(KLZA)-- USDA Rural Development and Nebraska Extension have announced that Southeast NE Partners for Progress  was selected as a Stronger Economies Together region.  Consisting of Johnson, Nemaha, Otoe, Pawnee and Richardson counties, Southeast NE Partners for Progress will now benefit from a focused initiative to explore regional economic advantages and to formulate an economic blueprint for their multi-county region that strategically builds on the current and emerging economic strengths of that region. Southeast NE Partners for Progress will be joining 21 other regions across thirteen states participating during 2015.

Southeast NE Partners for Progress kick-off activity is slated for Saturday, August 29th with a bus tour of the region’s communities, starting and finishing at Peru State College.  The region’s local community and civic leaders are invited to attend the tour, please contact Lisa Beethe (senddlisa@windstream.net, 402.862.2201), Partners for Progress Lead Coordinator, for more information and registration.

Launched in 2010 by USDA Rural Development and the nation’s four Regional Rural Development Centers, the Purdue Center for Regional Development and their land-grant university partners, SET is now in place in more than 70 regions in 31 states. SET is intended to help strengthen the capacity of communities/counties in rural America to work together in developing and implementing an economic development blueprint for their multi-county region, one that strategically builds on the current and/or emerging comparative economic advantages of that region.

 For more information on the SET initiative in Nebraska, contact Jeff Carpenter, USDA Rural Development (jeff.carpenter@ne.usda.gov, 402.437.5554), Marilyn Schlake, (mschlake1@unl.edu, 402.472.4138) or Carroll Welte (cwelte1@unl.edu, 402.374.2954), Nebraska Extension