Pottawatomie County
Home Town Competitiveness

Entrepreneurship: Increase entrepreneurial business development and promote retention and growth of our current businesses in order to create new jobs and wealth.
Leadership Development: Increase diversity in our community leadership with more volunteer engagement in community projects and more of our people willing to commit to civic duty.
Youth Retention and Attraction: Increase the number of our young people staying in or returning to our hometowns; make more local career options available; establish greater youth involvement in community leadership; help more adults and youths work together as peers within organizations; and encourage more adults to serve as mentors for young people pursuing entrepreneurial careers.
Charitable Assets: Increase community based endowed assets, with future grants being awarded from the proceeds of endowments to specific activities that will improve our community and economic prospects and encourage our young people to stay in or return to our hometowns.

The Pottawatomie County HTC Steering Committee was formed as an outcome of an intensive three day training session held on November 16, 17, and 18 at the Columbian Theatre in Wamego, hosted by the Pottawatomie County Economic Development Corporation.

25 people from Pottawatomie County joined 30 other community leaders from 26 rural Kansas counties in this comprehensive three-day workshop on revitalizing rural communities. The Home Town Competitiveness (HTC) workshop combines decades of experience in rural development and was taught by partners from three separate entities - the Heartland Center for Leadership Development, the RUPRI Center for Rural Entrepreneurship, and the Nebraska Community Foundation.

Throughout the highly structured training seminar, participants were also able to share ideas, concerns, and hurdles that face our communities, receive one-on-one help from the trainers, hear examples of successful HTC communities and network with other rural community leaders. After completing the training, all participants are now licensed to use copyrighted HTC materials and implement the strategies in their local communities.

The original HTC pilot project began in 2002 in Valley County, Nebraska. With a population on 4,647, Valley County was the perfect picture of a declining Great Plains community, losing people, jobs and assets to urban areas. Two years later, many activities are underway in the community, which is exceeding its goal of retaining five percent of the area's 10-year wealth transfer. The current community foundation endowment has grown to $6.7 million.

For more information about the Pottawatomie County HTC Steering Committee, please contact the Pottwatomie County Economic Development Corporation, (785) 456-9776. For more information about the Hometown Competitiveness Academy and Training Program, contact: Dr. Vicki Luther, Ph.D., Co-Director, Heartland Center for Leadership Development, 1-800-927-1115.