Archive for the ‘Community Engagement’ Category

Recharge your Batteries with the U Process

March 12th, 2010

I’ve been down and out lately, both mentally and physically.  In fact, I spent most of yesterday in bed sleeping.  While the sleep recharged my body, a comment left by Michael Bischoff, a Minneapolis based consultant, has helped recharge my “mental” batteries.

Bishoff’s comment read: 

I just came across your posts about the U Process. I’ve seen many summaries of Theory U. These are some of the best. Thank you for putting them out there!

It’s always nice when someone recognizes your work.  In this case, Bischoff was recognizing a 5-part series Joe Bartmann wrote describing the U Process, a theory of change the Rural Learning Center subscribes to.  Although Joe has moved on to the Sioux Falls Green Project, I felt proud that Bischoff was recognizing ReImagine Rural for offering quality advice. 

Bischoff’s comments also cause me to pause and reflect:  have I been practicing the U Process lately?  It forced me to go back, reread what Joe wrote about a year-and-a-half ago, and reflect on it.

 

Why should I care about the U Process?

In short, the U Process is a change theory that suggests the best way for problem solving is to:  (1) slow down and let go of your old thinking;  (2) deepen your understanding of the problems by listening and learning;  (3) let new ideas emerge from a quietness of your new understanding;  (4) and then jump into action with solutions.  

In some ways, it’s not a very radical theory to embrace; but practicing it is! 

As Joe describes in his opening post in the series, most of us in community development work define our problem and then jump into action.  We say we want to understand our problems more deeply, but in practice, we rush into solving them.  The result is that we end up investing more time and energy into the work of solving the problem than we might have had to if we would have spent more time trying to understand it.  What’s worse is that rushed to solutions often aren’t solutions at all-they do little to solve the real problem.

 

What this meant to me today

As I pause and reflect on my work lately, I realize that my engine has been so revved up by all the work I have to do that I’m not taking the time to deepen my understanding of the issues I’m working on.  In addition to creating shallow thinking, I believe this hectic, get ‘er done attitude is partly to blame for the low energy in my batteries.

If you feel like I have lately, I highly recommend you dig into U Process.  Check out Joe’s 4-part series (I’ve posted the links below) and find other resources describing it on the web.  Then spend some time really digging into the problems you face through this new lens, and let the new ideas emerge. 

I think you’ll find the solutions that emerge are more focused and more approriate — and I bet you’ll have a lot more energy as well.    

The U Process on ReImagine Rural

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Youth Engagement: A path to reinventing rural education

March 4th, 2010

We talk a lot about the importance of youth engagement in rural communities. It’s a great way to connect with young people, and make sure they realize how valuable they are to the community.

I recently discovered this great example of youth engagement in rural Perth County, Ontario. 

Under an initiative developed by the Perth County Econoimc Development Offices, MS2 Productions, a local production company, has been offering Social Media Boot Camp training classes to local businesses.  The training involves a 3-hour overview session on social media marketing and hands-on training focused on specific social media tools, like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube. 

To promote the training, the company produced a video which I’ve embedded below. (It’s so good, I wish Perth County, Ontario was closer so that I could have attended.)

 

Perth County Social Media Boot Camp from MS2 Productions - Your Complete on Vimeo.

But it is what’s happening behind the scenes that sets the training apart. In addition to encouraging businesses within each rural community to work together, they are engaging students as social media consultants.  As Melissa Schenk, Executive Producer of MS2 Productions explained to me via e-mail:

Local Businesses will hire CO-OP students to be their Social Media Marketers… The Baby Boomers learn from students how to use the Social Media Sites, but the students in turn - learn more about local businesses, how to better put these social media sites to good use, and are providing a valuable resource of information in their communities. Not to mention students are engaging more with businesses, that they might never have had the opportunity or an interest in otherwise.”

In short, young people and business owners are learning from each other.  And in the long run, these young people will better appreciate life in their rural communities and be better prepared to recognize business opportunities after completing their education.

Additionally, I think projects like this will lead to the educational reform that Richard Florida has been talking about lately: creativity, technology, and social.  All are 21st Century skills that young people need to be successful.  Come to think of it, those are the same skills rural communities leaders need as well.

Note:  Melissa Schenk  sent me a message correcting my initial post, which did not credit the Perth County Economic Development Office for the project.  My apologies to Bernia Wheaton, Perth County Economic Development Coordinator.  I love this story even more knowing that economic development professionals are leading the charge!

