EXCERPT: “Starting in January, a team with the University of Minnesota will kick off a new research project about how to improve economic development in Greater Minnesota. 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS found out how it’s designed to do much more than just gather data about strengthening the business climate. Twenty-thousand surveys will to be sent to people in 20 communities across Greater Minnesota next month looking at two factors: Why newcomers moved there and how they’re integrating into the community. Then the next research phase: Focus groups, to better understand how to fill jobs that already exist in the community. The research is designed to do more than recruit and retain people in Greater Minnesota. ‘Really, it’s not just marketing, and it’s not just recruiting new employees, it’s a whole model, of connecting employee recruitment, with tourism and community development,’ Ben Winchester, rural sociologist with the University of Minnesota Extension Center for Community Vitality, said.” FULLSTORY: http://bit.ly/2Q25Xuj
