Renewal Community program. The group will also visit rural program models in Yakima, Washington and Booneville, Kentucky.

 Accompanying the delegation are the president of the Inter-American Foundation, former U.S. Ambassador to Honduras Larry Palmer and two program representatives.

 In the course of their 24-hour mission, the visitors will learn about Chattanooga’s experience with community visioning and goal-setting, citizen participation, public-private partnerships, affordable housing, law enforcement, streamlined government services, clean transportation, tourism, and the leveraging effect of employment and investment tax incentives. (See the attached agenda for additional details.)

 In recognition of the visit, the Mayor has proclaimed Wednesday, July 12, 2006 as “Guatemala Day” in Chattanooga.

 The special designation is especially appropriate. There are estimated to be more than 5,000 residents of Guatemalan origin in Chattanooga, thanks to a geographically unique pattern of immigration and settlement.

The delegation will visit Renewal Community (RC) neighborhoods, including the Southside and Alton Park; tour commercial development projects and the HOPE VI housing development, both recipients of RC federal tax incentives; and meet with City and County officials.

In addition, the delegation will receive briefings on the La Plaza Comunitaria education services of Chattanooga State, and the faith-based assistance programs of La Paz de Dios and St. Andrews Center.

An afternoon reception with the resident Spanish-speaking community will be joined by Guatemala’s Consul General for the Southeast, Hugo HUN Archila. A dinner on the North Shore will explore import and export trade opportunities with Chattanooga-based business owners.

On Thursday morning (July 13), the group will make a tangible contribution to the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Bicentennial Library in the form of current reference materials on Guatemala. This information is intended to be of interest to all those involved in working with the country and its people. The subjects in the set of CDs include language, culture, travel, government, economics and commerce. Library Director David Clapp will receive the gift at 9:00 am in the first-floor reference section.

The Chattanooga program has been coordinated by Jim Frierson, vice chairman, Advanced Transportation Technology Institute, and Maria Noel, manager, Renewal Community, The Enterprise Center.

The IAF is an independent agency of the United States government that provides grants to nongovernmental and community-based organizations in Latin America and the Caribbean for innovative, sustainable and participatory self-help programs. The IAF primarily funds partnerships among grassroots and nonprofit organizations, businesses and local governments, directed at improving the quality of life of poor people and strengthening participation, accountability and democratic practices. To contribute to a better understanding of the development process, the IAF also shares its experiences and the lessons it has learned. To learn more about the IAF’s involvement with local development, log onto the IAF Web site, www.iaf.gov

 At the November 2005 Summit of the Americas in Argentina, President George W. Bush urged other Heads of State to join him in supporting an initiative to create Opportunity Zones. He committed the IAF to work with national governments to support the creation of up to ten zones in up to five Latin American countries, and to invite proposals for activities related to such zones. The zones were inspired by the experience of similar initiatives in the US, begun in the early 1980s as “Enterprise Zones” and subsequently modified by successive Federal administrations as “Empowerment Zones” and finally “Opportunity Zones.” The idea surged in the context of the block-grants movement in the early 1980s, and was initially championed by Secretary Jack Kemp at HUD. The non-partisan idea drew strongly from the community development movement of the 1960s and ‘70s and added a strong dose of community self-governance and support for small-business development.