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How can our rural communities become more resilient?

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In a recent post (A Tale of Two Towns), I wrote about two rural communities – one undergoing a long slow death, the other desperately trying to come back from a tornado. In that post, I said,

“… we must reach out both to the towns torn by tornadoes and those whose lifeblood is slowly dripping away. We must help them find new purposes, new reasons for being. We must be midwives to their rebirth…”

A little flowery, but certainly heartfelt. However, I didn’t offer any suggestions for how to impregnate rural communities with a new purpose. In order to do so I’m going to channel my inner Brian Dabson (RUPRI); James Clifton (Gallup); and Bruce Katz (Brookings). With their help, here is my prescription for the repurposing of a rural community.

Know thyself. Often, rural communities are painfully aware of the problems they face, but haven’t taken the time to do a dispassionate assessment of themselves as a community. They see the decline, or the danger of decline, but haven’t really looked at their strengths and weaknesses, or any opportunities that may be out there for them. But who knows their communities better than they do? Who else knows who are the suppliers and the customers for local businesses? Who else knows whether there are opportunities to replace “imported” (from outside the community) goods and services with something available inside? Who else knows what makes the community special? Who else knows what about the community needs changing?

Further, most rural communities probably haven’t looked at themselves in their regional setting. Does the community play a role in its regional economy? Is there a regional strategy it can be a part of? Are there resources in the region the community can take advantage of – not only financial or material, but human, for example, to help in planning? Too often, as Dabson says, “Regional collaboration is often regarded as an unnatural act.”

A recent experiment in New York State (and yes, Virginia, most of New York State is quite rural!) points out how effective regional collaboration can be. Initially, the state divided itself into nine regions reflecting existing interdependencies. Governor Cuomo championed an innovative regional approach to economic development based on partnerships across each region – government, business, academia, NGOs. Although there hasn’t been time for great successes to emerge, there is now real hope in small towns across the state, because they are working together, pooling resources, aiming for a more vibrant future.

It’s not innovators but entrepreneurs who hold the keys to the future. A vibrant community is one where people don’t have jobs, they have careers. People often forget that while Apple may have owed its start to the innovations of Steve Wozniak, it owes its present health to the entrepreneurial spirit of Steve Jobs. Is there someone in the community who has a good idea for substituting a local product for something imported? Is there someone in the community who has a good idea for a new product using local resources? Do they know how to market what they have? Do they have the funding? Could they “re-purpose” the community? A key to re-inventing rural communities is to encourage this kind of entrepreneurial thinking.

All solutions are local. If a rural community wants a vibrant future, it can’t look to the federal government or the state for a “guidebook” on how to achieve that. As Clifton says.

“It is wrong thinking to imagine that Washington has solutions.”

The only worthwhile guidance that any of us outside the community can provide is that the community must define its own desired future, one that can be reached from where the community is now. To reach it will require patient and persistent effort on the part of the entire community – not just the leadership, but everyone. And that means that everyone in the community has to buy in to a common vision of the future.

Resources are wherever you find them. Taking action – trying to create a different future for the community – requires “blood, toil, tears, and sweat.” In other words, it takes resources and effort to change the community’s future. Some of those resources can come from within. For example, in the very small town of Sangudo, Alberta (population 400), a group of retirees created an investment co-op. They pooled their funds to support promising business opportunities within their own community, and have given Sangudo a new lease on life.

But that doesn’t mean that the community need only rely on its own resources. For example, since 1977, Coastal Enterprises, Inc., has been helping rural communities improve their economies – first in Maine, and then more regionally. It is estimated that there are at least $5 billion in current investments by regional and local Community Development Investment Funds across the country. And let’s not forget that the needed resources may not be financial, but human. The extension services provided by our nation’s land grant colleges and universities offer a wide range of development support to communities willing to use them. While the community might not have a Small Business Development Center, one might be available regionally, or perhaps at the state level.

Communications play an increasingly important role in finding resources. That implies that rural communities should strive to get as much communications bandwidth as possible. Broadband internet access is an obvious part of that, but fostering connections from the community to the world outside is at least as important. Businesses to state or national associations, churches and other faith-based organizations to regional or national groups, ties to professional societies, and, of course, connections between local government and regional and state governmental bodies all can pay dividends to communities otherwise isolated.

Four ingredients making up a simple prescription, but one that can work to revitalize rural communities; one that can work, that is, if a community has the patience, the will, and – yes – the passion for itself to make it work. Whether it’s capitalizing on their space, their soil, or their proximity to an urban center, there are ways for rural communities to re-purpose themselves and to achieve a more vital future. But they have to believe in themselves and the vision they create, and recognize that it will take time to achieve the future they desire.


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