Moving Appalachia Forward: ARC Strategic Plan, 2005–2010
Introduction
The Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) was established by Congress in 1965 to address the profound economic and social problems in the Appalachian Region that made it a "region apart" from the rest of the nation. In passing the Appalachian Regional Development Act, Congress established a mandate to focus attention and resources on reducing the socioeconomic gap between the Appalachian Region and the nation through a variety of activities, including advocacy, regional planning, research, and grant making.
The Commission's 2002 reauthorization extended ARC's nonhighway programs through fiscal year 2006 and continued the Commission's work in providing basic infrastructure and health care, and developing local leadership. It also established the Interagency Coordinating Council on Appalachia to maximize the benefits of federal investments in the Region, authorized programs in telecommunications, entrepreneurship, and job-skills training, and reinforced ARC's commitment to economically distressed counties and areas in Appalachia by mandating that at least half of Commission nonhighway project dollars go to activities that benefit these counties and areas. (Map of distressed counties.)
The Appalachian Regional Commission's unique structure is designed to ensure an active federal-state-local partnership. There are 14 Commission members: the governors of the 13 Appalachian states and a federal co-chair. Each year the 13 governors elect one of their peers to serve as the states' co-chair of the Commission. The federal co-chair has one vote and the 13 governors share one vote on Commission decisions. All program strategies, allocations, and other policy matters must be approved by both a majority of the governors and the federal co-chair. This consensus model ensures close collaboration between the federal and state partners in carrying out ARC's mission. Local participation is provided through multi-county local development districts, with boards made up of elected officials, businesspeople, and other local leaders.
Because of its partnership approach, ARC is able to identify and help fund innovative grassroots initiatives that might otherwise languish. In many cases, ARC functions as a predevelopment agency, providing modest initial project funding that is unavailable from other sources. This modest investment leverages other funds, particularly private funds.
Unlike economic development agencies that are primarily categorical grant makers, the Commission performs advocacy, regional planning, and research activities in combination with its special grant programs. No other entity has this regional mandate for Appalachia.
ARC serves as an advocate for the Region by forming partnerships with nonprofits and other agencies;
convening regional and subregional forums; identifying regional initiatives and grant priorities for ARC funding support; setting policies that guide investment of flexible ARC funds, and participating in the work of the Interagency Coordinating Council on Appalachia, which is chaired by the ARC federal co-chair.
Research and regional planning activities include developing a knowledge base of problems and opportunities that supports the work of regional leaders; examining the effectiveness of alternate approaches; supporting strategic planning activities in the states; and partaking in public policy development that benefits the Region.
These unique planning and advocacy activities vastly multiply the influence and shape of ARC's grant programs.
Accomplishments and Challenges
In the mid 1960s, one in three Appalachians lived in poverty and per capita income was 23 percent lower than the U.S. average. In the previous decade nearly 2 million more people had left the Region than had moved into it. Since then, the Appalachian Region has experienced broad socioeconomic improvements, the result of many macroeconomic and social factors, including ARC's activities. For example, the Commission's efforts have helped:
- Cut the Region's poverty rate in half;
- Reduce the infant mortality rate by two-thirds;
- Double the percentage of adults age 25 and older with a high school diploma;
- Create over 400 rural health-care facilities;
- Construct over 2,400 miles of new highways;
- Provide water and sewer services to over 800,000 households;
- Create over 1.6 million new jobs in addition to 766,000 generated by the Appalachian Development Highway System (ADHS); and
- Cut the number of severely distressed counties from 223 in 1960 to 91 in fiscal year 2004.
Although Appalachia has seen clear and substantial progress since the early days of the Commission's work, the majority of the Region's communities still do not enjoy the same economic vitality and living conditions that the rest of the country does. The Region continues to battle economic distress, concentrated areas of high poverty, high unemployment rates, educational disparities, high rates of disease, and population outmigration.
Development of a New Strategic Plan
In November 2003, ARC formally launched a comprehensive strategic planning process to help guide
economic and community development work in the Appalachian Region for the six years beginning in
fiscal year 2005. In the first phase of the process, Commission partners gathered information and input by conducting a comprehensive review of socioeconomic changes in the Region; researching key development issues; holding consultations with ARC state partners and advisory councils; and conducting five field forums across the Region and in Washington, D.C., with citizens, representatives of private, public, and nonprofit organizations, and local development district officials. Approximately 1,000 citizens participated in these field forums. In the second phase, information from phase one was synthesized, and ARC partners identified key issues and prioritized development strategies and activities. The third phase encompassed consensus building.
This process resulted in a strategic plan that defines ARC's vision and mission and outlines four general goals:
ARC's Vision for Appalachia
Appalachia will achieve socioeconomic parity with the nation.
ARC's Mission
ARC's mission is to be a strategic partner and advocate for sustainable community and economic development in Appalachia.
General Goals
- Increase job opportunities and per capita income in Appalachia to reach parity with the nation.
- Strengthen the capacity of the people of Appalachia to compete in the global economy.
- Develop and improve Appalachia's infrastructure to make the Region economically competitive.
- Build the Appalachian Development Highway System to reduce Appalachia's isolation.
See Appendix A for more information on the strategic planning process. See Appendix C for program evaluations and research used in preparing the
strategic plan.
Guiding Principles and Regional Development Roles
To meet its mission, ARC will rely on the following guiding principles:
- Promote homegrown solutions.
- Create sustainable economic development.
- Act as a strategic partner.
- Serve as a catalyst for change.
- Seed innovation.
- Support inclusive local decision making.
- Become a clearinghouse for ideas.
- Capitalize on existing assets.
- Encourage life-long learning.
These principles underlie ARC's four regional development roles: advocate, knowledge builder, investor, and partner.
- Advocate. ARC is an advocate for the Region with federal and state agencies, nonprofits, and other organizations. This advocacy produces increased levels of technical assistance, funding, and policy attention.
- Knowledge Builder. ARC's knowledge base uniquely positions the agency to provide focus on problems and development opportunities. ARC builds expert knowledge through research, regional forums,
advisory councils, and community meetings.
- Investor. ARC creates economic opportunities in the Region by making its funds available for seed capital, gap funding, and investments in innovative programs. In addition, the Commission leverages over eight times the amount of its investment by attracting other investors.
- Partner. The ARC development approach is based on a unique federal-state-local government partnership that expedites project development and solves problems that cannot be addressed by one level of government alone.
ARC's guiding principles and regional development roles provide the necessary framework for successfully implementing the Commission's new strategic plan. This approach underlies ARC's strategy to invest in people; in basic infrastructure, including highways; and in job creation.
Challenges to Implementing the Strategic Plan
ARC can effectively and efficiently implement its FY 2005–2010 strategies and achieve its performance goals, assuming that it obtains sufficient resources to carry out its planned activities. However, several external factors might affect ARC's ability to achieve its goals.
- Economic downturns, which generally hit deeper in the Appalachian Region and last longer, could adversely impact achievement of ARC's performance goals.
- Government regulations and policies could influence ARC efforts to achieve the performance goals.
- ARC is a partnership of 13 states and the federal government that works in concert with 72 local development districts. Budget constraints and policy redirection within the Appalachian states and local development districts can hinder the pursuit of ARC goals.
- Inconsistent or inadequate funding would impact ARC's ability to implement its strategic plan.
- Unanticipated demographic shifts in the Appalachian Region, such as an increase in population aging and high levels of settlement by people with low educational attainment and language skills, could affect achievement of ARC's performance goals.
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