Rural Community Empowerment Program

Publications

Best Practices and Progress Reports

• Progress Report of Round I Rural Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities (pdf file, K)
• Best Practices, 1999--Best practices taken from the 1999 annual reports of rural EZ/ECs, Champions, and REAP Zones. (pdf file, 425 K)
• What Works! II in the Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities, Volume II (pdf file, 4,767 K)
• What Works! IV in the Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities, Volume IV (pdf file)

Articles on the Program

• Poverty, Race and Community in Rural Places: The Empowerment Approach Community Empowerment--A New Approach to Rural Development (pdf file, 122 K) A paper written by Norman Reid presented at the 2002 Community Development Society (CDS) Conference.
• "Community Empowerment--A New Approach to Rural Development" An article by Norman Reid in the May 1999 issue of Rural Development Perspectives that reviews the history and progress of the rural Community Empowerment Initiative (pdf file, 393 K)
• Community Empowerment--Your Guide to Participation (brochure) (pdf file, 54 K)
• Community Participation: How People Power Brings Sustainable Benefits to Communities. (pdf file, 162 K)

GAO Reports on the Program

• Progress on Economic Development Activities Varies among the Empowerment Zones GAO/RCED-99-29, November 1998
• BusinessesUse of Empowerment Zone Tax Incentives GAO/RCED-99-253, September 1999
• Empowerment Zone and Enterprise Community Program: Survey of Round I Federal Enterprise Communities GAO-06-734SP, September 2006
• Improvements Occurred in Communities, but the Effect of the Program is Unclear GAO-06-727, September 2006
• Revitalization Programs: Empowerment Zones, Enterprise Communities, and Renewal Communities GAO-10-464R, March 2010

Other Publication Links

• Benchmark Management System Manual
• IRS Publication 954: Tax Incentives for Empowerment Zones and Other Distressed Communities, Revised June 2004 (pdf file, 147 K)
• Community and Economic Development Publications