USDA's Office of Community Development administers three rural community empowerment efforts: Empowerment Zones/Enterprise Communities (EZ/EC), Champion Communities (CC) and the Rural Economic Area Partnership (REAP) Zones, OCD also administers the Rural Community Advancement Program (RCAP).

Empowerment Zones/Enterprise Communities
The Empowerment Zones/Enterprise Communities (EZ/EC) Program provides economically depressed rural areas and communities with real opportunities for growth and revitalization. Its mission is to help create long-term economic and community development and assist communities in empowering themselves to improve local conditions and become self-sustaining.

EZ/EC efforts begin at a grassroots level, where communities, in cooperation with State and local governments, work together to write strategic plans to address the economic and social problems they face. The strategic plan also identifies partnerships and ways to combine private and public resources to implement it. The EZ/EC program works by focusing community efforts on achieving four basic principals:

1. Economic opportunity;
2. Sustainable community development;
3. Community-based partnerships; and
4. A strategic vision for change.

Key features of the EZ/EC program include:

In 1994, the Round I EZ/EC designations named three rural Empowerment Zones and 30 Enterprise Communities. In 1998, five Round II rural Empowerment Zones and 20 Enterprise Communities were designated. A third round of two additional rural EZs will be named in December 2001.

South Dakota has one Empowerment Zone called the Oglala Oyate Woitancan (OOW) at Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and one Enterprise Community called Beadle and Spink Enterprise Community (BASEC) at Yale.

Champion Communities
In 1999, USDA formalized the Champion Communities (CC) program by inviting all communities that submitted strategic plans for Round I and II EZ/EC designations to continue implementing their plans through a partnership agreement with USDA.

Key features of the CC program include:

National Rural Development Partnership
The national Rural Development Partnership builds collaborations among key rural institutions, enabling them to work more effectively and efficiently. The Partnership brings together partners from local, State, Tribal, and Federal governments, and from the for-profit and nonprofit sectors, through State Rural Development Councils. Councils are operating in 40 states. The South Dakota Rural Development Council can be reached by calling (605) 773-5653.

Rural Community Empowerment Program Operations: They All Start Locally
The Office of Community Development's goal is to create empowered communities -- no longer best by hopelessness, pervasive poverty, unemployment, and general distress. These communities should be able to implement self-generated strategic plans that solve some of their most difficult economic and social challenges. OCD promotes Federal, State, and local agencies, private sector, and not-for-profit organizations working cooperatively and in partnership with communities.

We're Here To Help
For more information, please call USDA Rural Development's Office of Community Development, at (202) 619-7980 or 1-800-645-4712.
E-mail: ocd@ocdx.usda.gov

Further information can also be obtained at the following Web sites:
http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/ocd
http://www.ezec.gov
http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/nrdp

Or write:

USDA Rural Development
Office of Community Development
Reporters Bldg., Room 266
300 7^th St., SW
Washington, DC 20024

U.S. Department of Agriculture
Community Development Division
(Revised January 2003)

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits discrimination in all its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, gender, religion, age, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, and marital or family status. (Not all prohibited bases apply to all programs.) Persons with disabilities who require alternative means for communication of program information (Braille, large print, audio tape, etc.) should contact USDA's TARGET Center at (202) 720-2600 (voice and TDD). To file a complaint of discrimination, write USDA, Director, Office of Civil Rights, Room 326-W, Whitten Building, 14^th and Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, DC 20250-9410 or call (202) 720-5964 (voice or TDD). USDA is an equal opportunity employer. (OCD-1)