Glacial Hills Resource Conservation & Development Region, Inc.

HomeTown Competitiveness

Introductory Session - March 30, 2007
Youth Attraction - April 27, 2007
Charitable Assets - May 18, 2007
Entrepreneurship Session - June 8, 2007
General Overview of HTC Program

Home Town Competitiveness Workshop Series
Introductory Session - March 30, 2007

Does your community:
• lack opportunities for young people to stay and prosper or return and prosper?
• have unmet potential for new business development?
• seek to develop a broad and varied cadre of leaders?
• worry about the future of businesses on Main Street?
• need new resources to support development efforts?

If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, we invite you to come and learn about Home Town Competitiveness (HTC), an Award Winning Approach to Community Development that earned the 2004 Innovative Program Award from the International Community Development Society.

What differentiates HTC from many other development efforts is its primary focus on internal resources and assets. The goal is to assess where a community is, here and now, and to build on the current capacity of four elements. HTC is not a cookie-cutter approach; rather, it is a dynamic framework within which communities engage to identify approaches and actions appropriate to their goals. HTC, which originated with five community clusters in Nebraska, is now drawing significant national attention in many regions of the country.

HTC is a “come back/give back” approach that focuses on the four pillars of rural community building:
• Mobilizing Local Leaders
• Energizing Entrepreneurship
• Engaging and Attracting Young People
• Capturing Wealth Transfer.

Rural practitioners across the nation are calling HTC “the best on-the-ground development model for today’s rural communities.”

This is an opportunity for community members and development practitioners in our region to explore the potential value of this powerful approach to the issues and opportunities facing our rural communities. Lunch is provided.

WHEN:
• Friday, March 30th, 8:30 am - 4:00pm

WHERE:
• Netawaka Community Center

WORKSHOP FACILITATORS:
• Craig Schroeder, Senior Associate, RUPRI Center for Rural Entrepreneurship
• Leon Atwell, HTC Kansas Lead and Senior Associate, RUPRI Center for Rural Entrepreneurship

SPONSORS:
• Glacial Hills Resource Conservation & Development Region Inc.
• Northeast Kansas Rural Business Development Program
• Jefferson County Economic Development Commission.

AGENDA:
• 8:30 am Registration, Coffee, & Networking

• 9:00 am – 3:00 pm Craig Schroeder will be presenting a detailed description and overview of the HTC history, process, and outcomes to date.

• 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm Q & A Session and Wrap-Up

Please refer to the registration form for detailed registration information.

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Home Town Competitiveness Workshop Series
Youth Attraction - April 27, 2007

Engaging and Attracting Youth is the focus of this HTC Workshop in the series covering the four pillars of the Hometown Competitiveness (HTC) award winning community development model:
• Energizing Entrepreneurship
• Capturing Wealth Transfer
• Mobilizing local leaders
• Engaging and Attracting Youth

Does your community:
• have a deliberate plan for keeping young persons in your community?
• provide opportunities for youth to learn about entrepreneurship or exchange information about local business opportunities?
• take the time to know young people and demonstrate that youth matter to the community?
• provide a specific pathway for helping young people to come back to your community?

We invite you to attend the HTC Youth Attraction Workshop that will explore strategies your community can use to set new goals in retaining or attracting young people. Goals that confront the traditional paradigm or way of thinking that there is no future for young people in rural America. During the workshop you will discover that youth may well be one of the best opportunities for economic growth in our rural communities.

• HTC focuses on innovative ideas for keeping youth in the community and for encouraging others to come back.
• HTC encourages youth entrepreneurship and adult mentors that engage youth in ways that build self-esteem and character and provide pathways to community involvement.
• HTC offers positive stories and successes that can evolve community cultures that are progressive and embracing of youth.

By attending the Youth Attraction Workshop on April 27th you will be able to work strategically in shaping leadership, youth engagement and entrepreneurship for your community.

