Innovator Award

MACED Honored with Regional Innovator Award for Small Business Assistance Efforts

Southern Growth Policies Board and Alabama Governor Bob Riley Recognize Innovative Rural Programs with Awards at Regional Conference

June 2005

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C.— The Mountain Association for Community Economic Development (MACED) was honored with a regional innovator award as part of the Rising Together: Summit on the Rural South conference held in Point Clear, Alabama on June 12-14, 2005. Alabama Governor Bob Riley presented Justin Maxson, president of MACED, with an innovator award at the opening session of the conference. Each year Southern Growth Policies Board, a regional public policy think tank, recognizes innovative programs in the South that are improving the quality of life in the region with the innovator awards.

The focus of the 2005 innovator awards was on rural development. MACED was recognized for its Economic Opportunities Initiative, which works with people in eastern Kentucky and central Appalachia to create economic opportunity and build financial assets for low-income people. Over the past year, MACED has launched three new projects including a no-interest loan pool for technical assistance to small businesses, a loan product focused on value-added agriculture and a partnership with Citizen's National Bank of Paintsville to review denied small business loan applications for possible support. Over this time period, MACED has lent over $3.2 million in 64 loans that have helped to create or retain over 500 jobs in the Appalachian region of Kentucky.

MACED was founded in 1976 by ten community development organizations to provide technical assistance to community-based groups in the region. The organization’s small business development efforts are closely aligned with its goal of strengthening rural communities. MACED’s portfolio is $8 million in total assets, which includes loans and equity in 86 businesses, ranging from expediting to wood flooring. MACED has created more than 4,200 jobs in the region and investments are viewed as tools for social change that are tracked for both their social and economic impact.

The 2005 innovator award winners includes a collection of public, private, academic and nonprofit organizations that were recognized for their fresh approaches to solving problems and creating opportunity in the South’s rural communities. More than 200 programs from the Southern region were nominated. A regional panel of experts chose 14 winners, one from each of Southern Growth Policies Board member states — Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. For a complete list of winners and to view profiles of their programs, visit www.southern.org/main/innovators/2005.shtml.

About Southern Growth Policies Board

Southern Growth Policies Board is a non-partisan public policy think tank based in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. Formed by the region’s governors in 1971, Southern Growth Policies Board develops and advances visionary economic development policies by providing a forum for collaboration among a diverse cross-section of the region’s governors, legislators, business and academic leaders and the economic and community development sectors. To learn more about Southern Growth Policies Board, visit www.southern.org.