The Facilitator's Role in Collaborative Rural Development Project began in 1979 as a study of 12 rural development efforts which comprised the North Carolina Rural Employment Laboratory and was expanded in 1980-81 to include rural development in 6 other states (California, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, and Vermont). A wide range of state and local efforts were examined, i.e., small business assistance programs, innovative developmental finance institutions, industrial parks built by local development corporations, state programs that provide technical assistance to local development, and many others. The projects presented offer a diverse and representative sample of locally initiated economic development efforts currently under way in smaller cities and rural areas. Chapter 1 of the report presents the study's overall approach to economic development in smaller cities and rural areas. Chapter 2 analyzes the three local economic development strategies that were identified through the field work and discusses characteristics of local organizations that have initiated these strategies. Chapter 3 covers state support for local economic development. The second part of the report includes detailed case studies on each of the seven states, followed by a summary of the North Carolina Rural Employment Laboratory and a bibliography. (AH)