Louisiana Development Ready Community

Louisiana Economic Development (LED) is committed to empowering communities around the state through investment, job creation, and economic growth.
 

The Louisiana Development Ready Community (LDRC) program is one of the ways LED helps participants become more competitive for new investment and jobs, guiding selected communities through the process of creating and implementing a strategic economic development plan. By following its plan for multiple years, participants leverage local assets and address unique challenges to empower business growth in their communities.
 

If an area is not yet positioned to participate in the LDRC program, the Community Competitiveness Initiative (CCI) is available to help get started on the path toward certification.
 

CCI is an economic development capacity measurement that identifies areas of a community that will help it become more competitive. Understanding economic development capacity is critical in securing job creation through promoting the expansion of current businesses and attracting new ones.
 

CCI uses twenty key indicators to gauge a community’s economic development readiness, which is classified in one of three stages: emerging, developing, or achieving. The twenty indicators are grouped by type:

 

Organization

Product Development

Community Resilience

Marketing and Business Development

The CCI is designed to enhance community competitiveness by focusing on economic development capacity at the parish level, but is effective on the municipal and organizational levels as well. There are two ways to get started: an in person meeting with the local Economic Development Board or community leaders, or a virtual meeting with the LED team.

 

To learn more about CCI, please visit LouisianaCommunityNetwork.org or contact Robby Abboud at Robert.Abboud@la.gov.