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The University of Tennessee | Institute of Agriculture

Tennessee Rural Economic Development




Creating a Rural Entrepreneurial System in Tennessee - CREST

Trend ReportAlthough there is now a great deal of experience across the country, with many success stories to draw upon, entrepreneurship development is an elusive concept for many community leaders who have traditionally relied upon recruitment as their primary economic development strategy.  In fact, for most rural communities, the encouragement and support of entrepreneurship is the best (and for some the only realistic) economic development strategy. The deadline for applications is November 17, 2009

To Apply (pdf version)
To Apply (word doc)

CREST is using the USDA definition of rural.  The USDA provides an address based system that will help determine your community’s eligibility. 
See if your community Is eligible.

Info Sheet

2009 Governor's Conference presentation on entrepreneurship development:
Your New Jobs May Be Homegrown
Prof. Brian Dabson

Purpose of CREST:  To assist targeted rural communities in Tennessee in transforming their local economies through the development of key components required for entrepreneurship and small business development. 

The CREST program will:

  • Assist the community in understanding the impact and importance of small business development to the long term sustainable development of their local economies and identify components that should be in place in the community to support small business development and entrepreneurship.
  • Help the community develop an effective organization that will focus on small business and entrepreneurship development in the community.
  • Assist the community in an asset-based strategic planning process that identifies the existing ESBD assets and weaknesses in the community.
  • Help the community develop a strategic plan to address small business development opportunities and needs, and which identifies projects that can be undertaken to build community capacity for small business development.
  • Work with the community to prioritize potential projects, and choose a project that builds upon local and regional assets and that will be implemented over a one year period.

CREST will be separated into six modules and include distance learning and intensive technical assistance from a broad coalition of providers.

  • Module 1: Community Statistics
  • Module 2: Asset Mapping
  • Module 3: Strategic Planning
  • Module 4: Best Practices for Entrepreneurial Communities
  • Module 5: Creating Buy-in and Implementing Projects Locally
  • Module 6: Survey and Evaluation Methods for ESBD

For more information please contact

Michael D. Wilcox, Jr., Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Agricultural Economics
University of Tennessee
314B Morgan Hall
2621 Morgan Circle
Knoxville, TN 37996
tel: (865) 974 - 7410
fax: (865) 974 - 9492
e: mwilcox2@utk.edu
http://economics.ag.utk.edu/wilcox.html