Tag: rural minnesota

Elected roles in local government have a unique and vital place in our democracy, where neighbors elect neighbors to help their communities thrive. Unfortunately, we’ve all heard stories of increasing polarization and toxic political climate showing up in local settings. What’s it really like to run for office and serve in local elected roles like ...

On this episode, Marnie Werner, VP of Research and Operations, interviews Julie Tesch (CEO and President of CRDP) and Kelly Asche (Senior Research Associate) about their experiences working with and in municipal governments and their attempts to find, apply, and administer grants. What are some of the challenges, and solutions that would help our small ...

By Kelly Asche, Senior Research Associate The Center for Rural Policy and Development is currently working on a research project exploring migration trends of Southwest Minnesota high school graduates. This report will be released in early 2023, but as we explore the data, we would like to showcase a few interesting nuggets. The severity of ...

On this episode, Julie Tesch interviews Center for Rural Policy and Development Board member Martha Castanon. Martha is an Accredited Representative for the Immigrant Law Center in Moorhead, Minnesota. Julie and her discuss how her parents met in Comstock, Minnesota, the services that the Immigrant Law Center provides to immigrant and refugee populations as well ...

In this episode, Marnie Werner, VP of Research and Operations, interviews Amy Baldwin who works as the Community Development Director for Otter Tail County. Probably one of the top three issues facing most rural community and economic developers is solving the housing shortage. In this conversation, Marnie and Amy talk about Otter Tail’s new initiative ...

The number of residential housing builders still isn’t at peak levels of 2006. October 2022 By: Kelly Asche, Senior Research Associate Now more than ever we are seeing the linkages between economic development, workforce development, and housing. No matter where you turn, it seems that small communities are trying to crack the code on how ...

In September, the Center for Rural Policy and Development released the results of an environmental scan of child care initiatives taking place across rural Minnesota. In this episode, Vice President of Research, Marnie Werner, interviews Don Hickman, the Vice President for Community and Workforce Development at the Initiative Foundation in Little Falls, MN. As an ...

by Marnie Werner, Vice President, Research Earlier this week I spoke to a group of business owners and childcare professionals in St. Cloud, where it’s not breaking news to them—or anyone else for that matter—that childcare’s 20-year downward spiral is now a major factor exacerbating the growing worker shortage.  As the pandemic upended all aspects ...

  About the Interconnected Series: Wherever you live, you have undoubtedly encountered the term “Urban/Rural Divide” that describes a divisive narrative in policy and politics based on geographic differences. In reality, we all want similar things – good healthcare and education, for example – but the solutions often look different based on where you live. ...