Arizona Home Town Competitiveness is a collaborative project of the Arizona Rural Development Council and the Arizona Community Foundation. It is an integrated approach to community and economic development aimed at helping the public, private and nonprofit sectors build sustainable communities. The framework builds a community by developing the following pillars/sectors:

• Community Leadership
• Entrepreneurship
• Youth Engagement
• Community Philanthropy
• Culture and Heritage

The AZHTC approach helps community volunteers to build a game plan and sustain it over time. Local committees are formed around each of the sectors that will lead and guide the AZHTC process. It is an asset-based approach that provides communities with a framework to identify and mobilize existing assets more strategically. Communities are guided through a community-driven process based on the needs and wishes of the community. AZHTC is a long term commitment that is built on a foundation of culture and heritage and enables communities to build upon existing assets of leadership and economic activity as well as the future assets of local youth and family wealth. The AZHTC framework not only targets specific core strategies to increase a community’s effectiveness in community development, but also strengthens a community’s capacity to address all the other development issues essential for success. A steering committee consisting of an AZHTC coordinator and five pillar/sector “champions” is formed to provide leadership and vision for the program. The coordinator will organize the local efforts (a paid position if possible) and the pillar/sector champions will establish committees around each of the pillars. The pillar/sector champions begin to hold regular committee meeting to develop strategies around their pillar and the steering committee meets on a regular basis to coordinate all of the activities. AZHTC is locally controlled, builds upon community assets, does not duplicate, must add value to existing activities, convenes and builds local partnerships, builds capacity through empowering local leadership and believes in the power of “Hometown”.