Posts Tagged ‘ReImagine Rural’

Rethink, Reinvent, ReImagine

October 28th, 2009

Yesterday, while talking to partner organizations in the South Dakota Partnership for Teacher Quality, I had opportunity to revisit the Rural Learning Center’s tag line “ReImagine Rural.”

I explained to the group that we feel “ReImagine Rural” captures the essence of what the RLC believes about the future of rural communities:  that we need to pioneer a new future;  that this new future needs to be built on transformation — not revitalization; and that this process for rebuilding starts with re-thinking every aspect of our existence.  As Albert Einstein deftly stated decades ago,

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”.

This in turn reminded me of an open letter Karl Stauber, president of the of the Danville Regional Foundation, recently wrote to President Obama, pleading with the president to find a place for rural communities alongside his vision for urban places.

In the letter titled “Rural Economies must Change or Die,”  Stauber noted a struggle between the defenders of an “Old Economy” and those seeking to bring the “New Economy” to rural communities.  He also emphasized the need for rural communities to seek transformation, stating:

Rural communities used to be able to re-invent their competitive advantage every 50 to 75 years.  Now they must do this every 10 to 15 years.

Re-think. Re-invent.  Re-Imagine.  It’s interesting to think about attaching “re” to a lot of the verbs we use in community development.  Can it be that rural communities need to “re- everything” in our effort to rebuild Rural America?

Note: Karl Stauber is the former president of the Northwest Area Foundation, which helped launch the efforts of the Rural Learning Center with a 10-year partnership the foundation formed with Miner County Community Revitalization.

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Citi Foundation Invests in Rural America

September 10th, 2009

The pomp and circumstance of last week’s groundbreaking at the Rural Learning Center has officially passed.  The last of the cake is eaten, and the office is looking a bit more orderly.  What we’ve failed to communicate, I think, is what the day really represented for the Rural Learning Center as an organization, for Howard as a community, and for rural people as a whole.  It wasn’t just an event to celebrate a new building; it was the beginning of something entirely new.   

Just a month or so ago, we received a call from Jerry Nachtigal with Citibank, SD.  We had applied for a Citi Foundation grant just two months prior that would help the Rural Learning Center jump start a renewable energy jobs and education program in our new facility.  Jerry was calling to let us know that our grant application had been approved, and that we would soon be receiving $250,000 from Citi Foundation.  Remarkable.

To top it off we learned that Pam Flaherty, President and CEO of Citi Foundation (NY), would be traveling to Howard to present a check to the Rural Learning Center during our groundbreaking celebration.  Citi Foundation decided to invest in the future of Howard, Miner County, and South Dakota as a whole, helping us create a more sustainable future for the entire nation.  Watch the video below to hear to what Pam and Citibank, SD had to say at the groundbreaking.

 We are extremely excited about what this investment means.  For the Rural Learning Center, it means that we have the resources to launch an innovative renewable energy jobs training program and a “science to the sidewalk” community education program around rural sustainability.  For the community of Howard, it means that economic decline is a thought of the past and that the future is looking bright and green.  For South Dakota, it means that our neighbors and friends will be able to learn new skills in emerging industries where they can earn living wage jobs with benefits to support their families. 

We are excited to share the investment that Citi Foundation has made, whether you attend a renewable energy job training class, visit our facility a year or so from now or simply watch what we’re up to from afar.  We’d like to think we’re all better off.  Thanks, Citi Foundation!

 Photo Credit:  Paul Higbee.  More photos of the groundbreaking can be found on the RLC Flickr Stream. 

 

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Bob Sutton “gets” ReImagine Rural

September 5th, 2009

In our work at the Rural Learning Center, we’ve long recognized the importance of place. It is, after all the root of our work that began with our Howard H.S. students back in the 1990s.

The theme of place emerged several times Wednesday in the speeches presented at the Rural Learning Center groundbreaking ceremony. While all were excellent, I think Bob Sutton, President of the South Dakota Community Foundation best captured the power of place.

Seeking inspiration to write his speech, Bob actually drove to Howard, sat under the trees of the Miner County Courthouse lawn, and absorbed the essence of the place.

The result was incredible. Inspiring and insightful. All in just under 10 minutes. That’s how place can get under your skin. If you don’t believe me, watch his presentation for yourself.

A couple topics stood out for me in Bob’s talk, and I’d like to share them below.

The Ingredients of Success

First, whenever one talks about the future of rural places, the conversation often turns to job creation and financial investment. As Bob eloquently describes, money is not the only ingredient; “Resources such as time and talent, leadership skills, motivational conversation, and a rekindling of the spirit of hope is just as critical in places like Howard.”

