Rural communities promote entreprenuership

The city of Sturgis is one of eight rural communities in Michigan working to improve their local economies by growing their own entrepreneurs.

Sturgis is part of a three-year program led by the Michigan State University Land Policy Institute that is designed to help communities develop support systems and programs to assist entrepreneurs.

The Creating Entrepreneurial Communities project offers coaching, training and workshops. Participants also become part of the networking infrastructure that includes members of the community, local economic and civic leaders.

During the first year of the project, communities will review support systems for entrepreneurs and gain a better understanding of their entrepreneurial pipeline.

“The eight communities that comprise this network are making a tremendous commitment toward becoming more entrepreneurial,” says Barbara Fails, LPI Associate Director of Entrepreneurial Communities and project director.

They will be able to share best practices across the network and learn from each other, Fails says.

Communities with strong support for entrepreneurs are those that address social networks — meet-up places, clubs, innovation centers, entrepreneurial support organizations; provide resources – human resources and talent, natural resources, capital, access to information, transportation and digital infrastructure, public policy; and promote an entrepreneurial culture — attitudes toward diversity, risk and tolerance, innovativeness, community welcomeness.

The Creating Entrepreneurial Communities project is based on the hallmarks of entrepreneurial communities developed by studying community-based models around the country and tested in a pilot project in 2007.

The seven other participating communities are: the Au Sable River Country (Iosco, Alcona, Crawford and Oscoda counties); Imlay City; St. Ignace and Cedarville; Bath, Watertown and DeWitt townships; Barry and Delta counties; and the Tri-County Region (Manistee, Benzie and Mason counties).

The Land Policy Institute’s mission is to be a resource to policy makers at the federal, state, and local level, providing them with science-based tools and solutions that help build a better quality of life, strengthen the economy, and protect the environment.

Writer: Kathy Jennings
Source: Barbara Fails, MSU Land Policy Institute