Strengthening rural economic development through a community action team

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Abstract

Economic development is the difficult task being led by a community grassroots organization in La Pine, Oregon. AmeriCorps*VISTA member Robyn Rorke worked with the La Pine Community Action Team to provide technical assistance for community development in the areas of grant writing, research, and communication skills. Excerpted from the 1997 Northwest National Service Symposium, hosted by the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory (NWREL).

Issue

La Pine, Oregon, is a struggling, rural community that wanted to improve local services but lacked community development skills. There was no local government to address community problems such as water quality, infrastructure, and access to health care. The work of the La Pine Community Action Team, a volunteer group, is essential to this rural community, where people tend to think of themselves as less in need of government assistance and where resources are limited. As public funds become reduced to spur economic growth, rural communities must increasingly rely on volunteers to perform basic tasks.

Action

Work done by the La Pine Community Action Team has had positive results in many areas. Promising practices for other rural communities faced with economic development include:

To realize the goals of its strategic plan, The La Pine Community Action Team members serve as community organizers, bringing experts into the community, assembling meetings to discuss issues, establishing liaisons between the community and governmental organizations, and performing the legwork necessary to achieve the goals of the strategic plan.
To overcome the lack of demographic information on their rural community, the La Pine Community Action Team hired the University of Oregon to conduct a demographic study to obtain information that can be used by local community groups to apply for funding and to identify areas of need. They gathered together local leaders from public and private industry to brainstorm what data needed to be obtained about the community. They also raised the money locally to pay for the study.

AmeriCorps*VISTA member Robyn Rorke provided technical assistance to the La Pine Community Action Team in the complex area of economic development to help this rural area make progress towards its goal of becoming a full-service community. Promising practices from her assistance include:

Teaching community members how to write a grant application
Teaching community members how to work with local government
Providing assistance with research
Providing guidance on managing finances
Providing guidance on how to elucidate their plight to non-local audiences

Although formed initially simply to write a strategic plan, the La Pine Community Action Team produced a document that formally articulates heart-felt goals for their community and expresses a shared vision. These volunteers possess the dedication and desire necessary to save their community from the despair of decline.

Context

La Pine, Oregon is a rural community of an estimated 20,000 people (1997). The AmeriCorps*VISTA member worked with a volunteer community action team of 15 residents from local businesses, schools, government, service organizations, and special districts. The La Pine Community Action Team formed in 1994, the result of a U.S. Forest Service program providing grants to rural communities struggling from decreased timber harvests. La Pine has no local government, no local road or public works department, no local tax base (with the exception of fire districts), and with a few exceptions, no water or sewerage service (1997).

Citation

Rorke, Robyn. "The La Pine Community Action Team," Second Annual Northwest National Service Symposium. Portland, OR: Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, 1997.

Outcome

The La Pine Community Action Team has provided essential leadership in La Pine.
The La Pine Community Action Team gained necessary skills to allow it to continue to be of service to its community.
The team developed a strategic plan to transform La Pine into a full-service community in such areas as physical infrastructure, quality of life, business development, and human resources. Goals of the strategic plan include: to provide sewer and water service to La Pine, to establish a system of government by the year 2000, to establish a 24-hour health care facility, to provide assisted living to senior citizens and disabled residents, and to develop an internship program between local schools and businesses. The plan, which took about a year and a half to complete, contains detailed goals and responsibilities.
The demographic study enabled the Rural Fire Protection District to obtain data on how many residents leave the area during the winter months, and enabled Children and Family Services in La Pine to find out how visible they are to the community.
The demographic study also provided income-level data to qualify La Pine to apply for future Community Development Block Grants from the Office of Housing and Urban Development.
The La Pine Community Action Team received a $15,000 grant from the Economic Development Administration to hire a consultant to help them determine their options in establishing a system of government. The team is going to study other unincorporated areas to see if some sort of informal structure might work better than the typical mayor and city council framework in serving community needs.
Improved relations between the county government and the La Pine community, and greater accountability of the county government to the La Pine Community. County government now consults with the La Pine Community Action Team on certain issues, which ensures that issues affecting La Pine's residents are presented locally before decisions are made at the county level.
Information sharing between agencies has increased and has thus increased the effectiveness of each agency within the community.
The La Pine Community Action Team is working with the La Pine Park and Recreation District Board to find funding for and help develop activities for a new community center.
The La Pine Community Action Team applied to become a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) organization.
Volunteers devoted to seeing the strategic plan to its completion have a greater sense of purpose.
Community action team members are extremely dedicated to achieving the goal of a full-service community.