The intentional weaving of state, theme, and national networks and collaborative partnerships of our proposed Center will lay the foundation for future resilience of not only small and mid-tier ag and food enterprises in our region, but also the future of innovative and collaborative technical assistance and capacity building. Through strategic capacity building of the Center’s clientele and our key partner organizations and agencies, our proposed Center will strengthen both the built and soft infrastructure of our region’s business development systems.

A key aspect of our future resilience comes through concerted efforts to elevate and expand the engagement of regional food and farm enterprises with USDA funding sources and programs. Establishing USDA agencies as key partners in business and market development for small and mid-tier enterprises will shift the culture of business development in the region and ensure that our stakeholders see a variety of USDA agencies as go-to partners for future endeavors. Close partnership with the other Regional Centers that are identified across the US will support the RCSC’s capacity to expand interagency collaboration through targeted staffing, tools, and resources. 

If successful in our described plan of work, the networks of cross-sectoral and cross-regional communication and collaboration will endure beyond the cooperative agreement. Based on a successful track record of collaborative development and implementation of technical assistance initiatives, shared priority setting, and consensus-based decision making, our regional partners will have the essential foundation of trust as well as the established processes and norms of collaboration and decision making to support future initiatives. These partnerships will be further supported by ongoing data collection, analysis, and sharing processes established through the Center to support regional efforts and the ongoing research and extension efforts of key program partners.