How true.

People sometimes think that the recent positive developments in Miner County have occurred because we were lucky enough to receive a sizeable grant from the Northwest Area Foundation. While important, money alone would not have produced the same results.

The Power of ReImagining Rural

Second, there’s a power in reimagining the future of rural communities. Having experienced 50-80 years of economic decline, rural residents in our part of the country have a tendency to look backwards and develop a feeling of hopelessness. That hopelessness causes us to doubt the success of projects like the Maroney Rural Learning Center - like one reader of the Argus Leader’s story wrote in their forum - even before the project has gets off the ground.

And that’s why celebrations like this groundbreaking were so important.

Why Groundbreakings?

Yesterday, I had an opportunity to interview Dan Scott, a lawyer from St. Paul, MN. Dan grew up in Howard where his dad was the long-time superintendent. (His dad is the guy who hired me to come to Howard back in 1996.)

Even though Dan lives 6 hours away from Howard, he made the trip back to Howard for the groundbreaking ceremony. This prompted me to ask “Why?” His response is below.

That’s right. We do need to pause, reflect, and celebrate. And through this reflection and celebration we can begin to dream of the possibilities for our future.

A big thanks to Bob Sutton for his remarkable remarks on Wednesday. He is someone who is helping communities in South Dakota to “reimagine rural.”

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Rural Roots

August 19th, 2009

A friend of mine sent me this well-known illustration of many prairie grasses, including the roots we usually don’t see. I love the powerful comparison to the bluegrass on the left–this is the stuff most of us have in our lawns. (You know, the stuff we water and fertilize so we can mow it more often.)

At the Midwest Rural Assembly earlier this week, I heard more than one speaker talk about needing to find a powerful answer to the question many in urban areas ask about rural: “But there’s nothing out there, is there?” Mary Ellen Connelly, the friend who sent me this image (she’s also an accomplished garden author and nursery owner) shared a wonderful insight as we were discussing the connection between the roots of prairie grasses and the love of living here on the prairie. She said, “Well, you have to look deep on the prairie You have to see the roots. And looking deep leads to enlightenment.”

Let’s help people–the people who’s support we need–to see the roots of life in rural places. Learning how to tell that story just might open our own eyes to the full beauty we sometimes forget about.

Photo Credit: US Environmental Protection Agency

Editor’s Note: Regular readers will remember Joe Bartmann from his days as a Rural Learning Center staff member.  Joe is currently leading the Sioux Falls Green Project, but we’ve never closed his “authorship” privileges and welcome future posts. 

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Why ReImagine Rural

September 29th, 2008

In the mid-1990s, students at Howard High School in Howard, SD inspired residents in their small, rural community to rethink where they were spending money. It started when students completed a study on resident spending habits, and ended with community residents committing to buy more locally (see the RLC website for greater details). And while the student’s efforts ended with increased local sales, it sparked a process through which the residents of Howard and surrounding Miner County began to reimagine their future. It was this process of redefining and reimagining that sparked Howard’s current community development efforts.

Before going much further, some introductions are in order. This blog is being brought to you by Rural Transformations, Inc. (RTI), a joint enterprise of the Rural Learning Center (RLC) of Howard, SD. and TrueFarmer, Inc., a subsidiary of As It Is, Inc. (Ai3) of Buffalo, NY. I, Mike Knutson, worked as the Economic Development/Housing Director in Miner County for five years, and currently head up the RTI venture along with doing some consulting work with the RLC. Additional members of the RTI team will post here occasionally, and we hope to expand the authorship outside the organization sometime in the future.

We hope this blog will inspire rural residents to “reimagine” the future of their communities and encourage them to be a part of bringing about this future. To suggest that Miner County has all the answers or can offer a patented blueprint for communities to follow would be a misnomer. But we do believe that we can help other communities by sharing a few stories and lessons about what we’ve learned along the way.

Why ReImagine Rural? The Rural Learning Center has coined the phrase “ReImagine Rural” as a way to describe what we hope for rural communities. We believe the future needs to be different for many rural places, and our first task is to figure out what could be; to reimagine what living and working in rural communities really means.

In future posts on this blog, you will find us talking about what’s going on in other rural communities. We hope it will inspire others to consider the possibilities for their communities. We also hope you will join the conversation by sharing your thoughts, questions, struggles, and victories. In short, we hope you’ll become part of our community here. Welcome to ReImagine Rural!

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