Empowerment Zones/Enterprise Communities
at the North Central Regional Center for Rural Development

OVERVIEW:

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has engaged the NCRCRD to assess the outcomes of the Empowerment Zone/Enterprise Community initiative in the 33 rural EZ/EC designated areas. Not a typical government program, this initiative seeks to empower communities to reduce persistent poverty and introduces at least two innovations; it links resources to implement the community's strategic vision, and it stresses the importance of participation by all community residents in this long term effort.

PROCEDURE:

The plan for this evaluation is to focus on program outcomes as opposed to outputs, and assess progress on all four EZ/EC principles. Moreover, this evaluation is being conducted in such a way as to be useful not only to state and federal partners, but useful for the local areas themselves. The evaluation design relies on both unobtrusive measures and indicators as well as local interviews and document review. Combining these approaches allow for an assessment of both the local impacts and participatory processes central to the EZ/EC process.

KEY PRINCIPLES:

• Economic Opportunity
• Sustainable Community Development
• Community-Based Partnerships
• Strategic Vision for Change

RESULTS:

Results from this effort will be shared with participating federal and state partners in the EZ/EC program as well as the local Empowerment Zones/Enterprise Communities. These results will include:

• Individual progress by each Empowerment Zone/Enterprise Community
• Sharing progress among Empowerment Zone/Enterprise Communities
• Overall progress of the program

Aigner, Stephen M., Cornelia Butler Flora and Juan M. Hernandez. 2001. "The Premise and Promise of Citizenship and Civil Society for Renewing Democracies and Empowering Sustainable Communities." Sociological Inquiry. 71 (4): 493-507.

EZ/EC Study: Executive Summary

NCRCRD EZ/EC Fact Sheet

EZ/EC/CC Survey Summary: An NCRCRD Study

EZ/EC: A Ten Year Graphic Process

Economic Indicators for Rural Communities, Spanish version

Empowering Rural Communities: A Perspective After Five Years, PDF file (431 kb)

Or, for more information, contact the EZ/EC Research Team:

Dr. Cornelia Flora
Director
North Central Regional Center for Rural Development
Iowa State University
107 Curtiss Hall
Ames, IA 50011-1050
(515) 294-8321
(515) 294-3180 fax
cflora@iastate.edu

Dr. Stephen Aigner
Senior Fellow
North Central Regional Center for Rural Development
Iowa State University
308 East Hall
Ames, IA 50011-1070
(515) 294-9895
(515) 294-2303 fax
saigner@iastate.edu

North Central Regional Center for Rural Development
Iowa State University
107 Curtiss Hall
Ames, IA 50011-1050
(515) 294-8321, (515) 294-3180 fax

For questions, comments or concerns about the NCRCRD website, contact khetland@iastate.edu.

Last updated February 5, 2008