THOMASVILLE — Representatives from Georgia Department of Community Affairs (DCA) and the Georgia Rural Development Council (GRDC) will be in Thomasville Thursday to announce plans pertaining to the kick-off of a state-wide expansion of the Communities of Opportunity — Co-Op — Initiative.

“Everyone is welcome to come,” Roy Campbell, vice-chairman of GRDC and member of Thomasville City Council, said. “You don’t have to pre-register. The announcement is about the roll-out of this program. I’m real excited about this opportunity.”

The University of Georgia’s Carl Vinson Institute of Government concluded in a 2003 study the nation’s rural communities faced “unique economic and community development challenges,” an event press release said.

In 2006, UGA’s Fanning Institute officials discussed the study’s data with GRDC and members began working together with DCA to develop a framework for “a rural focused, results-oriented community development effort.” The consensus was a widespread awareness of limited economic vitality and teamwork from citizens and business owners was necessary to improve a community’s quality of life.

Gov. Sonny Perdue signed an executive order in March 2007 launching the state’s Co-Op and charged DCA to work with GRDC, private and public partners and local communities to administer the program, the release said.

“We saw a situation in a lot of rural counties where resources had been extended,” Mike Beatty, DCA commissioner, said Tuesday of the initiative’s formation. “We’re really excited about the potential of an inter-agency approach and feel like it will be more strategic if everyone works together to help local communities be what they want to be.”

A pilot program involving 12 East Georgia counties was launched summer 2007 and these communities recently delivered progress reports.

“We helped work out what their problems were and what we could do to solve them,” Campbell said. “The charge is to improve health care, education, infrastructure and economic development.”

The first Co-Op marketing meeting with local officials will be held following the kick-off, where program details will be discussed.

“We are excited about coming to Thomasville,” Beatty said. “It is a high point for us. We’ll get to meet some of the local leaders and I love those meetings because I get to really hear from folks about the locally-driven, bottom-up approach to government.”

Beatty stressed Co-Op is not a state government program.

“It is an initiative to really empower local communities to be involved in the visionary process of where they want their community to go,” he said. “We help implement the strategy, but they really decide it.”