LDRC Program

LED supports the candidate communities and provides these unique benefits:

• A Resource Team assigned to it that have years of experience in community and economic development. Each community will receive on-going coaching and professional guidance during the community assessment and facilitation of the strategic planning process.
• “Roadmap to Readiness”, clearly describing the process, resources and deliverables.
• LED’s Business Intelligence Department will provide each selected community with a current economic and demographic base analysis saving hours and hours of looking for the most current data.
• Ready-to-go, online Business and/or Citizen Surveys available for use with training/coaching on how to conduct a successful survey.
• Part of the LED Resource team will visit the community visit communities as part of the community assessment process and will help evaluate sites and buildings as well as provide a chance to “test-drive” a sales pitch in a relaxed environment while getting valuable feedback.
• A publicized celebration of each community’s successes will be held to applaud and thank each for their partnership both with LED and their involved volunteers.
• Mayor or Parish President will be invited to do a testimonial video with the LED FastStart team to discuss goals that were implemented and community wins.  This video will be shared on LED social media and appropriate website to help promote the community.  The link will also be given to the LDRC community to be used on local websites and social media outlets. 
• Continued education tuition dollars for Certified Louisiana Economic Developer training as available. 

Who is eligible to apply to be a LDRC Community? Any municipality or parish in Louisiana may apply.

This program is for Louisiana towns, villages cities or parishes of all sizes. If a community just needs to update their plan, they will benefit from the structure of the program and the encouragement to move forward quickly with implementation. If a village or town has never done a strategic plan, the LDRC Resource Team will provide assistance all the way, from start to celebration! 

Communities are selected using a scorecard to insure fairness and objectivity. Applications must be filled out completely and include all requested information in order to score well. The number of municipalities selected for each year’s class is based upon the availability of resources to adequately support the program.

Communities selected to participate in the program have to agree to plan and implement essential best practice “development ready” elements on a tight schedule including:

• Community Assessment
• Community & Economic Strategic Plan includes:
  
  • Leadership Development
  • Education
  • Workforce Development
  • Infrastructure
  • Marketing / Communications
• On-going Implementation

This is an aggressive program requiring significant work and investment by LED, its partners, and the participating communities.

A Steering Committee of dedicated stakeholders has been continually working with LED for the last five years and has devised a support methodology to see LDRC Communities through to the completion of all of the steps. These valued partners include the LMA, AEP/SWEPCO, ALEC, CLECO, Entergy, Police Jury Association of Louisiana and LSU /SU Extension Services.

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