Small Town Forums, hosted by U.W. - Extension, USDA Rural Development, Wisconsin Downtown Action...
31
5 Keys to Small Town Success It’s About Resilience, Not Growth Small Town Forums 2015
Small Town Forums, hosted by U.W. - Extension, USDA Rural Development, Wisconsin Downtown Action Council, Wisconsin Rural Partners, Wisconsin Economic Development Corp.; four locations
5 Keys to Small Town Success It’s About Resilience, Not Growth
Small Town Forums 2015
Trends
People moving from small towns and rural areas to metro areas
Presenter
Presentation Notes
This is a global phenomenon – where people go, so goes economic activity. Map source – Pew Charitable Trust.
Trends
Other issues facing small towns
Presenter
Presentation Notes
Climate change means stronger, more violent storms combined with increasing areas impacted by drought. Funding of local government is not sustainable, population loss means less economic activity and loss of capacity to reinvest in the built environment; growing poverty in rural areas impacting schools, housing, social services; Small towns are aging faster than metro areas – impacting services, workforce availability, and healthcare.
Resiliency Community resilience is a measure of the sustained ability of a community to utilize available resources to respond to, withstand, and recover from adverse situations.
Presenter
Presentation Notes
I believe a strategy to improve the resiliency of our small towns in the face of significant disruption is a smarter approach than focusing on growth strategies. Un
Resiliency
The Keys, Please….
Leverage
Ever feel like you are ready to reach new heights, but you don’t have the assets you need to get the job done?
Presenter
Presentation Notes
Many small towns find themselves in this situation. You have a core group of people, or you have a little bit of money to invest in your community, but it just isn’t enough to have an impact. What do you do? Look for leverage! If you a good idea – find others to support it. If you have budgeted funds to start a project – look for grant funding to supplement those funds. Community leaders themselves can’t get everything done? Recruit volunteers! Don’t know much about an important issue? Find someone who does.
Leverage
Using leverage to balance assets and needs
Knowledge Skills Volunteers Grants Financing
Presenter
Presentation Notes
The thing that makes leverage work is the fulcrum – concentrating support at a point that balances needs and assets. The support in this case is knowledge, skills, volunteers, grants and financing structure. The good news is that this support exists for nearly every community – either internally or externally. The bad news is that it is often dispersed and not easily uncovered. The challenge to you is to find this support and focus it on a single point of interest.
Leverage
Methods: 1. Community inventory and
associations 2. Establish networks, linkages &
channels 3. Keep the network activated 4. Bring support together as needed
Presenter
Presentation Notes
Many communities have a directory of local businesses. A good community inventory is much more than that. Do you know who in your community is willing to put in a few hours a year to support community initiatives? Do you know what special knowledge and skills community members have? Do you know the non-profits and foundations that operate in your area? Do you know your County Extension agent, WEDC representative, Rural Development financial specialist, and the myriad of other state and federal level resources available to you? Are you active in your local government association? As you uncover resources that could be beneficial in the future, think about establishing mechanisms to keep those resources connected. It could be a periodic newsletter, email or social media that talks about the latest issues in the community, or it could be inviting a resource to come to a meeting every once in a while to talk about an issue and how that resource may assist in addressing the issue. Another good method is to invite multiple resources to a single meeting to brainstorm how to focus resources on a particular problem. Exploiting the power of leverage takes some effort, skill and knowledge in itself. But that’s the beauty of leverage – investing a little bit of effort, skill and knowledge on this can yield disproportionately greater benefits for the community over time.
Leverage Example – Potosi, WI Population - 689
Presenter
Presentation Notes
CDBG grant for fire station – community engagement Focus turns to old brewery A few local “sparkplugs” engaged the community to get behind restoration Formation of a non-profit foundation to manage and own the project. Local effort and funding matched with multiple grants The $7.5 million restoration project was funded from a variety of federal, state, and private sources. As part of the USDA’s Business and Industry Guaranteed Loan Program, the federal government backed a $2.6 million loan which was extended by the Mound City Bank. Additional development costs were then guaranteed by another USDA loan of $660,000. The project also received a total of $849,000 from the Federal Highway Administration’s National Scenic Byways Program. State historic preservation challenge grants, transportation enhancement grants, and Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) brownfields grants for assessment and cleanup of the buildings provided a large part of the initial funding. In February 2010, the Southwestern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission (SWWRPC) made a $75,000 loan from its EDA Revolving Loan Fund (RLF) for additional expansion. “Small towns like Potosi know that the only way to pull off projects like this is to seek funding from a variety of sources,” explains Linda Hanefeld, a project manager with the Wisconsin DNR. The Foundation was able to raise five million dollars for the project, and is currently making steady progress in paying off the remaining loans. Beat out St. Louis and Milwaukee to be the home of the American Brewery Museum Became a visitor center for the Great River Road Potosi’s success story truly has been about the village’s citizens coming together as a community to invest and rally behind a long dormant local asset. While it is the brewery’s product – beer – that gets the headlines and brings in the visitors, Potosi’s accomplishments are rooted in the people of the village who revived and re-branded an important part of their history, embraced historic preservation, and developed a unique business model that has led to its success today.