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Posted in Community Engagement, Economic Development, Gen Y, Rural, Training and Events | Comments (3)

Chamberlain Sun’s figured out Facebook

February 27th, 2010

On Monday, Lindsey, Becki, and I are meeting with Miner County residents to talk about Facebook Pages for businesses.  Actually, we hope to do more than just talk.  We’re going to help business owners set up their own pages and talk about the strategies they might employ on Facebook.  It’s this last part about strategies that excites me.

Today, however, I noticed some web traffic to Reimagine Rural from the Chamberlain Sun Facebook page.  When I traced the links back, I discovered the page was set up by the Chamberlain Sun newspaper to spotlight the Chamberlain/Oacoma, SD community.  It’s the first example I’ve witnessed of a small town South Dakota newspaper using Facebook!   

Way to go Chamberlain Sun!

I’d like to highlight what I see the newspaper doing (in other words, their strategy) with their Facebook Page because I think they’ve got some good stuff happening.  Here’s a bit of it:

Very impressive.  I could keep going, but readers should be able to learn from and hopefully be inspired by the newspaper’s use of Facebook. 

I’m going to add the Chamberlain Sun’s use of Facebook to the list of examples we use on Monday night in our Facebook class.  If you know of any other great examples of businesses in small, rural communities who do a great job of using Faceboook, we’d love to be able to share them as well.

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Pumping Sunshine: the Ord, NE way

February 23rd, 2010

Have you been thinking about developing a blog as a part of your community development strategy?  If so, I highly encourage you to check out Ord Pumping Sunshine, a blog published by Caleb Pollard, Executive Director of Valley County Economic Development & the Ord Area Chamber of Commerce.

I’ve never met Caleb in person, but I’ve been familiar with Ord, Nebraska since the late 1990s when both Ord and Howard were active with the Rural School and Community Trust.  Since that time, I’ve been impressed with the community’s entrepreneur support system and continued investment in young people.   There’s no doubt they are one of the rock stars in rural community development. 

Caleb has been the executive director of the chamber and development group for about a year and one-half.  He brings with him experience with sales and marketing in the technology and health care fields, which might explain his zeal for blogging.  Caleb recently answered the following questions for me, which I hope will inspire more rural communities to recognize the value that blogging offers. 

 

What’ the purpose of Ord Sunshine Pumping, and why use a blogging platform?

First, I love to write, especially about issues involving rural development.  It’s my passion and I find blogging is a great way to share a story about rural issues.  I feel we have a great story to share in Ord, because of the tremendous success we’ve had in the last 10 years and blogging is such a great social tool to share it with, like communities facing the same issues we’ve had.  Since we’ve had this great success, blogging makes it easy to take those models, ideas, examples and overall rural economic philosophy and share it with the world.

More importantly, however, is the that the blog allows me a direct conversation with my community, in a dynamic and social way, to weave the “what” of what we are doing with the “why” of its importance.  There is no filter, and with social media like a blog, you can connect it to a greater whole and then you begin to see why the work we accomplish in Ord is so important to all rural communities.

We often hear from community leaders who say they don’t have time for writing on a blog. How do you deal with time issues?

Everyone has time.  Saying they don’t have time is a total cop-out.  Many people don’t like to write, and that’s totally okay.  But using the “I don’t have time” routine is just an easy way out.  As for blogging, I find it is a great outlet for me to tell our story.  But making time is about prioritizing my schedule to make it work.  Plus, blogging cuts down on a ton of extra time I spend with press releases to local and statewide media, along with our monthly, quarterly and annual reporting.  Blogging actually saves me time.  Prioritizing my schedule means something has to lose or it’s delegated to one of my staff.  I’m blessed to have great staff that gives me the ability to dedicate my time to blogging.  Plus, I find when you’re passionate about something, getting it done isn’t too tough.

When did you start the blog and what have you learned about the process of operating a community blog since then?

I’ve been blogging on and off for about 6-7 years now, and our current blog has been in operation for a little over a year.  What have I learned?  First, building a robust conversation about *positive* things is much harder than talking about the negative.  Second, finding local contributors that are willing to take on the workload of actually doing the writing is difficult.  I’d love to have more contributors on our blog and we’re just starting to expand our efforts this year.  I anticipate having 2 additional contributors by year’s end, but like you said above, it’s a time sink.

Finally, I think honesty is appreciated.  While I’m the Chamber dude, and pumping sunshine is part of my modus operandi, being honest about my love for rural communities, especially in Nebraska, has won our blog a lot of fans.  Authenticity counts BIG TIME.

Do you have any stories that exemplify the impact the blog has had on your work?

Yes, two specifically.  First, in Spring of 2009 I wrote an innocuous post about wine tasting in Central Nebraska.  While some of the wine aficionados may bat an eye at this, we really do have some fab wineries in Central Nebraska and their wine is pretty darn competitive to what I’ve had out of Chile or Napa.  Seriously.  This one post here earned us a lot of publicity.  A writer from NPR happened to be driving through the Great Plains and picked up on the blog post and bam!  We had national coverage.  The piece ran on NPR here: 

The other post I would say exemplifies our “what” and “why” would be this post on our 100 new business in Valley County (and Ord) since 2000.  Of those 100, 78 are still in business, lending to the power of dedicated economic gardening.  We spend a lot of time and effort grooming entrepreneurs and building supportive programs to keep their businesses in operation.  To say we’ve seen 100 new businesses in a county of 4500 and a community of 2200 is straight amazing.  That post can be found here.

Photo Description:  The above photo show FFA students from Ord H.S. who participated in a project with the local economic development group and an ethanol plant.  It’s an example of Ord’s continued commitment to engage the youth in their community.

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What can we learn from Hazelton, ND?

February 17th, 2010

“Did you hear the story on the radio about Hazelton, ND?” 

Those were the first words Lindsey shared with me yesterday morning as we hopped into a car before heading out on our day trek across South Dakota yesterday.  I hadn’t, so Lindsey explained. 

A family had moved from Miami, FL to Hazeton, ND (pop. 240) four years ago to take advantage of an incentive package for new residents.  Two housing lots and $20,000 were given to this family of four to move to the ND community.  The family started a business (which has since closed) and moved into a new house, excited by the opportunity to move from a crime laden, urban neighborhood.

Now four years later, they are ready to move back.  Not because of the much maligned North Dakota winter; but because they felt the community had given them the cold shoulder.  Michael Tristani, the father in the family, is quoted in the article saying, “It hasn’t been easy. No one really wants new people here.”  (source:  James MacPherson, “Small-town life fails to live up,” Associated Press via Yahoo News, Feb. 15, 2010)

Hearing Lindsey describe this story almost caused me to turn around and skip the meeting we were driving to.  Needless to say, she didn’t let me, and I was finally able to read the story this morning and learned that it’s being discussed all over the blogosphere. (see links at the bottom) .

Rather than focus on the details of situation, I’d like to offer some thoughts about what I think rural communities can learn from the story.  As I write, however, I want to be clear that I am not passing judgment on either the Hazelton community or the Tristani family.  None of us, as outsiders, will ever know the complete story. 

What can we learn from Hazelton?

1) Don’t assume that newcomers will know how to live in your small town. That concept crossed my radar a couple years ago in a book titled Get Urban. (I wrote extensively about it here.) The book’s author, an urban enthusiast, developed his thesis around the concept that many people who move to urban, downtown environments don’t recognize the nuances of life in the city. Their mental models are so tightly fashioned around living in suburbia that they think they have to drive out to suburbs to buy their groceries at Walmart, rather than stopping off at the local grocery while walking home from work. My guess is that we’ve all seen numerous more serious examples of this play out in our rural communities. But what have we done to help these newcomers?

2) Develop a “hosting concept” as a part of your community’s marketing plan. I touched on this over a year ago when I wrote a post titled “What if Starbuck’s marketed like a rural community?” A fun, insightful video embedded in the post pokes fun at how churches welcome new members. The point being, Starbucks wouldn’t be in business if its marketing strategy didn’t include efforts to “welcome” new customers; so why should churches expect anything different? I’d contend the same principle applies to rural communities; why spend money advertising your community if you don’t have a strategy to make people want to stay? At the Rural Learning Center, we’ve been developing a more robust “hosting concept,” which I’ll describe sometime in the near future.

3) Accept the mantra “The customer is always right.” I think communities who develop programs like this must be prepared to treat it like a business. The town is the product, the community is the owner, and the new resident is the customer. If the customer is upset, figure out why and do something to fix it - because the customer is always right. At the same time, most business owners will tell you that sometimes the customer may not be worth the headaches they create, and you have to find a way to let them go.

