Champion Communities 

In 1994, more than 220 rural communities organized and completed the valuable strategic planning process as part of their application for Round I of the EZ/EC Initiative.  To assure that their important work produced continuing benefits to these communities, USDA designated them as "Champion Communities" and provided assistance to them.  During Round II, 160 communities submitted applications and 15 of the 25 newly designated rural Empowerment Zone and Enterprise Communities were Champion Communities from Round I.  Since 1999, USDA has formalized the Champion Communities program by inviting all the communities who submitted strategic plans to continue implementing their plans by signing agreements with USDA.

• USDA Rural Development has funded more than $167 million in development projects in Champion Communities since 1998;
• Other agencies have targeted funds and other initiatives to Champions;
• USDA Rural Development has sponsored conferences to train community leaders and promote networking among communities;
• USDA provides targeted technical assistance to Champions and gives them preference points in decisions on project funding.

The following is a current list of states with Rural Champion Communities (47).  Click on the Community Community, that is hyper-linked, to visit their own homepage.

California, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas.