At the National Rural Youth Assembly in April 2010, Joshua Preston of Morris, MN, spoke with Shawn Poynter of the Center for Rural Strategies about conditions in his town, the importance of the Midwest, the rural-urban divide, and the role of young people like himself in renewing rural communities.

Joshua Preston - National Rural Youth Assembly from Center for Rural Strategies on Vimeo.

It's a decades-long question: How do rural communities attract and retain young people? It's also the special focus of the Midwest Rural Assembly (MRA),  a gathering of rural community leaders and government officials to exchange ideas and strategies for rural prosperity.

The MRA will be held on August 16–17 in South Sioux City, Nebraska. Along with rural community leaders from throughout the region, participants will include U.S. Department of Agriculture State Rural Development Directors from Minnesota, Iowa, South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas. Keynote speakers include South Dakota state representative Kevin Killer and Iowa State professor and writer/poet Debra Marquart.

"Rural communities have been particularly hard hit by these tough economic times," said Jim Kleinschmit, director of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy's Rural Communities program. "But there's also a lot of innovation, energy and ideas coming out of our small towns. This is an opportunity for rural leaders and government representatives to learn about what's working, and as importantly, how we can join together to face many of our common challenges."

A special area of focus is to identify strategies to attract and retain young people in rural communities. Young rural leaders from Minnesota, Montana, Wisconsin and Kansas will share their priorities. Other leaders will discuss successful examples of increasing rural prosperity through cooperative business models, sustainable energy, local food systems, green job creation, rural teacher training, microenterprise programs, integration of immigrants, rural infrastructure projects and more. Policy discussions will cover federal health care reform, farm policy and broadband policy.

Coordinating organizations include: Avera Rural Health Institute, Center for Rural Affairs, Center for Rural Policy and Development, Center for Rural Strategies, Dakota Rural Action, Great Plains Rural Policy Network, Heartland Center for Leadership Development, Iowa Policy Project, The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, League of Rural Voters, Meadowlark Institute, National Rural Assembly, National Wildlife Federation, Nebraska Housing Developers Association, North Central Regional Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education, Renewing the Countryside, Rural Learning Center, Rural Policy Research Institute, South Dakota Rural Enterprise, Inc., and West Central Initiative.

The MRA will be held at the Marina Inn Conference Center in South Sioux City, Nebraska. Registrants will receive a special MRA rate if rooms are booked before August 2. To register, and read the full agenda and speakers list, go to http://www.midwestruralassembly.org/.

West central Minnesota nonprofits: you spend a lot of time finding the right individuals to sit on your board. Now, give them to tools and knowledge to leverage the work that they do for your organization.

The Board Leadership Academy is a customized training program designed to help nonprofit board and staff members work together to strengthen their organizations' performance and success.

The Otto Bremer Foundation is awarding grants for up to 10 non-profits to attend the program, which involves three sessions over the course of the next year.

Participants will learn how to develop board and executive staff leadership, receive one-to-one coaching, and enjoy learning opportunities through networking and peer interaction. Featured topics will include marketing, fundraising, strategic planning and more.

Along with a grant awarded by the Otto Bremer Foundation for this program, area companies and organizations including West Central Initiative, Tastefully Simple, Bremer and HBH Consultants are proud to sponsor this special program.

To be selected, a nonprofit organization’s executive director and at least two board members must commit to participating in the Board Leadership Academy.

Applications are due by September 1, 2010. Please submit your application (below) electronically to LaTresse Snead at latresse.snead@tastefullysimple.com. We will notify you no later than September 15  if your organization has been selected for this round of Board Leadership Academy.

How do you create success in rural communities? A small group of foundation leaders from all over the nation have been tackling this question. They have discovered that when you combine the features of economic development, community development and philanthropy you unlock the secret to success.

Often rural community leaders struggle alone trying to build the systems that will make their community successful. Eight years ago, four community foundations all working with rural economic development were brought together as part of an Aspen Institute learning community. They discovered a common thread of activities that influenced the success of rural communities. They decided to work together to help rural communities all over the nation.

West Central Initiative, The Nebraska Community Foundation, The Humboldt Area Foundation in California, The East Tennessee Foundation, The Black Belt Community Foundation, The Aspen Institute Community Strategies Group, The Center for Rural Strategies, and North Carolina Rural Economic Development Center have formed the Rural Development Philanthropy Collaboration steering committee. They have been able to compare years of experience working with successful rural communities to collect the most effective actions that lead to success.

The Rural Development Philanthropy is no longer a secret. Now the core documents are available for anyone interested in the success of their rural community at http://www.wcif.org/?page=Publications#RDP.  Learn how your rural community or region can benefit from combining economic development, community development and philanthropy.

Grant support from the Ford Foundation, California Endowment, Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the community foundations on the steering committee has helped underwrite the cost of meetings and materials to date.

Have you been taking a lot of photos this summer? How about videos? Well, don't forget to enter your best in the WCI Photo/Video Contest, "Creating a Better Tomorrow for West Central Minnesota." The deadline is less than two weeks away, July 16!  

Take a look at some of the photos already posted (like this adorable one here by Janelle Alvstad-Mattson), then upload your own. Don't forget to include a short description/essay about why your photo/video illustrates "creating a better for west central Minnesota."

Share this information with friends, families, colleagues--oh, and mention the 22 cash prizes, too!