WHEN:
• Friday, April 27th, 8:30 am - 4:00pm

WHERE:
• Fisher Center
• 201 E. Iowa, Hiawatha, Ks

WORKSHOP FACILITATORS:
• Craig Schroeder, Senior Associate, RUPRI Center for Rural Entrepreneurship
• Leon Atwell, HTC Kansas Lead and Senior Associate, RUPRI Center for Rural Entrepreneurship

SPONSORS:
• Glacial Hills Resource Conservation & Development Region Inc.
• Northeast Kansas Rural Business Development Program
• Rainbow Communications
• Highland Community College

AGENDA:
• 8:30am Registration, Coffee, & Networking
• 9:00am– 3:00pm Craig Schroeder will be leading the day’s activities.
• 3:00pm – 4:00pm Q&A Session & Wrap up

Please refer to the registration form for detailed registration information.

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Home Town Competitiveness Workshop Series
Charitable Assets - May 18, 2007 - CANCELLED
Please check back for possible rescheduling.

Capturing Wealth Transfer is the focus of the third HTC Workshop covering the four pillars of the Hometown Competitiveness (HTC) award winning community development model:
• Energizing Entrepreneurship
• Capturing Wealth Transfer
• Engaging and Attracting Youth
• Mobilizing local leaders

Does your community:
• make use of the most powerful force that can help sustain and enhance your hometown competitiveness?
• provide a way to sustain projects on an ongoing basis rather than creating a series of one-time projects?
• engage donors with one-on-one conversations about the difference they can make in the future of their community?
• invest donor assets strategically to truly have a lasting impact on the future of the community?

We invite you to attend the HTC Charitable Assets Workshop that will explore strategies your community can use to create a successful community foundation or endowment. Learn to create new sources of income that can be reinvested in your community as opportunity capital.
• HTC focuses on building enthusiasm for the idea of creating local charitable assets based on community needs and aspirations.
• HTC provides strategies to educate current and former residents on the personal and family benefits of community-based endowments or foundations.
• HTC offers ways to transform local opportunities into specific actions that can sustain a higher level of community engagement and reinvestment.

By attending the Charitable Assets Workshop on May 18th you will be better prepared to inspire broad-based reinvestment within your community; and to think and act more strategically in shaping leadership, youth, and economic development programs for your organization or community.

WHEN:
• CANCELLED

WHERE:
• Fisher Center, Hiawatha, KS
• NOTE: This is a NEW LOCATION.

WORKSHOP FACILITATORS:
• Jeff Yost, President of the Nebraska Community Foundation
• Leon Atwell, HTC Kansas Lead and Senior Associate, RUPRI Center for Rural Entrepreneurship

SPONSORS:
• Glacial Hills Resource Conservation & Development Region Inc.
• Northeast Kansas Rural Business Development Program
• Northeast Kansas Coalition for Regional Economic Development

AGENDA:
• 8:30am Registration, Coffee & Networking
• 9:00am– 3:00pm Jeff Yost will be leading the day’s activities.
• 3:00pm – 4:00pm Q&A Session & Wrap up

Please refer to the registration form for detailed registration information.

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Home Town Competitiveness Workshop Series
Entrepreneurship Session - June 8, 2007 - CANCELLED
Please check back for possible rescheduling.

This workshop will be the last of the series of HTC Workshops covering the four pillars of the Hometown Competitiveness (HTC) award winning community development model:
• Energizing Entrepreneurship
• Capturing Wealth Transfer
• Engaging and Attracting Young People
• Mobilizing Local Leadership

Does your community:
• lack opportunities for young people to stay and prosper or return and prosper?
• have unmet potential for new business development?
• worry about the future of businesses on Main Street?
• need new resources to support business development efforts?

If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, we invite you to attend the HTC Entrepreneurship Workshop that will explore strategies your community can use to create an economic environment supportive of growing your own businesses.
• HTC focuses on identifying and assessing entrepreneurial talent in the community.
• HTC assesses your current capacity for cultivating, fostering and supporting those entrepreneurs.
• HTC helps to devise a strategy to increase entrepreneurial business development.
• HTC builds on community strengths and existing programs.

