USDA Rural Development Grant Approval Announced
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 6, 2002
Dan Ripke, Center for Economic Development
530-898-4598
Casey Huff
530-898-4143
USDA Rural Development Grant Approval Announced
The Center for Economic Development (CED) at California State University, Chico has announced the approval of a USDA Rural Development Rural Business Enterprise Grant (RBEG). The grant will provide funding for specialized technical assistance to small rural businesses located within 11 Northern California counties (Butte, Colusa, Glenn, Lassen, Modoc, Plumas, Shasta, Sutter, Tehama, Trinity and Yuba) through a program titled the Business and Industry Assistance Program (BIAP) for Northern California. The purpose of this assistance is to encourage local economic development and new job creation by improving the capability of new and existing local firms to market their products and services broadly, increasing their potential market access through low cost product, market and operation-oriented technical assistance. The assistance will be specially targeted to businesses that qualify as small businesses according to USDA’s RBEG definitions. The project was started on July 1, 2002, and is scheduled to be completed by June 30, 2003.
BIAP for Northern California will use a strategy called Economic Gardening. This strategy encourages local economic development and job creation by identifying and assisting small businesses with the potential for growth by providing market intelligence such as customer profiling, demographic data, technical feasibility studies to analyze internal rates-of-return, analysis of competition market share, and product development. Working in conjunction with CSU, Chico Center for Regional and Continuing Education’s (RCE) E-learning Initiative to build a multi-tier e-commerce training and support network targeting small businesses in Northern California, BIAP for Northern California will offer context specific business support for job creation and retention through a sophisticated Web portal.
Dan Ripke, CED’s director, said, “Following 9/11 and the slow economy of 2001-2002, business and community leaders are eager to increase their marketing opportunities through detailed, accurate, timely information on an industry, the local market, economic trends and new potential clients. The BIAP for Northern California will provide this much needed information.”
The Center for Economic Development is a community outreach organization of CSU, Chico. The center is a nonprofit organization that provides technical assistance, applied research and capacity-building assistance to economic development and planning professionals in 20 Northern California counties. The clients served include economic development corporations; economic development districts; community development organizations; local, state and federal government offices; consulting firms; small business development centers; small businesses; and local government officials.
For more information or to request assistance, please contact the center at 530-898-4598.
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