For Immediate Release
Monday, June 2, 2008
Contact: Josh Moenning
(402) 438-1598
What do strong, vibrant rural communities have in common?
As a member of the House Agriculture and Small Business Committees, I am particularly interested in the answer to this question and other matters involving healthful, sustainable growth in our small towns.
I was pleased recently to meet with Mr. Milan Wall of the Nebraska-based Heartland Center for Leadership Development. He shared with me that group’s listing of “Clues to Rural Community Survival,” a set of characteristics common to successful rural communities.
With the Heartland Center’s permission, I am sharing the list’s “top ten” with you. I hope you find them interesting and useful in your own community.
1. Evidence of Community Pride
Successful communities are often showplaces of community care and attention, with neatly trimmed yards, public gardens, and well-kept public parks. But pride also shows up in other ways, especially in community festivals and events that give residents the chance to celebrate their community, its history and heritage.
2. Emphasis on Quality in Business and Community Life
People in successful communities believe that something worth doing is worth doing right. Facilities are built to last, and so are homes and other improvements. Newer brick additions to schools are common, for example, and businesses are built or expanded with attention to design and construction detail.
3. Willingness to Invest in the Future
Some of the brick and mortar investments are most apparent, but these communities also invest in their future in other ways. Residents invest time and energy in community improvement projects, and they concern themselves with how what they are doing today will impact on the lives of their children and grandchildren in the future.
4. Participatory Approach to Community Decision Making
Authoritarian models don’t seem to exist in these communities, and power is deliberately shared. People still know who you need on your side to get something done, but even the most powerful of opinion leaders seem to work through the systems–formal as well as informal–to build consensus for what they want to do.
5. Cooperative Community Spirit
Successful rural communities devote more attention to cooperative activities than to fighting over what should be done and by whom. The stress is on working together toward a common goal and the focus is on positive results. They may spend a long time making a decision, and there may be disagreements along the way, but eventually, as one small town leader put it, “stuff does get done.”
6. Realistic Appraisal of Future Opportunities
Many of the communities have already learned an important strategic lesson, namely building on your assets and minimizing your weaknesses. Few small communities believe that they are likely to land a giant industry. Many of them say they wouldn’t want one if it came along, fearing too much dependence on one employer would be dangerous. The successful communities know that a more realistic approach considers the community and the region as the context for future opportunities.
7. Awareness of Competitive Positioning
The thriving communities know who the competition is and so do the businesses. Everyone tries to stress local loyalty as a way to help, but many businesses also keep tabs on their competitors in other towns–they don’t want any of the hometown folks to have an excuse to go elsewhere. This is an area in which the recognition of community assets–people, associations and institutions–is vitally important. The comparison of one town to another is a significant means to spur improvements.
8. Knowledge of the Physical Environment
Importance of location is underscored continuously in local decision-making, as business and civic leaders picture their community in relation to others. Beyond location, however, communities must also be familiar with what they have locally. For example, the issue of preservation and protection of natural resources must be balanced with development options. Communities that manage this balance have a long-term approach to both environmental preservation and economic development.
9. Active Economic Development Program
An organized and active approach to economic development is common in successful communities. This type of approach depends on public and private sector resources working hand in hand. Private economic development corporations are common, either as a subcommittee or an outgrowth of a Chamber of Commerce or commercial club. However, it’s clear that the most successful towns emphasize retaining and expanding existing businesses as well as trying to develop new businesses. This is a “gardening not hunting” model of economic development.
10. Deliberate Transition of Power to a Younger Generation of Leaders
Young leadership is more the rule than the exception in thriving rural communities. In many cases, these young people grew up in town and decided to stay or returned later to raise a family. In just as many situations, they are people who have decided to make a life in the community even though they grew up elsewhere. However, it’s typical in a successful community to have a formal or informal means for established leaders to bring new recruits into public service.
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