DRA, ADECA vow continued support for businesses in Black Belt | Business

HAYNEVILLE— If Alabama’s Black Belt region is able to climb out of poverty, it will be small businesses that provide the rungs, state and national officials said here Tuesday. 

Speaking at a breakfast in Hayneville, representatives of the Delta Regional Authority and the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs addressed the theme of a just-released study by the Douglas C. Greene Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Southwest Missouri State University.

“The small businesses in this part of the world have been creating the jobs in the past, they’re creating the jobs of the present and they will be creating the jobs for the future,” said Chris Masingill, federal co-chairman of DRA. “Small businesses and entrepreneurs are the real economic engines in our part of the world and they always have been.”

DRA officials met with local residents at Deep Woods Barbecue as part of an eight-state tour this week to tout small businesses and their contributions to local economies.

ADECA Director Jim Byard Jr. said it has never been a secret that small businesses are the backbone of many Alabama communities, but the new report suggests that local businesses may not be getting the recognition they deserve.

“Our partnership with DRA and local officials is one way to ensure that small businesses and entrepreneurs receive the encouragement, know-how and assistance they need to get off the ground and stay in business,” Byard said.

Dr. James L. Stapleton, author of the report, told those attending the breakfast that small businesses employing nine or fewer people have provided more than 91 percent of the net new jobs in the Delta Region during the past19 years. Stapleton also said small businesses are more likely “to stick it out during tough times” than many larger businesses that are not headquartered in the area. 

Twenty Alabama counties – most in the state’s Black Belt region – are included in the DRA coverage area of 252 counties and parishes.

ADECA administers numerous programs supporting law enforcement and traffic safety, economic development, energy conservation, workforce development, water resource management and recreation development.

More information on the report can be found at http://dra.gov/vp/940.aspx?url=/about-us/maps_research_data.aspx. Information on Alabama’s role in the DRA can be found at http://adeca.state.al.us/Divisions/ced/Pages/DRA.aspx.

Information Source: ADECA