Northern Minnesota School Districts Create Opportunity from Crisis

School districts in the rural Itasca County area already know how to cope with difficult times. Schools here have faced declining enrollment, and thus declining revenues from the state, for more than a decade.

While watching student enrollment numbers edge downward each fall has presented its challenges, it also offered opportunity to work together in ways that 20 years ago would have seemed unfathomable.

Want to Know More?

The following is a list of additional resources on the topic of building social capital recommended by the Community Leader Editorial Team:

Blandin Foundation Accepts Grant from Bush Foundation

Leadership Programs Supported

The Blandin Foundation accepted a $425,832 grant from the Bush Foundation to extend the work of the Blandin Community Leadership Program. The grant will enable BCLP to offer four additional community cohorts, training 100 individual leaders, in 2009.

Midwest Rural Assembly

August 10-11, 2009
Sioux Falls Convention Center
Sioux Falls, South Dakota
At the Midwest Rural Assembly you will:

• Share resources and strategies for rural economic and community development opportunities.
• Hear from and talk with local to national policymakers about your rural policy priorities.
• Meet other rural leaders and welcome new voices.
• Begin building a regional network to advance policies and initiatives that can help revitalize rural communities.

For more information about the Midwest Rural Assembly, including registration and speakers, visit  www.midwestruralassembly.org or email midwestruralassembly@iatp.org.

In Luverne, Community Leaders Help Restore a Piece of their History

Perhaps no community in the state understands the value of recreation, culture and history better than Luverne.

In September 2007, the town rolled out the red carpet for the premiere of Ken Burns’ acclaimed PBS documentary, The War.  The town hosted the premiere because it was one of four communities in the United States selected as vantage points to tell the story of the lives impacted by World War II.  The selection of the town was no accident. Luverne is the hometown of Quentin Aaneneson, a WWII fighter pilot and hero; Charles Mann, one of the town’s first citizens to be wounded in battle; and Al McIntosh, editor of the Rock County Star Herald, who authored a series of columns that recalled the town’s emotion during the war.

Creating a Welcoming Community in Austin

Twenty years ago, Austin Minnesota was the “typical,” out-state community, according to its former mayor Bonnie Rietz, 1988 BCLP alum and Blandin Foundation Trustee. Cultural differences were the concern of people living in the metropolitan area  ¬ Austin was largely Caucasian and definitely not diverse.  Then, all that changed.

Hormel, which has a meat packing facility in Austin as well as other suppliers for Hormel, such as Quality Pork Processors, were attracting a new kind of worker, a more culturally diverse worker.  Many of Austin’s new residents were Hispanic, Sudanese and Vietnamese.  Many had limited English proficiency.

Assessing Infrastructure: Moving Communities Forward

Imagine you are charged with attracting new economic development to your community (as a community leader, perhaps that really is your job).

Could you ensure a business that might be interested in locating or relocating to your town that there was adequate access to water and sewer and high speed Internet?  What about your roads, could they handle increased traffic from a new manufacturing facility that needs to move large volumes of product?  Is your housing stock sufficient if hundreds of new workers moved in?  Do your schools have the capacity to absorb dozens of new students?

Range Readiness: Preparing a region for growth

The Mesabi Iron Range, in northeast Minnesota, may soon see the biggest
economic boom it has experienced in decades.

Soaring prices on world markets for iron ore and other metals, like copper, have brought with them a number of significant mining projects at various stages of development.  Renewable energy projects also are part of the growth picture.  Projects include: environmental upgrades at Cohasset’s Clay Boswell power plant; the proposed Minnesota Steel mining to steel making project in Nashwauk; and the proposed nonferrous metals mining project, PolyMet, in Hoyt Lakes.  These, combined with several other proposed projects, carry a potential investment of $5 billion and a potential for 2,500 new permanent jobs, 3,500 construction jobs and thousands of spin off jobs.