By attending the Entrepreneurship Workshop on June 8th you will better understand the entrepreneurial talent present in your community and become more strategic in shaping an economic development program.
WHEN:
• CANCELLED

WHERE:
• Fisher Center
• 201 E. Iowa, Hiawatha, Ks

WORKSHOP FACILITATORS:
• Don Macke, Co-Director of the RUPRI Center for Rural Entrepreneurship
• Leon Atwell, HTC Kansas Lead and Senior Associate, RUPRI Center for Rural Entrepreneurship

SPONSORS:
• Glacial Hills Resource Conservation & Development Region Inc.
• Northeast Kansas Rural Business Development Program
• Northeast Kansas Coalition for Regional Economic Development
• Northeast Enterprise Facilitation Initiative

AGENDA:
• 8:30am Registration, Coffee & Networking
• 9:00am– 3:00pm Don Macke, one of the developers of the HTC approach, will present strategies to identify, assist and support entrepreneurs to increase business development.
• 3:00pm – 4:00pm Q&A Session & Wrap up

Please refer to the registration form for detailed registration information.

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A ComeBack / Give Back Approach

Leon Atwell, Center for Rural Entrepreneurship, Lincoln, Ne, gave a presentation about the HomeTown Competitiveness model to community leaders in Hiawatha. (Photo above.) An overview of the presentation is available in PDF form for download.

The HomeTown Competitiveness Program (HTC) provides an approach that goes beyond the traditional vision of economic development by presenting a come back / give back approach to rural community building.

HomeTown Competitiveness (HTC) encourages communities to take immediate action in four strategic areas:
1. Mobilize Local Leaders
2. Capture Wealth Transfer
3. Energize Entrepreneurship
4. Attract Young People
HTC is drawing significant attention in Nebraska and nationally because rural leaders and practitioners recognize that even the most distressed community has each of the necessary elements to launch an HTC approach. What differentiates HTC from many other development efforts is that it focuses primarily on internal resources and assets. The goal is to assess where a community is, here and now, and to build on the current capacity of each of the four elements.

When a community engages in the HTC process, a steering committee of willing volunteers is established who will direct and organize the action plans for the community around the four strategic areas. Community task forces are formed to employ efforts to implement strategies to meet goals established for each area.

We believe the HTC approach offers hope for communities being swept away by change: change that has caused severe out-migration, growing levels of poverty, and the flight of youth. By targeting leadership and community capacity building with focused entrepreneurship efforts, and encouraging local philanthropy to support ongoing economic and community capacity building, communities can build for themselves a successful and healthy future.

1. Mobilizing Local Leaders

For small towns to compete in the 21st century they must tap into everyone's potential knowledge, talent, and aspirations. The Heartland Center for Leadership Development rejects the outdated notion of relying on "the usual suspects" to get things done. Rural communities must be intentional about recruiting and nurturing an increasing number of women, minorities, and young people into decision-making roles. They need continuing leadership training programs, because today's leadership must constantly reinvent itself to reflect the challenges of a changing global environment.

2. Capturing Wealth Transfer

The Nebraska Community Foundation has completed wealth transfer analysis for each of Nebraska's 93 counties. Rural residents do not always recognize local wealth because so much of it is held through land ownership. Most people are at first shocked, and then highly motivated, once they understand the enormous amount of local wealth that will likely transfer to heirs who have migrated out of the area.

In rural Nebraska alone, more than $94 billion is at stake over the next few decades. Both the power and the will to use these assets will no longer be tied to the community unless planned gifts are cultivated now. Using this data, HTC targets conversion of at least 5 percent of local wealth transfer into charitable assets endowed in community foundations to fund future community and economic development efforts.

3. Energizing Entrepreneurship

Far too many rural communities continue to invest resources in economic development for job creation and business development that exports, rather than builds, local wealth. The Center for Rural Entrepreneurship and its partners such as our REAP program, encourage communities to become actively involved in nurturing local enterprise in three areas: 1) saving Main Street and other key businesses through planned ownership succession, 2) creating new wealth and good jobs by helping entrepreneurial companies that have the potential to breakthrough to a broader product line and / or a larger market, and 3) using local charitable assets to support entrepreneurship.

4. Attracting Young People

It is not just the call of the city that impels them; it is also the lack of opportunity and encouragement to "come back" that drives young people away from their hometowns. HTC has developed a formula that small towns can use in their efforts to halt this trend. Using existing data on population change, the formula provides small towns with realistic goals for youth attraction.

HTC teaches people how to target youths for attraction, create career opportunities through business transfer and entrepreneurial support, and nurture a sense of ownership and vested interest in the community's future leaders.

You can find more about HTC in Nebraska at www.htcnebraska.org.