Chapel Hill, NC – January 4, 2021 – CREATE, an economic development center based at UNC-Chapel Hill’s Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise, has been awarded a Rural Business Development grant from the US Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development. This investment will support rural businesses and communities in rural Eastern North Carolina that have been negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Through this project, NCGrowth will provide direct technical assistance to five growth companies affected by COVID-19, a series of workshops to support latino-owned businesses and two local governments in rural North Carolina, which will result in accelerated job growth. All work will focus on job creation and promoting rural economic development.
CREATE’s mission is to tackle the challenge of increased income disparities by generating shared economic prosperity through a combination of research, data analytics, homegrown interventions and policy development. Funding from USDA Rural Business Development grant will provide technical assistance to five rural businesses (100+ hours/business); and two business growth workshops for rural businesses.
UNC-Chapel Hill’s CREATE initiative has a decade of experience providing high-quality, direct technical assistance to small and medium sized businesses in partnerships with local governments across rural South and North Carolina.
“Our partnership with the USDA began five years ago and has led to incredible engagements with rural communities in North Carolina. Small businesses are integral to long-term job creation. With the support of USDA we aim to increase job creation, specifically in rural North Carolina and other high potential communities across the Carolinas,” said Elizabeth Basnight, Assistant Director of Business Programs with CREATE.
In addition to job creation, this initiative will result in other positive economic development outcomes. CREATE partners with local government entities and business associations in the counties hosting the proposed projects to support events aimed at increasing awareness of all business resources and important community issues related to economic development. Two of the proposed projects will have broad community participation (through the asset development workshops). The purposeful engagement with all sectors of the community will engender connectivity within the region.
CREATE also seeks to create greater connectivity between the resources at UNC and rural North Carolina. CREATE will utilize its UNC-Chapel Hill network to funnel more resources to rural NC ensuring that UNC continues to meet its greater mission to serve the people of North Carolina.
PRESS CONTACT:
Elizabeth Basnight, Assistant Director
Elizabeth_basnight@kenan-flagler.unc.edu