Dan Campbell (202) 720-6483
dan.campbell@usda.gov
Steve Thompson, (202) 720-2446
sathomps@rdmail.rural.usda.gov

EZ/EC PROGRAM HELPS TURN TIDE OF RURAL POVERTY
Investments in Rural EZs and ECs Top $2 Billion

By Jill Long Thompson, Under Secretary
USDA Rural Development

Persistent poverty has condemned successive generations of Americans in many rural communities to life under deplorable conditions. But a highly innovative and effective approach to helping these hardest-to-reach pockets of poverty was initiated by the Clinton/Gore administration in 1995. Since then, more than $2 billion - including nearly $400 million in private funds - has flowed to many of these communities through the Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities (EZ/EC) Presidential Initiative.

The EZ/EC initiative has focused attention and resources on those regions of the country which had been largely excluded from the economic gains made elsewhere in the United States. Too often, local financial institutions serving these communities have lacked the confidence to invest in these poor communities, and federal or state assistance dollars have seldom reached them.

Under the EZ/EC initiative, leaders in these often-neglected communities have come together to begin to tackle their most long-standing problems. Through the EZ/EC initiative, local leaders have been empowered to decide for themselves which priorities they want to address first and been given the tools to begin to find solutions to these problems. And, because the economic development plans these leaders develop have to be reviewed and adopted by their communities, they are instrumental in fostering a shared sense of purpose and direction for their residents. As a result, the 57 communities or regions included so far in the EZ/EC initiative have made great headway towards improving living conditions for their residents.

One of the most notable and unique characteristics of this presidential initiative is its ability to attract new players to the community development table. Residents of these persistently impoverished communities are now working with public and private partners to address self-identified needs. These efforts have fostered the type of flexibility that encourages creative problem solving. And, instead of imposing a top-down approach on poor, disadvantaged communities, the initiative has enabled rural citizens to choose to define for themselves the best ways to improve their own living conditions, and to acquire the ways and means to do so.

Consider how much has been accomplished so far in the rural EZs and ECs:

• 18,284 good jobs have been created or saved (an average per community job increase of 320 jobs!);
• 410 new businesses have been launched;
• 3,248 houses have been built or renovated;
• 26,000 clients have been served through job training or business development initiatives;
• 86 vital community facilities (ranging from day care centers to fire stations and town halls) have been built or expanded.

These significant achievements can be credited in great part to the dedication of the USDA Rural Development staff, who have provided invaluable technical assistance to the EZ/EC communities, helping local leaders undertake the often overwhelming task of attracting investment capital from private and government sources. Rural Development staff have helped these communities through their own decision-making process, underlining along the way the pivotal importance of arriving at locally-determined solutions.

We at USDA salute the people of the rural EZs and ECs, and thank the many partners - public, private and nonprofit - who have made this initiative such a resounding success. This critical milestone - more than $2 billion invested in some of the nation's neediest rural communities - is an achievement made possible by the Empowerment Zone and Enterprise Community Initiative.

Note: For more information on this program, contact the EZ/EC website at: http://www.ezec.gov/

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