4) It’s about the relationship. For a long time, I was conflicted over the concept of offering incentives to people moving to rural communities. On one hand it feels like the strategy of offering incentives to businesses to move small, rural communities; maybe they come, but will they stay? On the other hand I appreciate the moxie of a small town who is willing to try to do something about their future. What I’ve come to believe is that the decision about offering incentives to recruit businesses and recruit people is a community-by-community decision. There’s no universal right or wrong. The chance of the initiative succeeding, however, is probably dependent on the ability of residents to build a relationship with the newcomers. Incentives may open the door, but the bonds of friendship are lasting.

5) What about the people who don’t receive incentives? This case is drawing a lot of attention, but my question is, “has your community been paying serious attention to the people who already live in your community?” My point is, try to make sure that everyone is satisfied. If you gain two new residents, but lose four current residents, you are destined to fail. Pay attention to the people who are living in your community now, and when someone leaves, have a conversation with them about why. And try to dig in deep–often the first response will not be the real reason.

There are a lot of stereotypes being thrown around in this story that worry me.  That might be worth discussing later.

Stereotypes aside, however, the story provides a good lesson for all rural communities.  If we want to grow our population, we have to get serious about how we interact with newcomers.  Hazelton is probably no better or worse than other rural communities, and there’s definitely more to the story than was reported.  They just made the headlines today.  Hopefully, your community is doing something to make sure it doesn’t make the news tomorrow — at least not in this way.

 

Other article related to this story

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Brain Drain or Brain Gain: We need to learn more

February 5th, 2010

Ben Winchester’s research on “rural brain gain,” has drawn some interesting responses in North Dakota. Based on an article titled “Report suggests ‘brain gain’ instead of brain drain,” which appeared in the January 28, 2010 Grand Forks Herald and was reprinted in the January 30, 2010 Fargo-Moorhead InForum, I’d have to say North Dakotans don’t find a lot of applicability in Winchester’s research for their state.  (If you are into negative comments, you’ll want to check out the comments at the end of the InForum article.)

Does Minnesota research apply elsewhere?

The skepticism begins with North Dakota demographer Dr. Richard Rathge who questions the applicability of research about rural Minnesota compared to rural North Dakota.  As he notes, people are more inclined to move to rural places that are high in natural amenities (e.g., West Central Minnesota) than to places with few natural amenities (e.g. North Dakota).

No doubt.  USDA research supports Rathke’s assertions.

But my gut still tells me that there’s something to Winchester’s research.  I’ve personally witnessed numerous examples of people who move to Miner County to raise their children.  The number of people moving in may not be as high as that Winchester found in his study.  But they definitely didn’t move to Miner County for the natural amenities.

And that’s why Winchester’s research is valuable.  We need to better understand what groups of people are moving to rural communities, and what’s their motivation.  Just saying young people are moving out isn’t good enough.

Does the term “Brain Drain” hurt marketing efforts?

When I originally raised the question “Should we banish ‘brain drain’ from our vocabulary?” in a blog post a couple weeks ago, I was trying to figure out if the term “brain drain” does more harm (in promoting our communities) than good (in raising awareness of a problem). I’ve yet to reach a definitive answer.

Based on what I’ve read in the Grand Fork’s article, I’ve concluded that Rathge would say that the question is mute.  At the end of the Grand Forks article, he is quoted saying:

“Here in North Dakota, we’ve seen many decades of outmigration of young adults. Community builders have been talking for decades about ways to hold them, including being positive rather than negative.”

“The bottom line is we need to provide opportunities for people who want to stay. We have to be serious about economic development in North Dakota.” (source: Chuck Haga, “Report suggests ‘brain gain’ instead of brain drain,” Grand Forks Herald, 1-28-09)

It’s more than a job

Getting serious about economic development in rural communities is vitally important.  But it requires a strategy that is more complex than new business recruitment alone.

That’s what I like about the research being conducted by Dr. David Ivan with his “Can small towns be cool?” project.  The themes he identifies in his presentations (which I outline here) offer rural communities a model for rural economic development worth consideration.

So, whether it’s brain drain or brain gain in our communities, I hope we’d all agree that it is something we ought to pay attention to.

Note:  Access to the Grand Forks Herald and Fargo-Moorhead InForum articles may require individuals sign up for a free membership with Forum Communications have been archived.  I did notice it has been reprinted and can be read on the Farm Bureau site.

