SOURCE: REIDSVILLE REVIEW
In 1986, the Charlotte Observer reported, "If rural and urban areas don't work together, they might not work at all."
At the time those words were written, the decline of North Carolina's rural areas and rise of its urban areas were in full swing. This was economically unhealthy for everybody because rural areas provide services, goods and labor to urban areas, and without strong rural areas, the urban strength becomes unstable.
In 1987, to help raise the declining living standards in rural areas, the nonprofit N.C. Rural Economic Development Center was created. Its mission was and continues to be to help develop, promote and implement economic strategies that will improve the quality of life of rural North Carolina residents. One of those ways is through the growth of entrepreneurship.
The Small Business Center at Rockingham Community College partners with the NC Rural Center. This partnership is helpful to existing and future entrepreneurs by giving them a local person who can guide them through the complexities of loan applications and proven successful small business practices.
Recently, the RCC Small Business Center received a visit from federal representatives of Project GATE (Growing America Through Entrepreneurship), a federal grant administered by the NC Rural Center. Through GATE, would-be entrepreneurs can apply for scholarships to help them in their business venture. Because the grant is new, federal representatives are in the process of gathering data from facilities like the RCC Small Business Center, who use the money to train future business owners. RCC was chosen because as a primary GATE site (one of eight in the state), its small business center is considered top notch based partly on the number of individuals in its programs and the success stories.
Debi Joyce is the on-site GATE counselor at RCC. She has REAL (Rural Entrepreneurship through Action Learning) training and regularly teaches the "How to Start a Small Business" course. Since many GATE scholarship recipients are enrolled in the course, the federal representatives attended one of her classes to observe.
After the visit, Barry Ryan, entrepreneurship associate at the NC Rural Center, said, "They loved what Debi is doing and were very impressed by the interactive nature of the class" Something Joyce credits, in part, to the support and assistance of local business owners.
"Four other states were chosen to demonstrate the GATE project," Ryan said, "but they said North Carolina is proving to be the model." - Barry Ryan, NC Rural Center entrepreneurship associate
SOURCE: REIDSVILLE REVIEW