The evening before the Symposium on Small Towns held at the University of Minnesota Morris on June 10, over 120 people met for the Rural Urban Gathering, an opportunity to share ideas, network and help shape the RurbMN project to demonstrate the interconnectedness of rural and urban areas. Participants in the Gathering came from every region in the state and represented at least 45 different organizations and groups.
The evening began with conversations among people living in the same geographic region. Members of each group were asked to share why they came to the Gathering and to name examples of positive rural-urban connections. Individual comments were posted on flipcharts to encourage the exchange of ideas during the event and later transcribed to benefit further development of the RurbMN Project.
What drew people to attend the Rural Urban Gathering? Most wanted to learn about people and organizations doing similar work, hoping to use that information for activities such as community building and economic development. “I am here to work on establishing connections to help grow our communities and improve the quality of life for our residents,” said one participant, while another hoped “to further local community sustainable momentum through connections and knowledge of interdependent resources.”
“I want to understand others’ work and where they do the work. I hope to gain more allies and more ideas of how to achieve goals.” Comments such as these indicate that attendees believe that others are addressing similar challenges throughout the state, but without a forum to bring people together, everyone is attempting to find solutions and create opportunities in isolation. People want to learn from each other and collaborate, both for the benefit of their communities and for the state as a whole. “Challenges and issues are interconnected; solutions must be, too,” is how one person described it.
Perhaps as a consequence of this isolation, a number of people commented on misunderstandings between rural and urban: “Urban people don’t understand the challenges facing farmers and how complex local food can be.” There’s a “misunderstanding of farmers by urbanites and vice versa.” “Weak ties between urban headquarters and rural plants; could drop rural partner for another state or country.” “Stereotypes of backwardness are supported by lack of cooperation between rural and urban.” “In urban areas, rural connections are not covered or acknowledged because it is considered a completely separate world.”
What are the existing connections between rural and urban that participants want to build upon? Participants cited efforts around renewable energy, local foods, government, transportation, education, farmers markets, law enforcement, research, water resources, library services, technology, art, public television, nonprofit organizations, economic development, tourism and co-ops. Some examples were organizations, while others were local, regional or statewide programs or events.
During the next part of the process, the entire room brainstormed topic areas or sectors related to rural-urban connections and then each person selected an issue for further conversation. The sectors people chose to talk about were transportation, broadband, energy, food, business/economic development, entrepreneurship, education, infrastructure/public works/water, aging and immigration. The larger group also identified other topics that should be considered in the future: homelessness/people at risk, faith community/volunteerism, second homes, industry clusters, recreation/tourism, heritage, brain drain, youth entrepreneurship and preservation. Each group that convened around a chosen sector discussed what rural and urban have in common, described challenges associated with collaboration and discussed positive examples of rural urban connections.
Participants obviously focused on the fact that that both urban and rural are experiencing job losses due to the recession and budget cuts. Other common challenges are
- the demand for more transportation options both for people and for the movement of goods (“Want and need options for mobility other than hop in the car—polling confirms this.”),
- difficulty obtaining capital for entrepreneurial ventures (“Young people, immigrants and refugees have a particularly challenging time finding access to capital.”)and
- increasing need for investment in infrastructure (“Dramatically decreased local government funding for services results in horrendous challenges to maintaining infrastructure and local quality of life.”).
Those particular challenges were mentioned as issues for a variety of sectors, including transportation, food, entrepreneurship and energy.
Participants also identified points of common interest that they thought should be developed for the benefit of the state as a whole. The entrepreneurship sector noted that rural and urban “both have a vested interest in developing entrepreneurial projects and sharing resources” because a significant number of people in both areas are starting their own businesses in response to economic difficulty. They commented that improving the flow of information about business development strategies, networking opportunities and technical assistance would go a long way towards supporting new ventures. “Social media is driving connections between urban and rural” was an observation repeated in several sector groups. Technology was viewed as an effective way to link people interested in areas such as local food production and K-12 education, in addition to economic development. “Both realities have access to online communities. The use of the internet can foster and create new rural-urban links and connections,” according to someone in the education group.
The examples of successful collaboration again were organizations (such as the Minnesota Food Association, Minitex and the University of Minnesota Extension Service) and programs (for example the Minnesota Design Team, Dream of Wild Health and Buy Fresh Buy Local) that connect people with each other and with resources.
Minnesota Rural Partners, Inc., will use this information to shape the RurbMN project. Efforts to document, illustrate, strengthen and expand rural urban connections will be enriched by the experiences and opinions people shared during the Gathering.
