In 2005, the W. K. Kellogg Foundation launched its Entrepreneurship Development Systems (EDS) for Rural America initiative, a project that resulted in the investment in, and creation of, six Entrepreneurship Development Systems across the country. While each EDS is unique, all six embrace a common commitment to build a system that creates:
• a pipeline of entrepreneurs, including youth;
• a support system for entrepreneurs of all types; and,
• a policy and cultural environment that is supportive of entrepreneurs.
Each of the six EDS collaboratives provides entrepreneurship education, technical assistance, networking, and financial capital support to entrepreneurs, as well as strategies that can help create a local cultural and policy environment that is supportive of entrepreneurship.
For more information on the six Kellogg Foundation-funded EDS collaboratives, check the following sites:
• Empowering Business Spirit Initiative, http://www.bizport.org
• Connecting Oregon for Rural Entrepreneurship, www.rdiinc.org
• Oweesta Collaborative, www.oweesta.org/main/ps/collaborative
• HomeTown Competitiveness, www.nebcommfound.org
• Advantage Valley EDS, www.advantagevalleyels.com/
• North Carolina’s Rural EDS, www.ncruralcenter.org/entrepreneurship/development.asp
