Awards

Governor's Award

Recipient of the first Wyoming Bravo!  Entrepreneur Governor's Award for Economic Development.

Honored in February 2005 with this award, it recognized CANDO's drive to do more for the community of Douglas thant just attempt to recruit businesses.

One of 12 Communities Selected Nationwide

Douglas,Wyoming was selected in 2002 as one of 12 communities nationwide by the National Center for Small Communities (NCSC) for its research on Technology-Led Economic Development in rural communities. Douglas and the other 11 communities were recognized because of their emphasis on using technology to enhance their local was economic development efforts. No other Wyoming community was selected.

"While this selection could easily have been for other communities, we are excited that the hard work of many individuals in Douglas is being recognized," said Joe Coyne, Executive Director of the Converse Area New Development Organization (CANDO). CANDO is the local economic development agency for Douglas and Converse County, Wyoming.

"Our community leaders have strongly supported technology and economic development for a long time. That support has been and will continue to be the key to our success, just like it has been and will be in any other community," added Coyne. The NCSC is funded by the Economic Development Agency (an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce), to produce two useful products for future economic development efforts across the country: (1) a collection of 12 in-depth case rural studies on technology-led economic development drawn from America; and (2) a Best Practices publication (32-40 pages) that identifies and describes the most effective technology-led economic development strategies for rural communities. For more information on NCSC visit their website at http://www.natat.org/ncsc.

Douglas was chosen primarily because of the community's development and growth of the CANDO Training Center, which provides technical training to the area's workforce. CANDO trains dozens of area youth, businesses and individuals in their facility.

Douglas' bid to become a best practices model was bolstered by the community's broadband cable modem Internet access, provided by local ISP CommuniComm Services. Broadband Internet access is not widely available in Wyoming or other parts of the country.

CANDO developed a number of innovative training programs to further strengthen the area's workforce. Those programs included creation of CANDO's "Home-to-Careers" program, which provided computers, Internet access and training to low-income families. The Home-to-Careers program received federal funding from the State of Wyoming's TANF program.

Another innovative training program that CANDO developed was called CREATE ITS (Creating Real Experience with Advance Training Employment). This program was funded through the state School-to-Careers program. It locally developed a student-based technology "temp" service, where high school students trained to work as teams to complete short-term technology projects for local businesses.