Guiding Communities

Community Assessment Matrix (CAM)
The CAM is an assessment tool that helps community leaders and development practitioners characterize the strengths, weaknesses and needs of communities from two distinct perspectives. Many years of assisting community leaders with introspective evaluations, with community-based planning and with a variety of development programs, it became clear that discussions were more productive when the group chose to distinguish between factors related to the “Community” and the local “Economy”. read more...

What are the main characteristics that CAM evaluates?

Community
General community characteristics and trends
Organizational structure for integrated planning
Education and training
Governance
Resources for community growth
Quality of life

Economy
General characteristics and trends of the local economy
Ability to attract or recruit businesses
Business retention and expansion available
Assistance provided to entrepreneurs
Workforce development
Sustainability

I need to remediate some areas based on my CAM results...what programs and technical assistance are available?

Focus: data acquisition and use
A links to a variety of data sources are provided and in many cases point you directly to local or state data for Texas.

Focus: community development

The Texas Rural Leadership Program homepage has all information necessary to implement a "Developing Critical Thinking Leaders" program in your community.

Other leadership development programs from the Texas AgriLife Extension Service Community Resources and Economic Development Team

Focus: economic development

BR&E Visitation Program - program can make local businesses more competitive by evaluating and addressing their broader needs and concerns.

Capturing the Entrepreneurial Energy in Your Community - At the conclusion of this workshop participants will be able to identify local community issues, understand the benefits of entrepreneurship as an economic development strategy, identify entrepreneurs in your community and build collaborations, networks and teams to engage in entrepreneurship.

Developing Entrepreneur Ready Communities: Program Orientation - At the conclusion of this program orientation session participants will have curriculum, tools, resources and local, regional and statewide connections to implement a number of programs which focus on how to employ entrepreneurship as an economic development strategy.

Supporting Entrepreneurs with Emerging Businesses - At the conclusion of this workshop participants will be able to help entrepreneurs identify business ideas and transform them into sustainable business models; develop value propositions and competitive advantages; deal with other startup and liability issues; analyze business feasibility; develop capitalization strategies for new ventures; and many others.

Assisting Businesses with Growth Opportunities - At the conclusion of this workshop participants will be able to help entrepreneurs identify challenges to business growth, develop business plans to include growth strategies, develop strategies for capitalizing growth, prepare and analyze cash flows and other financial statements, and develop contingency plans and harvest/exit strategies.

Focus: entrepreneurship

Developing Entrepreneur Ready Communities - is a program for communities that desire to become actively involved in providing technical assistance and other resources to entrepreneurs that are starting and growing businesses in their local area. (link to online curriculum) (certification program)

Building Your Entrepreneurial Venture from the Ground Up - is a course providing the basic topics that entrepreneurs with emerging companies should be able to apply directly to their specific business ideas. (link to online curriculum) (link to more information)

Taking Your Entrepreneurial Venture to the Next Level - is a course designed for entrepreneurs facing the challenges or business growth, planning for growth, capitalizing growth, cash flow management, dealing with contingencies and developing harvest strategies (link to online curriculum) (link to more information)

Developing Diversified and Value-Added Agribusinesses - includes two courses with resources aimed at starting and growing agricultural and natural resource based businesses. (link to online curriculum) (link to more information)

Nature Tourism Business Plan Development - this course is to address the most important questions and issues to consider when evaluating a potential nature tourism enterprise or expanding operations. (link to online course) (other nature tourism programs)

Other business development programs from the Texas AgriLife Extension Service Community Resources and Economic Development Team