Four rural parishes near the Northshore region will compete with three other regional groups of parishes across the state this summer for a federal grant to fund the creation of a new economic development plan for the area.
Only one regional group of parishes from the state will receive a grant of around $50,000 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Stronger Economies Together initiative, which was launched in 2009 to assist rural parishes and counties across the country. The grant award winner will be announced Aug. 1.
The Northshore area parishes—which include East Feliciana, St. Helena, Tangipahoa and Washington—submitted their grant application this week, backed by each parish’s government, churches, local nonprofits and businesses.
“The funding is going to pay for the facilitators and trainers to come out and help them with the process and to provide the technical assistance,” says Scot Byrd, chair of the professional development committee for Louisiana Economic Development Executives Association. “The high quality economic plan has to be completed by August of the following year, and then they will be eligible for the additional award to help them implement the plan.”
The SET program has undergone multiple phases since its launch at the national and state level, but no group of parishes has seen its economic plan come to fruition, Byrd says.
Byrd spent last week receiving about 35 hours of training with the SET program in St. Louis to prepare for the planning process with the Louisiana parishes that receive the grant award.
The other groups of Louisiana parishes include one from southwest Louisiana, which includes Acadia, Assumption, Iberia, Lafourche, St. James, St. Landry, St. Martin, St. Mary, and Vermilion parishes. Another group is from northeast Louisiana, consisting of East Carroll, West Carroll, Madison, Morehouse and Richland parishes. The fourth Louisiana group to apply came from central Louisiana and consists of Rapides, Natchitoches, Evangeline, Avoyelles and Lafayette parishes.
—Deanna Narveson