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10 Reasons “Third Places” matter to Rural Communities

January 26th, 2010

Admittedly, I go a little overboard on emphasizing the importance of “third places” to the future of rural communities, but my gut tells me they play a more vital role in the social and economic wellbeing of our rural communities than most people give them credit for.   

For those who haven’t heard of them before, third places are where people meet and socialize outside of their homes (first places) and their work (second places). Sociologist Ray Oldenburg is credited with drawing attention to third places through his influential book, The Great Good Place.  Back in January 2009, I wrote this post titled “Does your Community need a Coffee Shop and other Third Places?”  It’s still one of our more popular posts here at Reimagine Rural.    

Lacking in any of my previous writing about third places, however, is a comprehensive explanation of how third places impact the economic wellbeing of small, rural communities - or any community for that matter.  For that reason, I’ve produced the following resource guide to illuminate why rural communities must get serious about their efforts to develop strong third places in their communities. 

10 Reasons Third Places Matter to Rural Communities

1. Third places are cool…and rural places could stand a little cool. It’s no secret that young people today crave “cool” environments to live and hang out. What receives less attention, however, is research that suggests Gen Yers often choose where to live before seeking permanent employment; and that “coolness” plays a role in this decision making process. If true, this tells us that for rural communities to attract young people, they need to develop some cool places young people crave. And what better way to do it than by creating a place where young and old can get together. (Another article on the subject can be found here.)

2. Third places introduce new people to the community. I’ve noted in previous posts, how important it is for new residents and visitors to feel welcomed by a community.  Wall Street Journal writer Gwendolyn Bounds offers a personal perspective of how Guinans, an Irish pub, welcomed her into the Garrison, NY community and played a critical role in her choice to move there. As Bounds came to frequent the pub, “regulars” at Guinans taught her (a former NYC resident) a great deal about how to live in a rural community (i.e. use a chain saw, fix the plumbing, and deal with the snow). It’s possible that new residents can become a part of a community without a third place, but third places seem to make the process a lot easier.

3. Third Places improve the quality of life in a community. Quality of life means different things to different people. Some say quality of life requires a community to have a strong “night life.” Other, say it requires safe environments. But as this research suggests, people who live in communities with third places perceive the quality of life in their community as being higher than those who live without them.

4. Third Places are good for tourism. When people go on vacation they are typically looking for a unique experience. More and more, they also want that experience to be authentic. In other words, they want to get a sense of a community’s character, rather than an image developed by a corporate marketing department. If your community has a scenic wonder like the Grand Canyon, or man-made attraction like the Mall of America, you may not need to worry about a third place. But as tourism expert Roger Brooks of Destination Development Inc. notes, third places are a part of each community’s “brand” and can become places where locals and visitors meet each other. If you want further proof on the importance of third places to tourism, just look at what the Irish pub has done for tourism in Ireland.

5. Third places can help improve the business climate in your small town. Increasingly entrepreneurs need to work from anywhere and at anytime. That’s why cell service, broadband internet, and wifi accessibility are vital infrastructure to any rural community. But does your community have a place where entrepreneurs can meet with clients and business partners, take advantage of technology, and remain connected to the office? If not, your community may be frustrating entrepreneurs more than you realize.

6. Third places stimulate creativity. I work from home quite a bit. Sometimes, the solitude becomes deafening, and I need to be around people. I’ve discovered that in addition to combating isolation, third places help stimulate both my productivity and creativity. Surprisingly, I’m not alone. I recently learned that J.K. Rowlings turns to cafés for inspiration while writing her monumental Harry Potter books. Now she’s creative! (And just think what would happen if a third place in your community inspired the next Harry Potter series.)

7. Third Places help people age in place. Back in the 1990s, the Rural Learning Center focused on developing senior housing options (like independent and assisted living) in our community because we learned that helping seniors age in place was important to their quality of life. F. Kaid Benfield recognized that same issue in this blog post where he emphasized that communities who follow smart growth principles should develop third places for seniors that they can walk to. The point here is that seniors need to be active and engaged. That could be accomplished with a senior citizens facility. But a more efficient use of resources would involve developing third places where all generations visit.

8. Third Places can help create jobs.  Cooltown Studios has published numerous blogs posts about third places in urban areas.  I particularly like this post, which highlights how third places help build conversations that lead to entrepreneurial thinking, a requirement for growing our economy.   On one hand, saying that third places lead to job growth is a bit abstract for me, but I do believe it’s a good reminder that entrepreneurs need places to network and build conversations in order to generate new ideas that will hopefully lead to job growth. 

