Community Business Resillience Program

The proposed Rural Business Marketing Center targets businesses whose workforce resides in lower-income communities with special emphasis on counties located in the Promise Zone and in the newly formed SOAR (Shaping our Appalachian Region) counties in Kentucky. The Eastern and Southern regions of Kentucky have been plagued by loss of industry-specifically coal mining and textiles-over the last fifty years. While some economic development professionals still rely on industry attraction as their primary strategy for improving the economic base, many decision makers recognize the need to support existing (and by definition small) businesses within the region. Figure 1 below illustrates those counties that will initially be targeted for the services offered by the proposed Rural Business Marketing Center. The dark blue counties are those counties with low per capita income. The orange counties are considered the economic hubs in Eastern and Southern Kentucky.