Project Profile

DDAA Research Supplement – Telling the Story of Local Development Districts

Development District Association of Appalachia
Start Date: Jun 2023 — End Date: Dec 2023

The Local Development Districts (LDDs) are a fundamental element of the three-legged Federal, state, and local stool that supports development in Appalachia and the work of the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC). They rely on a variety of funders and stakeholders to support their efforts, which requires educating them on the successes of the LDDs. The Development District Association of Appalachia (DDAA) collected and organized LDD stories and created resources and tools that support LDDs and state associations as they communicate their successes. DDAA held informational interviews with state associations, local development districts, their state associations, and state program managers to learn examples of those success stories, how they reported and measured their successes, and who they communicated to. After building a systematic understanding of the various approaches by identifying commonalities in state and LDD reporting, DDAA developed a template that aggregated information across the states and reported to ARC and local stakeholders the successes of the local development districts.