Rural Economic
Development
& Employment
April 19, 2012

Thanks to Nancy Arnold & the Team at the University of Montana
• Let’s Start with a Rural Story
• Understanding Rural Economic Development
Outcomes
• The Role of Human Talent in Development
• Value of Economic Development
• Components of Economic Development
• An Economic Development History Level
• Keys to Success

A Story from Rural Kansas

A SMALL
TOWN
SUCCESS
STORY
Atwood &
Rawlins County, Kansas

Very Rural – Very Isolated
Northwest Kansas – Wheat Country
Too Small to Succeed
Chronic & Severe Depopulation

8 000
7 500
7 000
7 362
6 756 6 799
6 618
6 500
6 000
5 500
5 000
4 500
5 241
6 380
5 728
5 279
4 393
4 105
4 000
3 500
3 000
2 500
3 404
2 966 2 875 2 846
2 765 2 690
2 601 2 557 2 536 2 466 2 425 2 519
2 000
1 623
1 500
1 000
500
0
1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

Nonfarm Proprietors’
Income & Employment (1960-2008)
Rawlins County, Kansas

Rawlins County, Kansas
Source: Internal Revenue Service, Statistics of Income, Migration Data

Rawlins County, Kansas
Source: Kansas Department of Education & Kansas USD 105, 2010

Keys to Success
Community Reinvestment & Building
Smart People Attraction Strategy
Entrepreneur-Focused Economic Development
Community Philanthropy
KFB Report – Search for Solutions, The Future of Rural Kansas

• The Global Challenge
• Understanding Rural
Development Outcomes
• Role of Human Talent
• Great Recession/Reset
• Value of Development
• Components of Development

In today’s global environment both individuals and communities must have economic relevance rooted in genuine competitive advantages.

Remote Rural
Great Plains
Eastern Washington
Urban Adjacent
One-Third of Rural
Pottawattamie County, IA
High Amenity
Aspen, CO
Finger Lakes, NY
Micropolitan Trade Centers
Kearney, NE
Tyler, TX

Broadly Held
Community
Wealth
Development efforts that are able to nurture and grow communities that afford wealth formation or assets that provide personal and community choice.
Economic
Opportunity
For Careers
Development investments should foster and economy that creates opportunities for meaningful and living wage careers for all residents of a community.

Human Talent is the Key

Innovation
Creativity
Competiveness
Prosperity
Human
Talent
Civic
Es
Diversity &
Resilience
Social
Es
Business
Es

Most significant economic event in our life times!
A new economic and social world will emerge from this recession.

There is new space in our economy and society for creativity and innovation that can lead to a new round of economic and social progress and prosperity.
There is strong evidence from the
Long Depression of the 1870s and the
Great Depression of the 1930s that this is and can be the case with the
Great Recession.
This is called the Great Reset!

The Reset Process
Crisis
Unraveling
Prosperity
Opportunity
Space
New
Ventures
New
Innovation

Components of
Development
Rural Iowa…
Believe it or not this old home is the center of remarkable development in rural Southwestern Iowa.
Human Development…
The foundation of development begins with a focus on people and their development. Fostering human talent through education, personal support growth and workforce development can enable a modern competitive and prosperous economy.
Community Development…
Next comes community development and investments into infrastructure, housing and other amenities like parks and recreational opportunities.
Community development creates positive climate for both people and ventures.
Economic Development…
Sustainable economic development is only possible with related investments in human talent and the community. With these in place a community can grow its economy.

• Development Tipping Points
• Starting with WWII
• Employment Shifts
• Natural Resources
• Business Attraction
• Entrepreneurs

Local Education
Local Health Care
Local Basic Shopping
Leadership &
Institutions
Peers
Rural communities that are experiencing challenges often have high rates of depopulation, poverty and/or unemployment that can impact their ability to sustain local access to key attributes essential for development. Once these thresholds of decline are reached a community can devolve rapidly further undermining its internal capacity for renewal and development.

Industrialization
Before World War II the U.S. was already a major industrial nation.
But the war took the U.S. and its economy to an unprecedented level of industrialization.
How We Make
A Living
During this period Americans went from working for themselves and small employers to working for large corporations and governments.
Industrial Location
American industry also began to migrate from core cities to more rural areas during the war and then accelerated following the war.
Rural to Urban
Migration
Despite the relocation of manufacturing to rural America, the overwhelming migration was from rural to urban, swelling the population of cities at the cost of rural communities.

Employment Shifts – 3 Waves
Pre-World War II
Self-Employment – Smaller Local Employers
World War II into the 1990s
Large Corporations, Government & Non-Profits
1990s through Today
Swelling Self-Employment & Smaller Ventures

Rural America’s 3 Economies
Natural Resources
Ag – Mining – Energy – Timber – Fish – Waste - Tourism
Business Attraction
Branch Plants – Logistics – Call Centers - Corridors
Entrepreneurs
Necessity - Opportunity

Local
Responsibility!
Unlike almost any other mature economy in the world, the United
States places the primary responsibility for development in the hands of local communities whether that is tiny
Mullen, Nebraska with less than 500 residents or the Los Angeles basin with millions of residents.

Opportunities
Core Industries
Regional Economy
New Residents
Reset Opportunities
Marginalized Human Talent
Asset based or opportunity focused development is recommended and requires a community taking the time to truly understand their genuine opportunities for development.
Challenges
The Past
Bad or Weak Leadership
Conservatism
Lack of Outside Support
Chronic Decline
Identifying, empowering and growing local leadership that can help their community understand and embrace needed change is the keystone to successful and sustained trend line changing development.

• Visionary Leadership
• Consistent
• Empowering
• Leadership Transition
• Leadership Development
• Effective Organizations
Communities with effective leadership are also communities that can raise new capital to financially support desired and needed investment into both community betterment projects and economic development.

Jim Jenkins
Callaway, Nebraska
Beth Stube
Dickinson, North Dakota

Wrap Up
Questions & Discussion
Thank you for your time, interest & consideration.
Don Macke & the RURPI Team don@e2mail.org
www.energizingentrepreneurs.org