A collaborative program of the following agencies in Northwest Missouri:

Missouri Department of Economic Development
Northwest Missouri Regional Council of Governments
University of Missouri Extension

The TAKE CHARGE program is designed to help leaders, decision-makers and residents in rural communities face the future. It will help leaders analyze their community, think about alternatives and plan an action strategy for community economic development. The program can help rural residents shape their community's destiny by:
Exploring short and long-term development strategies.
Gaining broad community involvement and support
        through the empowerment of local citizens.
Building on existing resources including the
        community's infrastructure, the capital assets of the
        community and, most important, the human resources
        available within the community.
Analyzing strengths and weaknesses, evaluating the risk
        and return, and choosing the most appropriate
        development opportunities.
Developing an action plan and organizing your resources
        for successful implementation.

Through the TAKE CHARGE process your community can uncover local capacity and focus its energies on the development activities offering the greatest potential. The community can also enhance its competitiveness for the acquisition of grants, loans, and other outside resources.

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In contrast to large cities, rural communities generally rely to a greater degree on volunteers to implement their development activities. The TAKE CHARGE program provides a realistic format for strategic planning with community volunteers. The program address the three basic questions for building an action agenda for community development:

Where are we now?

Current trends and characteristics of the community.

Basic concepts of economic development.

Inventory of community resources and projects.

Where do we want to be?

Strategies for economic development.

Community capacity--risk/benefit analysis.

Project selection.

How do we get there?

Developing the action agenda.

Resource identification.

Organizing the project teams.

The TAKE CHARGE program takes approximately nine hours of community meetings. It requires significant involvement of local leaders, decision-makers and residents to conduct these sessions. More importantly, the success of the program requires a local commitment to implement the action plan. Given this commitment, the specific format and cost of the program will be structured to best fit the needs of the community.

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For further information contact:

Maggie Lesnak
Northwest Regional Office
Missouri Department of Economic Development
1600 East 9th Street
Trenton, MO 64683
Telephone (660) 359-5960
Fax (660) 359-5538

Randy Railsback
Northwest Missouri Regional Council of Governments
114 W. Third St.
Maryville, MO 64468
Phone (660) 582-5121
Fax (660) 582-7264

Duane Williams
University of Missouri Extension Community Development Specialist

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		University of Missouri Extension Nodaway County nodawayco@missouri.edu Updated 09/24/2007