Spatial Relationships
Maximizing benefits of spatial relationships
Density, Proximity, Space & Connections
Presenter
Presentation Notes
The physical layout of your community is another special case of leverage. Certain spatial relationships between various types of “activated space” create greater community benefits. In particular, increasing the density of activated spaces, combined with having certain types of activities and functions in proximity to one another – nodes, with various nodes connected by safe multi-modal pathways with various types of public spaces interspersed is associated with a number of community benefits including increased property value stability, lower costs of government services, increased creativity and innovation, better public health and social well-being and higher incomes. The opposite is also true – less density, greater dispersion of activated space, limited pathways connecting community nodes and inadequate public space is associated with property value instability, less social cohesion, poorer public health and social welfare and higher costs of government services. Wait a minute – I thought being in a small town meant getting away from high density! It’s all relative, but the benefits of space, density, proximity and connections exist regardless of scale – small town to big city.
Spatial Relationships
Methods: 1. Use your Comprehensive Plan and
Zoning Ordinance to ensure activated space is tightly clustered.
2. Consider acquiring vacant property. 3. Ensure that the destinations within
your community are connected with both paths and good roads.
Presenter
Presentation Notes
Many small towns in Wisconsin are smaller than they once were, yet the physical space and relationships are little changed. Even if the population is about the same, economic changes such as on-line shopping and how we work effectively means we need less physical space for the same level of economic activity. As a result, the downtown of many small communities is the same physical size, but more spaces are vacant and the spaces that are activated are more removed from one another. So, how do you change historic land use patterns to leverage the benefits of space, density, proximity & connections? It’s not easy, but it can be done over time.
Collaboration is another form of leverage. Your neighboring communities or organizations working in unrelated fields may be struggling with similar issues. By working together you can leverage the skills, knowledge and resources of multiple partners, provide services at a lower cost, and make things happen that otherwise could not happen by everyone trying to solve these common issues on their own.
Collaboration
Successful Collaboration: • Shared Perception of Need • Collaborative Leadership • Trust • Mutual Benefit • Stakeholder Support
Collaboration
Obstacles to Collaboration: • Turf Protection • Competition for Growth • Historic Rivalry • Perceived Loss of Identity, Access,
Reduced Control and Accountability, Threat to Status Quo
Collaboration
Methods: 1. Meet with your regional peers, major
institutions and organizations. If a business, meet with your competitors.
2. Establish a schedule of regular meetings and a standing agenda.
3. Seek out common cause, share information and find reasons to work together.
Collaboration Example – The Marketplace, Gays Mills
Presenter
Presentation Notes
The anchor of the business district is the village's only gas station and grocery store. Steve Mickelson and New Horizon Supply Cooperative combined their Gays Mills businesses to create The Marketplace, a 7,600-square-foot supply depot for the region.��Read more: http://host.madison.com/news/local/on-wisconsin-it-s-been-uphill-climb-but-gays-mills/article_22537ace-492e-11e1-a552-0019bb2963f4.html#ixzz3jO8GLIPa
Community Health
Physical, Mental, & Social Well-being
Presenter
Presentation Notes
It is estimated that as much as 20% of the population suffers from poor mental health at some point in their lives - anxiety, depression, alcohol & drug abuse – and an even greater number suffer from poor physical health. Physical and mental health issues tend to be more common in communities that are struggling economically, but there is a stigma to addressing these issues openly. When physical, mental and social well-being suffers, the physical capacity of community members to be engaged, as well as employees productivity is significantly impacted. This can become a viscious downward spiral for a community – and breaking that spiral will take time and effort.
Community Health Example – LIFE Foundation, Cross Plains, WI
Presenter
Presentation Notes
LIFE = Lifestyle Initiatives For Fitness Empowerment The LIFE Foundation is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to fostering healthy lifestyles in Cross Plains and surrounding area through improved nutrition and increased physical activity in a local safe environment. It is a volunteer effort of health professionals, village employees, business leaders, teachers, parents, teens and retirees, collaborating with academics, government, non-profits and private businesses.
LIFE Foundation – 5 Year Strategic Objectives
Wellness Centered: Community Wellness Fitness Center
Trails Prevail: Ice Age Trail, Good Neighbor Trail, Conservancy Trails
Fitness First: Individual adapted health through fitness classes
Empower Social Support: Empower Kids, Adults & Employees; Healthy Lifestyle Programs / Step Up Walking Club
To School & Back: The Walking School Bus, The Bike Train, Paint the Bike Lane
Rethink Your Drink: A choose water campaign
Know the Code 5210: Vegetables, screen time, exercise
& Foundations • Local Initiatives • Volunteers • Community
Leaders
Support Local
Methods: 1. On-going community awareness 2. Matchmaking programs - volunteers
with community needs, local buyers with local suppliers, funding needs with local donors/crowd-funding
3. Stagger/combine local initiatives 4. Appreciate community leaders
Support Local Example – Central Rivers Farmshed, Stevens Point, WI
Central Wisconsin Farm Fresh Atlas™ showcasing the best in local farms and food in Central Wisconsin Salvation Army Hope Center Meals Each month volunteers source and donate ingredients and prepare a meal, ensuring that those in-need have access to fresh, local foods. Farmer Tribute Dinner invites producers to dine on a locally sourced meal in celebration of the harvest. Community members attend and sponsor the farmers meal as a tribute to their hard work. Local Food Fair brings together producers, consumers, local businesses, and educators to celebrate community and the food that’s grown within it.
Support Local Example – Central Rivers Farmshed, Stevens Point, WI
Presenter
Presentation Notes
School fundraising event using local products
Conclusion
• Focus on resilience before growth • Leverage assets and resources • Pay attention to spatial relationships • Collaborate, collaborate, collaborate • Stay healthy – physically, mentally &
