RUPRI Roundtable Breakout Sessions

Rural Futures Initiative - Lincoln, NE – November 5, 2013

Summary

November 17, 2013

Following is a summary of comments offered during the four breakout sessions of RUPRI’s State Policy Initiative Roundtable at the Rural Futures Institute Conference 2013.Its purpose is to discern what participantssee as opportunities to best serve the needs of rural America’s state and local leaders as the State Policy Initiative moves forward. We will provide all of the information gathered in the breakouts to the RUPRI initiativefor consideration, as an important element to guide its work.

We summarize the comments in terms of practice, policy, and research and list them in order of participant priorities.

Practice

The most common words and expressions across the four breakout sessions are ‘best practices, case studies and webinars,’ followed closely by ‘data.’ There seems to be a large appetite to share examples and to learn from others. Webinars were most often mentioned as the means for sharing. It was suggested that the initiative could provide a technical platform for webinars as a central service.

Convenings were also mentioned as means to disseminate best practices, including national convening’s and ‘face-to-face meetings’ … but the expense and the difficulty of attendance was recognized. Websites were also mentioned as information sharing tools, but less often than webinars and convening’s.

Many topics were mentioned in discussions of best practices, case studies and webinars:

  • Leadership and research on leadership
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Asset-based community development
  • Transfer of wealth
  • Community foundations
  • Integration of immigrant communities into rural communities
  • Local food systems
  • Broadband
  • Youth engagement
  • Telehealth policies and practices in various states
  • Re-shoring and rural advanced manufacturing
  • Trends ‘intersecting’ rural and urban, e.g. entrepreneurship
  • Marketing practices at farmers’ markets
  • Economic impact of switching from coal to natural gas
  • Beginning farmers research

Some illustrative comments …

  • ‘a national convening where rural folks get together and we break into best practices discussion groups’
  • ‘creating awareness of what’s going on, across multiple states’
  • ‘webinars are worthwhile in lieu of travel’
  • ‘how about TED Rural?’
  • ‘need for rural development professionals to be able to connect and cross-pollinate and do more peer-learning’
  • ‘an inventory of speakers who could be brought in to discuss rural development efforts;’ like a speakers bureau
  • ‘face-to-face meeting … annual or biannual occurrence for interested parties to share new knowledge, challenges faced, lessons learned’
  • ‘It’s a tragedy that there’s no way to aggregate data from these many organizations. If we aggregate data, we can learn more about best practices.’
  • ‘a catalogue or inventory of case studies of successful rural strategies and programs’

Related to best practices and case studies, storieswere mentioned as means to reach policy makers and to influence public views of rural. Some thought stories are very effective while others argued that systematic data showing results and cost savings are most useful. One note-taker summarized: “Need to gather systematic datasets to complement individual stories – case studies used to illustrate the systematic evidence.”

Stories also came up in the context of ‘changing the rural narrative’ from one of deficit to one of ‘abundance’ or necessity. Participants stated the ability to produce “dozens” of stories/case studies about community and leadership successes.

Extension’s e-extension and ‘ask an expert’ were also mentioned favorably as tools for sharing information.

Data wasmentioned many, many times – almost always in the context of practice, rather than research. It is needed as a tool for practitioners and communities to “help local people understand their own place.” Difficulties with data were often noted. Census data is inadequate for many rural places because of their small size; people need help interpreting data and drawing conclusions from data; data need to recognize the diversity of rural places; and “I like the idea of having a network that’s reliable. Trustworthy. A filter to keep bad data out.”

The idea of data coaches was mentioned. In an email after RFI, one attendee called attention to a new data portal: and the thought of building a mobile app for rural data.

Policy

Discussions around policy were fragmentary. One exceptional comment noted, “When [a] legislature needs something, they lack the go-to source. We need to become the recognized source for where to go when you need unbiased, competent advice. We need [a] network to lean on across the country.”

Here are other comments:

  • ‘Reform and modernization of telehealth laws in rural states is greatly needed and timely.’
  • ‘What I’d love to see in 2-3 years is that the policy approaches we collaborate on get in front of governors, county commissioners, others.’
  • ‘Policy briefs’
  • ‘Find those common elements that states need which will bind states together … you have to find common themes to drive policy.’
  • ‘Where does ‘rural’ reside in state governments?’
  • Need to move USDA programs to be less community-specific and more tolerant or encouraging of regional projects
  • ‘Provide policy recommendations: ideas that can be replicated and implemented at the local, state and federal levels.’
  • ‘catalogue rural issues’
  • ‘Mapping the policy landscape (timelines and levels) to understand how and when to use evidence’
  • ‘illustrate to policy makers something that saves money and provides a quick return on investments’
  • The value of stories and data to influence policy, as mentioned above

While the discussion of policy was broad, several participants offered concrete policy assistance.

  • ‘State rural development councils need and want to be state points of contact’
  • NACo will help connect RUPRI and the State Policy Initiative with county officials
  • ‘will act as an external reviewer and sounding board’
  • ‘Will personally go anywhere at any time to share model legislation, cost-effectiveness studies, etc., that will help to advance Telehealth. … welcome the opportunity to collaborate with the new RUPRI Panel on States Strategies’
  • USDA Rural Developmentwill (1) connect RUPRI with the White House Rural Council for policy input and (2) help support a website.

Research

One suggestion was to “identify a unified research agenda” and the Federal partners at the Roundtable indicated they would be interested in that being undertaken.

  • References to a ‘national database’ and ‘research briefs’
  • ‘get actionable science in the hands of people who need it’
  • A website with plentifulof research on many topics … ‘be able to navigate and move through lots of information from different agencies/sources of information’
  • ‘Do we need to revisit and have discussion about what rural means? Some micropolitans seem to need to be included’
  • ‘Datasets to complement individual stories,’ as mentioned above

Other

Some other mattersthat arose:

  • Need to engage additional actors. Those mentioned included COGs, RDAs, rural water and electric providers, federal reserve banks, foundations / philanthropies
  • Give attention to counties that are failing … ideas that might work, a template and tools for crisis management
  • ‘Task force teams to provide experts to deal with issues at the local/regional level’
  • In one group there was mention of how to get cultural information that goes deeper than stories and data, to understand the ‘psychology’ or personality of a community; why does the community do the things it does? Geographical bibliographies were noted as one source.

Please continue to share your insight and recommendations for the State Policy initiative moving forward. You may email any suggestions to: