Community Futures Grande Prairie and Region

Community Economic Development

New Destination Marketing Fund Cluster Development Project for the Grande Prairie Region!

Project Title: Destination Marketing Fund Cluster Development
Area Covered: City of Grande Prairie, County of Grande Prairie, Sexsmith, Wembley, Beaverlodge, Hythe, TeePee Creek, Debolt, Bezanson, Grovedale, Valleyview, Fox Creek, MD of Greenview

Request for Proposal :

Tourism Economic Impact Study posted June 21/2010 4:59 PM
Project Coordinator(s) updated June 22/2010 8:57 AM
Destination Website updated July 6/10 12:10:00 PM Deadline has been postponed to Monday, July 12, 2010. See proposal for details.

For more information on the project, please see the full project outline Destination Marketing Fund Cluster Development - RDI Project or see RFP for further contact details. All updates or questions will be posted.

History of the Project

This project began in 2007 as a Rural Community Economic Development Fund Project that involved the study and implementation of a Destination Marketing Fund (DMF). The DMF has since been assembled and now has seven board members and has been operational for the last 2 years.

Project Scope

The intent of this project is to take the Destination Marketing Fund to the next level by creating a bridge between the DMF and other tourism related business operators. The DMF itself is a cluster of local hotel and recreational venues working together to promote tourism in the region. To date, the DMF has been successfully marketing the region but has long-term goals of promoting tourism on a larger scope. To do that, a plan has been developed that will greatly enhance the impact of tourism on local businesses and venues. A primary outcome of the project is the development and implementation of a destination website that will contribute to local businesses and municipalities by establishing a single interactive website with dual functionality.

New Agri-Food Project Announced for the Region! Community Futures Grande Prairie & Region, along with its partners, is pleased to announce the successful launch of their “Adding Value to the Agri-Food Value Chain - Creating Opportunities” project.

Community Futures Grande Prairie & Region (CFGP&R) believes that by connecting people and resources through the scope of the project, we will:

Gain insight into the current issues facing our regional agricultural producers

Discover opportunities for value-added potential

Identify new industry and determine market opportunities (local, domestic and international)

Connect producers with professionals who can assist them in moving their concepts through to commercialization

Click here for more information!

Grant Specialist Avaliable to the Region!

News Update

.1. Alberta Lottery Fund Updates

Community Initiatives Program (CIP): instructions to complete project applications are under revision... keep checking the website for latest info. To June 11, searchable database shows 102 grants for just over $2.5 Million; looks like there is less money in this fund this year... and very hard to get operating grants.

Community Facilities Enhancement Program CFEP): program guidelines and instructions to complete applications are under revision. Keep checking the website for new info. To June 11, searchable database shows 62 grants for about $5 Million...nothing yet to GP/immediate area.

Alberta Foundation for the Arts (AFA): website has been updated; upcoming grant deadlines are on a single page. New format looks much easier to follow.

Community Spirit 2010-11 Grant Process: Revised program guidelines and application form will be available in September, 2010. The application deadline is December 31, 2010. Please note that application forms from previous years cannot be used.

Alberta Heritage Partnership Program Grant (Alberta Historical Resources Foundation) deadline: Sept 1.

Alberta Sports Recreation Parks & Wildlife Foundation:

Development Initiatives Program which provides support to Albertans working in the areas of sport, recreation, parks and wildlife for project and program related endeavors. MAX $5000; funds a range of small projects. Next deadline Oct 1

Event Support Program which encourages the development of youth in sport, recreation, parks and wildlife and promotes economic growth in Alberta. MAJOR events applications must be at least 6 months prior to event. Next deadlines July 1, Oct 1

Sport Participation Initiative Program which provides support for the development and operation of programs designed to increase or enhance participation in sport for under-represented groups, or to provide opportunities for these groups in coaching, officiating, or volunteer leadership. Women. Aboriginal. Disabled. Economically Disadvantaged. Next deadline Oct 1

2. Request for updates on YOUR grant applications
Please let me know what grants your organization applied for AND if the application was successful, how much did you get?

3. JUNE 30: next lottery grant program deadlines...
Iif you'd like me to review you application, please email the week of June 21. I will try to help as many as I can.

Community Futures has partnered with its seven municipal members to secure the services of a Grant Specialist for the region.

The new Grant Specialist will work with community groups, non-profits and municipalities to first seek out and research grant and funding opportunities and then to prepare and critique grant applications.

Cheryl King, owner of Greenleaf Consulting, is now available to meet with interested groups and is just completing presentations to local councils.

In October, 3-5 community volunteers will be sought to complete a Grant Train the Trainer, so that the project can leave a lasting legacy - local Grant Specialists who will be equipped to help their communities for years to come.

To reach Cheryl King,

email her at gsi@cfofgp.com or call (780) 814-5340.

Other Grant Information:

http://www.gfundsonline.com/

"GFunds Online is an SME community toolkit that allows you to quickly and simply navigate all 530 Federal and Provincial technology funding support programs, and connect with other SMEs, Support Service Providers, and Program Funding Providers".

The Truth About Grants: where they are and how you can access them

Community Economic Development (CED) puts local people in charge of their ways of life and work.

It takes skill: community organizing, research, and planning; business and organizational development; finance; and networking. And the key is to ensure that development is sustainable both ecologically and commercially.

Albertans living in smaller communities need to find better ways to address the pressing economic problems they face, as a community. They need to find more effective ways of generating appropriate development opportunities.

Community Futures' staff are practicing CED - working to create a constructive response to these problems and explore new opportunities.

At Community Futures, community economic development programs and projects are facilitated and initiated by our Staff and Board of Directors to address the issues of economic development and diversification as well as community organization development and training.

Services available:

Research, development, & facilitation of CED projects
Research other CED opportunities
Community capacity-building
Board training
Conflict management
Presentations and/or facilitation of workshops
Strategic planning sessions

If you have any questions about these services or CED contact Community Futures at (780) 814-5340

Rural Diversification Initiative (RDI) Approved!

The RDI initiative provides funds to Community Futures organizations for economic diversification projects in Alberta. The total amount available for project funding is $3.48 million over 3 years from April 1, 2008 to March 31, 2011. Total costs for each RDI project will be at least $100,000. RDI funding will cover a maximum of 60% of eligible project costs. This initiative is funded through Western Economic Diversification Canada and is administered by Community Futures of Alberta

Goals

Rural economic diversification is a process with the long-term goal of building a community that has long-term sustainability, resiliency in the face of change, and a broad economic base with a variety of types of businesses and jobs. As a process, rural economic diversification is community-based and rooted in a strategic analysis of the community’s strengths and advantages. RDI funds will be used to facilitate informed, strategic investment decisions within coherent regional development strategies with a goal of regional competitiveness. All projects funded by RDI will be rooted in a community economic development strategy that is based on the region’s unique strengths and comparative advantages.
RDI will support projects under the following categories. Please note that RDI projects do not have to address all of these areas to be eligible for funding – targeting one (or more) of the following areas is acceptable.

Innovation

Support for and Promotion of Productivity Enhancement: This includes helping firms enhance efficiency or productivity through the adoption of technology, using new materials, using new processes, introducing lean manufacturing, industry training, encouraging the mobility of skilled labour to help pass ideas from one firm to another, improved access to information, shared equipment or services through a business incubator-type project, etc.
Support for and Promotion of New Products/Services: This includes the development of innovative products or services.
Support for and Promotion of New Technology: Examples include assistance with commercialization, support for inventors, technology demonstration sites, exposing firms to ideas and R&D from other countries, or linking firms to university and R&D companies.
Import Replacement: Examples include identification of gaps and business attraction, business expansion, reverse trade projects, and shop local projects
Development of New Markets: This includes export development or developing new markets in targeted sectors like procurement.
Innovative Access to Capital: This includes the development of local or cluster angel investor networks, programs that encourage innovative funding for business, and innovative access to growth capital

Cluster Development

Cluster Development: This includes assistance with industry development or assistance with cluster development such as developing business incubators targeted at a sector, assisting with building demand for a cluster product, organizing support services (like venture capitalists, market research companies, R&D companies), helping to build management expertise in a cluster, etc. Examples of emerging sectors include tourism, manufacturing, agri-food, nutraceuticals, or alternative energy production.
Value-Adding to Traditional Sectors: This includes assistance with value-adding in agriculture, oil and gas, forestry, and mining

All projects must be submitted through a Community Futures office. If you have a project that you feel could be eligible for RDI funding, please contact us.

Community Futures is working on or has completed a number of Community Economic Development Projects. We are excited and happy to be involved in such innovative and vibrant initiatives.

Putting Podcasts to Work for Rural Business

Understanding the ever-changing needs of rural business clients, Community Futures has identified the need to deliver a flexible style of training/information to businesses and entrepreneurs. The purpose of this project is to develop a series of podcasts targeted at potential entrepreneurs. A podcast is a digital media file (usually audio and video), distributed over the internet for playback on portable media players and personal computers. The material is pre-recorded and users can check out the material at their leisure.

Activities include: hiring a researcher, producing 4 -7 podcasts, translating podcasts into French, marketing the podcasts, completing a feasibility study/business plans. The first podcast will be launched March 31, 2008.

Partners are: Community Futures Grande Prairie and Region, Community Futures Peace Country, Community Futures West Yellowhead, Alberta Women Entrepreneurs (unconfirmed), Le Conseil d'Economique, Entrepreneurs with Disabilities program, Peace Region Economic Development Alliance, the Grande Alberta Economic Region, and Alberta Employment Immigration and Industry.

The total amount for this project is $61,500. The project started in July 2007 and was completed March 31, 2008. The first of seven Podcasts are complete. Visit www.podcastsforbusiness.ca to subscribe to the Podcast series.

South Peace Centennial Museum Marketing and Education Strategy

The South Peace Centennial Museum has been operating just west of the Town of Beaverlodge since 1968. The museum is already a tourist draw - as the site of the Peace Country Gospel Jamboree and a large collection of pioneer agriculture artifacts - but would like to increase the number of visitors. In late 2005, Museum Board Members approached Community Futures to assist with project development and organizational expansion.

The goal of this project is to develop a Marketing and Education Strategy for the museum. Activities include hiring a consultant; identifying opportunities to increase knowledge and awareness of historical information; identifying ways to increase the number of tourists to the museum; hosting focus groups with organizations and schools; developing a Marketing and Education Strategy; and sharing the results.

In addition to Community Futures (via the Rural Community Economic Development Fund,) funding partners include the Community Initiatives Program, the South Peace Centennial Museum, and the County of Grande Prairie. The total project amount was $31,000.00 with a contribution from RCED for $21,000.00.

Grande Prairie Regional Tourism Association Destination Marketing Fund Study & Implementation

In early 2006, the Grande Prairie Regional Tourism Association asked Community Futures to assist the organization with strategic planning and organizational visioning. From that planning came the desire to implement a Destination Marketing Fund in the region to improve its funding model and allow the association to do more effective marketing and maintain and expand its services to members.

Destination Marketing Funds are a method of providing sustainable revenue for tourism marketing such as a hotel or accommodation tax. The goal of this project is to study the concept of a Destination Marketing Fund for the Grande Prairie region. Projects activities include: hiring the consultant, establishment of a steering committee, development and application of a benchmarking questionnaire to assess how DMF approaches in Alberta and BC have worked; stakeholder engagement sessions to gather input; and completion of a report on recommended funding models, municipal differences, and legislative barriers to a tourism levy. Early in 2007, the project scope was broadened to also include the implementation of the fee in the region.

Partners include Community Futures, the Grande Prairie Regional Tourism Association, the Northern Alberta Development Council, the City of Grande Prairie, and the County of Grande Prairie. The total project amount was $51,000 with a contribution from RCED for $41,000.

Computer Gaming

The computer game industry is a $10 billion industry in North America and Alberta has some examples of very successful, internationally recognized computer game companies. The goal of this project is to build the computer game industry in the Grande Prairie region thereby diversifying the regional economy and building human resources (particularly youth). Grande Prairie has hosted Computer Game Development Expos for the past two years. This project will take the Computer Game Expo to the next level by helping to research best practices for the development of a database and industry flowchart.

Spearheaded by Peace Region Economic Development Alliance, project activities include: building community awareness, creating an industry flowchart and regional database of computer game industry occupations, creating customized materials for the CF self-employment program, and developing a bidding process for computer game industry contracts (this will be maintained by Grande Prairie Regional College).

Partners are: Community Futures Grande Prairie & Region (via RCED,) Alberta Human Resources and Employment, the Peace Region Economic Development Alliance, and Grand Prairie Regional College.

The total amount for this project is $11,550 with an RCED contribution of $7,550.00. The project started January 2007 and was completed in June 2007.

River of Death and Discovery Dinosaur Centre Project Coordinator

The long-term objective of the River of Death and Discovery Dinosaur Centre is to develop, protect, and discover significant paleontological resources in the region around Pipestone Creek and to build a Dinosaur Centre which will attract tourists and educate and entertain visitors. To this end, the Steering Committee has been developing the concept of a Dinosaur Centre in northern Alberta since 2004. Ten studies have been completed to date including a Business Case, Fundraising Strategy, and Strategic Marketing Framework. The purpose of this project is to move the River of Death and Discovery Dinosaur Centre from planning to the pre-construction phase.

Project activities include: hiring a project coordinator and administrative assistant, creating an operational financial sub-committee to ensure effective bookkeeping, creating an operational education and research sub-committee to design paleontological and archaeological programs, ensuring that tourism agencies incorporate paleontological resources into regional tourism strategies, and hiring a marketing design consultant to promote the concept of the Centre and its early stage programs and services. As a parallel initiative to the RCED project, the Steering Committee will be initiating fund raising activities.

Partners are: Community Futures Grande Prairie & Region (via RCED and in-kind contributions,) the City of Grande Prairie; the County of Grande Prairie; the Town of Wembley; the Municipal District of Greenview; Alberta Tourism, Parks, Recreation and Culture; the Peace Region Economic Development Alliance, and Alberta Economic Development.

The total amount for this project is $140,000 with a request to RCED for $50,000 (36% of the total). The project started May 2007 and was completed March 2008.

For more information about the River of Death, go to www.riverofdeath.ca.

A Regional Capacity Building Strategy to Assist Inventor and Researcher Development

Grande Prairie Regional College and the Peace Region Economic Development Alliance recently merged their services to innovators into a single organization called the Centre for Research and Innovation. This Centre is located at the College. The purpose of this project is to create an "Innovation Ambassador’s Network" and to develop a "Innovation Expert Tool”.This interactive tool will describe the steps needed to move an idea through product development and commercialization through to the market place. The tool will then be linked to a database of expertise available to assist the inventor with each of the key steps. The Innovation Ambassador's Network will be made of resource people in the region who will be trained to assist innovators. Both the Network and the Tool will be offered through the Centre for Research and Innovation.

Activities for this project include: hiring a summer student to update the product development tool (initially developed by PREDA’s Innovation Network)and update the inventor’s expertise database (initially developed by CF Grande Prairie); amalgamating the two into an interactive tool called the Innovation Expert Tool and posting to a website; hiring a consultant to organize and host 3 awareness sessions, hold one training workshop for individuals interested in becoming resource contacts for inventors, develop a communications plan for the Tool, and develop a strategic plan to identify barriers to innovation.

Partners are: Community Futures Grande Prairie & Region, the Peace Region Economic Development Alliance, Grande Prairie Regional College, and the Centre for Research and Innovation.

The total amount for this project is $28,350. The project started in September 2007 and was completed in February 2008.