Stories:

• Lucasville Upper Hammonds Plains
• Development Office Youth LIVE
• Halifax Regional Development
• Agency Harold Verge Doreen
• Parsons
• Back to Halifax

Halifax Regional Development Agency
Finalist
Nova Scotia Community Economic Development Award
for Excellence in Client Service

November 26, 1998

The Halifax Regional Development Agency (RDA) advances community economic development in rural and suburban areas of the Halifax Regional Municipality by providing service to entrepreneurs and volunteer community groups. The RDA does small business counselling and volunteer development; it also provides project development and management services plus seed funding for business and CED project start ups.

"Because of the large population we're mandated to serve, we recently decided to change our approach and focus on capacity building rather than doing CED directly," says Greg Brown, Executive Director of the Halifax RDA. "We used to implement community economic development projects; now we provide technical support and training to small businesses and community development organizations." The RDA's new approach helps entreprenuers and community groups become more independent and better able to take control of their economic destinies.

According to Brown, Agency staff work with over 150 entrepreneurs. In addition to small business counselling, the Halifax RDA provides clients with access to a business database, Site Pro software, a tourism resource inventory, geographic information systems, and CED literature.

Volunteer development is a big focus of the RDA's new approach. After all, last year, over 400 volunteers contributed 10,550 hours to CED projects in suburban and rural Halifax County. The HRDA commissioned the development of CED Training Guides and "Tool Kits" to help volunteers and community groups manage projects. The training guides are broken down into a series of 12 two-hour workshops on such topics as strategic planning, understanding CED, and project and venture development.

Community organizations that benefit from the RDA's expertise and services are implementing CED projects all across the region. A group called the St Margaret's Bay Destination Action Committee is working on a tourism strategy for the St. Margaret's Bay region. On the Eastern Shore, the Lake Charlotte Heritage Society's Memory Lane project, currently under development, documents rural life in the 1940's and 50's; the volunteers developing the site want to attract tourists and educate local people about their heritage. The Halifax RDA works with the Fisherman's Cove development group in Eastern Passage, as well as the Greater Chebucto and Sackville community development associations.

Visit the Halifax RDA website at http://