Community Development

Community Development Technical Assistance Handbook (Revised 2005)

Community Development Toolbox Resource Links

Presidential Initiatives in Tennessee

Rural Development in Tennessee works closely on important Presidential Initiatives.

The Empowerment Zone & Enterprise Communities (EZ/EC) Program for rural communities is one such program. Tennessee is fortunate to have had three communities designated as Enterprise Communities.

The three designated Enterprise Communities in TN:

1)Scott County,TN/McCreary, KY. Scott/McCreary EC was designated in 1994 (Round 1) and completed the ten year designation in 2004.

2) Fayette/Haywood Counties, TN. Fayette/Haywood EC was designated in 1994 and completed the ten year designation in 2004.

3) Clinch-Powell EC was designated in 1998 (Round 2) and is currently active and will complete the 10 year designation plus one year extension in 2009. Clinch-Powell EC consists of the counties of Claiborne, Grainger, Hancock, Hawkins,and Union in TN.

Rural Development works closely with the citizens in these communities to develop additional leaders in the community and promote the physical, economic, and human infrastructure. Our goal is to assist these communities to accomplish their vision of the future.

The communities who applied, but were not designated, are considered Champion Communities, which we continue to assist.

Since the designations were made, numerous projects have been successfully implemented. This initiative has allowed the communities to identify their own needs and opportunities, developing local approaches to address those needs and form partnerships with public and private resources to accomplish their vision. Working together we have created an entirely new way of doing business for Tennessee distressed communities.