Category Archives: Community

Igniting the Spark for Community Development: Developing Community Readiness, SRDC Webinar

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Often communities struggle with getting their citizenry involved in community betterment. Join the Southern Rural Development Center Tuesday, November 15, at noon Central to explore the concept of community readiness, and discuss programs and methods that encourage public engagement.

Rural Leaders Share Ideas to Improve Communities

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The Texas Rural Leadership Program participants share ideas to improve communities in this video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FU_KsqoYEuo#action=share

Upcoming Webinar: Do something with those empty lots downtown!

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From Glenn Muske at eXtension’s Entrepreneurs and Their Communities: You know those empty lots downtown? It’s time to put them to good use. We’re co-sponsoring (or offering points for) this webinar by SaveYour.Town to give you practical ideas and solutions other towns have used successfully to make empty lots into something useful. Don’t you have a roofless building in your downtown, too? Either one that burned or the roof just fell in because of disrepair? Well, you’ll get ideas for those, too. More examples of real places that… Read More →

Drinking Water Week 2016

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It’s a busy week. In addition to being Small Business Week, May 1-7 is Drinking Water Week (resources here). Water in general and drinking water in particular are concerns for many of our rural areas. The Texas A&M Health Science Center recently linked compounds (nitrates, atrazine and arsenic) in rural water to birth defects. Learn more about Extension water resources here.

Inspiration for Rural Communities

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This morning, my final email reminder went out for the Rural Leaders and Economies Survey. Mail reminders went out late last week. If you’d like to participate, click here. I took a quick peek at the results-to-date. There were comments about struggle in our rural towns, but what stood out was that our rural leaders are truly INSPIRING people–people you want to meet, to know, to learn from and to emulate. Take a quick look at these comments, just a few gems among a treasure trove: “I was… Read More →

Connecting Communities – Best Practices in Program Evaluation and Learning Webinar

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The Federal Reserve’s Connecting Communities program is offering a webinar/conference call on best practices in Program Evaluation and Learning May 28 at 2:00 central. Many communities struggle with (or just want to be better at) evaluating what is and is not working in their programs. Best Practices in Program Evaluation and Learning Webinar Registration Previous Connecting Communities presentations are recorded at https://bsr.stlouisfed.org/connectingcommunities/.

Cultivating Community Wealth: Strategies for Building Rural Wealth, Part 2

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This post is part of an eight-week series on Cultivating Community Wealth. Strategies summarized in this post include business retention & expansion, tourism, retiree attraction, workforce education, shop/eat local campaigns, and fundraising campaigns. Strategies discussed in last week’s post include industrial recruitment and financial incentives, clusters, value-chain development, community business matching, entrepreneurship including youth entrepreneurship, and regionalism. Recall that particular strategies may be suited to the assets, goals, and values of some communities but not others. Discussion of a strategy does not imply endorsement, and leaders are encouraged… Read More →

NEA Arts-Driven Community and Economic Development in Rural Areas

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An opportunity to explore an arts-driven approach to community and economic (and wealth) development. The conference call will discuss funding opportunities as well as exemplar projects. Press release below: RURAL GATEWAY PEER-TO-PEER CONFERENCE CALL National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Arts-Driven Community and Economic Development in Rural Areas: A Discussion of Best Practices Date: September 25, 2014 Time: 2:00 p.m. EDT The Office of Rural Housing and Economic Development (ORHED) invites you to take part in our next Peer-to-Peer conference call.  Scheduled for September 25, 2014 this call will offer… Read More →

Cultivating Community Wealth: Defining Wealth and Wealth-building

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Wealth. We usually read about wealth in an individual context. Experts and articles abound, telling us various ways to create and preserve our wealth—our personal assets, particularly financial ones. Recently, we’ve been hearing more about rural wealth and community wealth-building as well. This discussion recognizes the importance of monetary wealth and other financial assets but considers a wider definition of wealth encompassing the well-being of residents. The literature also recognizes that wealth can be a societal as well as an individual asset. This 8-part blog series summarizes some… Read More →

Back to School

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First day of the public school year in Texas! A quick video about a walkable school district in Cleveland, Ohio. I love that they talk about not just the health and mental benefits of walking, but the sense of community for kids and parents. Even in suburbs and rural areas where we aren’t going to walk to school, that sense of community is so important. Our schools play an important role in the social fabric of our communities. http://www.upworthy.com/yes-this-town-is-real-yes-its-totally-adorable-and-yes-what-it-did-is-making-kids-happier?c=reccon1