USDA Rural Development State Director Clarence W. Hawkins today announced that Louisiana Alliance Cultivating Economic Success (L.A.C.E.S.) and SET FOREVER were selected as Stronger Economies Together (SET) regions.
These two regions will benefit from a focused initiative to explore regional economic advantages and to formulate a regional blueprint that strategically builds on the current and emerging strengths of that region.
SET FOREVER is Morehouse, West Carroll, East Carroll, Madison, and Richland Parishes and will now benefit from a focused initiative to explore regional economic advantages and to formulate an economic blueprint that strategically builds on the current and emerging economic strengths of that region. SET Forever will be joining 21 other regions across thirteen states participating in SET during 2015.
Louisiana Alliance Cultivating Economic Success (L.A.C.E.S.) is East Feliciana, St. Helena, Tangipahoa, and Washington Parishes and sees SET as an opportunity to take the region’s economic development efforts to the next level. The outcome expected is to develop a stronger regional mind-set, to increase regional participation, to more effectively use the region’s resources and to create an achievable vision for the region’s economy.
Faculty with SU and LSU Extension, along with USDA Rural Development, LED, and other consultants will play an important role in guiding the Louisiana SET recipients and will serve on the State Resource Team (SRT) to provide expertise, leadership and facilitation.
The SET program provides step-by-step coaching on creating and implementing a practical and viable regional economic development plan, technical assistance, and in-depth data tailored to the region that describes current and emerging clusters, comparative economic advantages, and detailed demographic and socio-economic information.
SET helps rural communities and counties work together to create and implement an economic development blueprint for their multicounty region that builds on current and emerging comparative economic advantages of that region.
Launched in 2010 by USDA Rural Development and the nation’s four Regional Rural Development Centers, the Purdue Center for Regional Development and their land-grant university partners, SET is now in place in more than 70 regions in 31 states. SET is intended to help strengthen the capacity of communities/parishes in rural America to work together in developing and implementing an economic development blueprint for their multi-county region, one that strategically builds on the current and/or emerging comparative economic advantages of that region.
For more information on the SET initiative in LA, contact Lee Jones 318.473.7921. To view information about SET nationwide, visit http://srdc.msstate.edu/set