9. Third Places will never be replaced by social networking sites like Facebook. There’s a school of thought suggesting that physical third places are being replaced by virtual ones. In other words, Facebook is the new third place. Now let me be clear: I believe rural communities should consider developing an online social networking strategy as a part of their economic development work. It’s a great way to connect with people both inside and outside your community. But as Mary Newsom writes on Citiwire: online social networks as third places are “mere metaphors for the real thing.”

10. Third Places help build conversation …. and conversation leads to trust. One of the beautiful things about quality third places is that they bring together people of all socio-economic backgrounds. As conversation emerges in a third place, people begin to know, understand, and trust each other. Sociologists call this bridging social capital and have recognized its importance in community and economic development in rural places. (As this paper suggest, bridging social capital is the entry point for strengthening your community socially and economically.) On a basic level, most of us can appreciate that whenever people come together for open conversation, they begin to trust each other. And when people trust each other, it’s a lot easier to get things done in our communities.

I’ve been thinking and writing about the importance of third places in rural communities for a couple years now, and I’ve really noticed the growth of good resources being published online. In addition to sharing some of those resources as links above, I’ve attempted to save my favorites to my Delicious account.  Even though I’ve saved over 60 recourses, I know the list is incomplete. 

That’s why I’d like to ask for your help.  Feel free to check out my list of favorites on Delicious, but just as important, please share your favorites with me.  And don’t think that my “10 Reasons Third Places are important to Rural Communities” list above is complete either.  I plan to revise the list in the near future, and include your thoughts and new discoveries in it.

 

Photo Credits:

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Are you toiling in the urban mailroom?

December 22nd, 2009

As I mentioned in my previous post, there is a lot of insightful information in this Minnesota Public Radio virtual forum.  I shared some of the best themes and comments in that post, but I wanted to pull out one comment for publication by itself.

Late in the conversation, Jennifer Gumbel (10:52) provided the following insightful comment:

I feel I live in an area that is brain-gaining… SE MN. I’m originally from Sioux Falls and have lived in the Cities and in Des Moines. I now live in Le Roy, MN and work in Preston as an attorney. My professional and personal life is more fulfilling in many ways than my big city classmates. I have more responsibility on more interesting cases. I’m a homeowner and live next to a State Park. I have the opportunity to play part time in a symphony. I see many of my colleagues or friends who are originally from this area returning. I couldn’t be happier to be in a small town.”

Wow!  What an endorsement for rural Minnesota.

What Jennifer suggests is an often overlooked attractor to rural places:  Many talented young people who migrate to the city often end up toiling in the mailroom, while their rural counterparts are taking on real responsibilities right away.

Obviously, that’s not universal for every person and job, but it’s important to note because we know Gen Y is very interested in being given responsibility.  If I were recruiting a young person to work in a rural community, I would definitely emphasize this point.

And congratulations to Le Roy and Preston, MN.  Sioux Falls’ loss is rural Minnesota’s gain.

 

Photo Credit — libraryimages - Flickr (Preston, MN 1874 — click to enlarge)

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Hollowing out the Middle in Minnesota

December 21st, 2009

As hoped, Hollowing out the Middle is drawing some much needed attention to the issue of “brain drain” in the Heartland of Rural America. (read my past posts about the book here.) 

Recently, Kate Smith of Minnesota Public Radio interviewed Hollowing out the Middle’s co-author, Patrick Carr.  At the same time, fellow MPR employee, Mike Caputo, hosted a virtual forum with people from around Minnesota offering their ideas. 

Carr issued his usual excellent performance in his interview with Smith.  He provides insights into why young people leave and what he thinks rural communities should be doing to change it.  You can listen to the interview by following this link .  

You can also review the entire transcript from the virtual forum by following this link. What you will find is lively conversation between individuals with firsthand experience from living in rural communities. 

Unfortunately, following a conversation in a virtual forum can be a bit difficult  to follow. For that reason, I’ve attempted to lift a few key points from the transcript and organized them around three main points. 

 

Conversation Starters

First, it’s important that young people have a good experience in their community while growing up.  Carr and Kefalas talk at length about how many of the young people they interviewed for Hollowing out the Middle felt a deep connection to their community.  But this connection is not universal across individuals and communities, and it often dissipates over time.  It’s something that needs constant cultivation.  The following quotes from the virtual forum offer a sampling of ideas on how this can be done. 

