The Oliver community, only a couple of miles northeast of the city's business core, is just a sliver of East Baltimore that could be easily overlooked. Once a stable neighborhood filled with sturdy brick row houses, thriving churches and small businesses, Oliver declined--along with much of the city--over the course of several decades, beginning…

The concept of social innovation has recently emerged as an influential approach to address intractable social problems. Increasingly discussed in academia and policy circles, the concept draws on multifaceted practices and ideas from many disciplines. Yet despite widespread discussion and promotion, there is still limited understanding of…

This article profiles "Library Journal's" (LJ) chosen 2008 Librarian of the Year. Librarians and officials in education and government all recount the leadership and creativity brought to library service in New Jersey by State Librarian Norma Blake. She has sparked proactive, collaborative initiatives that have taken libraries of all…

Cooperative behaviors among private investors, local entities and a county can create significant efficiencies and resources to achieve a countywide vision. A county willing to take on this leadership role can provide technology and creates incentives for cooperation, supports opportunistic action, and regulates a balance between private sector…

Throughout the 1990s, Europe's rural areas increasingly embraced local action and local development solutions to face the challenge of the continued re-structuring of the agricultural industry. In parallel, in both the EU and the UK, a policy discourse has emerged which envisages a fundamental shift in support policies for rural areas from a…

This paper describes a policy exercise on education and the new economy held in Aspen, Colorado, in June 1997. The exercise was designed to help the National Center for Research on Vocational Education understand the development of education and training in the near future. The exercise took advantage of expertise in social gaming developed at…

A mini-conference on rural schools and community development brought together experts in rural community, rural education, and economic development to brainstorm ideas for collaborative projects and produce a helpful conceptual design for use both by rural communities and their schools. This document offers a synthesis and overview of the experts'…

This book was compiled to provide examples of partnerships between education and economic development agencies and to reinforce, with statistics, the importance of entrepreneurship in the U.S. economy. The first chapter, "Contributions of Small Business and Entrepreneurship Education to Economic Development," by E. Edward Harris,…

Rural regional planning that will satisfy man's real needs, and not merely those of an economic nature, must take into consideration all factors, all possible interactions, and most important of all, those values which cannot be expressed in terms of money. The report details the functions and problems of rural areas revealed by analyses of rural…

The Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and private foundations, and invests in research and education to help rural communities meet the challenges of today's global society through a multidisciplinary network of university research and extension faculty, policy makers, and rural…

By entering into partnerships with business and industry, community colleges are able to offset the high cost of remaining current with training techniques, job market skill requirements, and state-of-the-art hardware. The construction of advanced technology centers (ATCs) located on community college campuses is one key element supporting these…

Florence-Darlington Technical College (FDTC) in Florence, South Carolina, has implemented the Academy for Community College Leadership Advancement, Innovation, and Modeling (ACCLAIM) community-based programming (C-BP) model for developing a regional economic development strategic plan. FDTC offers 27 associate degrees, 10 diplomas, and 9…

According to this paper, rural community colleges face new challenges, which require openness to institutional partnerships that in the past may have been unthinkable due to traditional institutional competitiveness. These challenges include enrollment fluctuation, increased legislative scrutiny, calls for accountability, inadequate and…

This booklet provides information on cooperative agreements between college and industry, focusing special attention on such agreements in energy-related fields. After highlighting the major elements of cooperative agreements and their benefits and potential problems, the report examines the economic context in which joint activity between…

The Rural Community College Initiative (RCCI) collaborates with community colleges in rural communities that are racially, ethnically, culturally, and economically diverse by challenging them to think broadly about their potential as catalysts for regional development. RCCI is a national demonstration program that combines the goals of rural…