Small Town America: Get Competitive

I honestly believe that small town america can the rebuilding block for America. People like the connections that can be made, the Internet opens global opportunities, land is available, and shipping can be done from anywhere. But too often the pieces are not in place to make small towns competitive on the quality of life side of the ledger to say nothing of the workforce needed. The Hometown Competitiveness project in Nebraska is having success in putting small towns on the road to sustainability and competitiveness. I am not quite sure if there is a charge for their services or not but there are tools on their website that will help you get organized--tomorrow.

They have four critical parts to their approach: leadership, entrepreneurship, youth, and charitable giving. Sounds about right to me. You certainly have to have all four in place to make progress. The key is understanding them in the context of your community. I also like the Small Towns project that is part of HandMade in America. They offer consulting advice to towns all over the country around heritage tourism and economic development. I am impressed by work at the Appalachian Regional Commission around community planning. I will throw in our Smart Communities work also. We mobilize whole communities to work differently and smarter--and it works.

Bottom line: Whether you need outside help or not, read up on what these folks are doing and you will see similar approaches. You have to have new leaders that have vision and persistence--they can see it and see it through. You have to find ways to keep youth in the community. And you have to build on your strengths. You don't need a consultant to tell you that. Do as much as you can locally. You take that to the bank.