I like that the conversation is about connecting with young people before they move away.  Too often, people think the retention of young people only starts after they’ve finished high school.  If that’s your community, you’re waiting too long. 

 

Second, make sure you are building a community that young people want to return to.    Many individuals on the virtual forum spoke of the importance of employment opportunities.  We definitely can never lose sight that.   But I was impressed with an insight provided by Dan Erkkila (10:10) who noted that being able to offer young people jobs is only one aspect of what makes community life fulfilling.  A community can offer all the jobs in the world, but if people don’t want to live in the community they won’t. 

Some additional comments on this subject include:  

 

And this leads me to the last point that I want to lift out of the forum:  Young people need to feel a sense of belonging to the community if we expect them to choose our rural communities.  Personally, I liked Neil Linscheid’s comment (10:30) on this subject best; “Good friends and relationships = quality of life for me.”  When making this comment, Neil was speaking more to a definition of quality of life, but he also highlights how important relationships are to a sense of belonging.  Later (10:35) he mentioned having to personally seek out community groups to get involved with because it can be tough for people who don’t frequent the bars to build relationships otherwise.

I appreciated that other individuals recognized the importance of intentionally building friendships through community involvement as well:

There’s really something to this notion that getting people involved in the community is important to attracting and retaining young people in the community.  But as the Soul of the Community study notes, it’s also important to the overall economic wellbeing of the community. 

There are a lot of other great insights offered throughout the virtual forum.  It’s a great place to start for any community seeking to address the issue of youth outmigration.

 

Photo Credit:  Mulad - Flickr

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Posted in Community Engagement, Economic Development, Gen Y, Rural | Comments (0)

Rural Midwest: Still in a recession or better than most think?

December 4th, 2009

So which of the following statements accurately describes the economy of rural Midwestern communities?  “Survey shows rural Midwest still in a recession” or “Rural America more prosperous than expected.”

I caught both of the above titled articles Tuesday while mining Twitter for information on rural communities.  Both were released on the same day (Dec. 1), and suggest contradictory opinions about what’s happening in the rural Midwest. 

So what gives?  Is our economy in the tank or are we doing better than most people assume? Could it be both?

Can we trust the sources?

Let me begin by saying that both articles come from reliable sources:

It’s important to note that the University of Illinois study differs in one other significant way - it attempts to measure community prosperity without relying on the income and growth indicators used in most study on the kind.  So, it is possible that the rural Midwest may still struggle with a recession in the upcoming months while remaining more prosperous than most people think.  But what does it mean to be more prosperous than most people think?

(Click on the map to enlarge and see how your community is doing accountring to Isserman’s study. Image Source: LiveScience.com)

Measuring Wealth by “outcomes” rather than “income and growth”

Early on in our work in Miner County, Dr. Daryl Hobbs made sure that we understood that the measures of community success often highlighted in the media don’t tell the whole story.  For instance, just measuring the number of jobs created doesn’t tell the entire story about how a community is doing.  And it definitely doesn’t explain how people feel about the community. 

Dr. Isserman at the University of Illinois seems to be well aware of these factors.  On the university’s website, he is quoted saying:

“Growth and income are the conventional measures of community success,” said U of I economist and planner Andrew Isserman. “But, in talking with farm groups, elected leaders, and rural development professionals from across the country, I realized how few were happy. Some worried about growing too much, and the others fretted about growing too little.”

Instead of income and growth, the study measured community prosperity by analyzing such factors as:

I don’t pretend to be an economist or sociologist (and I didn’t stay in a Holiday Inn last night either), but I do know that this is a very different way of thinking.  It’s definitely more in line with what Daryl was telling us, and I like it.  But then I don’t measure my personal prosperity by my bank account alone either. 

While exited to see this new approach to studying communities, I can’t help but wonder if the study didn’t miss one important criterion by not analyzing health trends.  In other words, are people in the community healthy?

I’m sure some in the academia and the economic development worlds will prefer the more traditional use of income and growth to measure community prosperity.  And that’s ok.  I’m just glad to see others like me are looking at the world a little differently.

Image credit: Andrew Isserman, Edward Feser, Drake Warren, University of Illinois, via LiveScience.com

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Posted in Community Development, Community Engagement, In the News, Quality of Life, Rural | Comments (1)

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