Radically Rural

Becky McCray is a lifelong small-town entrepreneur. As co-founder of Save Your.Town, she shares insights from her real-world experience as a business owner and cattle rancher. Her practical perspective is featured at her highly-ranked website, Small Biz Survival, and in her award-winning book, Small Town Rules. She’s been featured and quoted in books, newspapers, magazines, blogs, podcasts and university publications. She makes her home base in Hopeton, Oklahoma, a community of 30 people. Her goal is to deliver practical steps you can put into action right away to shape the future of your town.

Arts funding across racial and geographical boundaries is more urgent than ever.  Grantmakers need equitable ways to overcome these boundaries to ensure communities experience the arts from a diversity of artists and collectives.

What are the underlying inequities that leave out artists of color and rural artists? How does the intersection of race, gender and location of grantmaking leadership inform philanthropy? How are regional arts organizations supporting diverse representation and voices in art leadership now? Join Savannah Barrett, director of Art of the Rural, as she leads grantmakers through programs and research to build racial and geographical equity.

Panelists will join the discussion to review their organizational experiences and to spur other grantmakers to assure inclusion. Need some background before you join the conversion? [This link] will take you to a list of resources.

Imagine your community or region working together toward energy goals while saving residents money, providing new innovations, increasing comfort, renewable mix, and local resilience. Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) offers these potential benefits and more.

In this session, a panel of experts will present case studies of rural communities from various states that have transitioned to Community Choice Aggregation. Time will be spent describing the differences in CCA for states with vertically integrated utilities such as Vermont versus deregulated utilities such as New Hampshire. Participants will leave with the ability to support the drafting of CCA legislation in their state and will learn additional online resources and best practices for developing CCA.

What causes a non-reader to subscribe? What can be done to better retain existing readers? Who is having success among small news operations using research? And how are reporters and editors leading the effort? With traditional advertising in sharp decline, community news organizations are using research and data to find ways to increase paid readership and membership. Answers to all these questions and more are provided by an expert panel led by Amy Kovac-Ashley from the American Press Institute.

In Belgium, beer is brewed without adding yeast. Rather, breweries set conditions that allow local yeast strains to enter the brew to work their distinctive magic. Embedded in this approach is a powerful concept that can also guide your community as you work to brew the next batch of businesses. This session will explore how to leverage local conditions and multiple sources of funding to work their distinctive magic as you work to create your next batch of local business. Panelists will discuss the strategies they’ve used to work the assets they have and marshal the resources at hand to help businesses (and the communities in which they’re located) start, grow and pivot.

It is common knowledge that human survival depends on clean air, clean water and other natural resources for basic needs like food and shelter. Since the beginning of the 21st century, evidence has been rapidly accumulating that people’s wellbeing depends not just on extracting resources from nature, but also on frequent contact with nature for health, happiness and optimal functioning. Louise Chawla, an environmental psychologist, reviews major findings on connecting with nature and wellbeing, with special attention to studies with rural populations. She explores the questions—What are the implications of this research for new ways of communicating the value of biodiverse landscapes? How can this research be applied to provide healthy activities in nature for everyone, at every age, in rural towns and on the land? 
The talk will be followed by an overview of “nature prescriptions” to connect people with nature in rural communities, and case studies of programs that apply this research to engage people in enjoying and conserving natural lands. In conclusion, the audience will have time for a dialogue with presenters about possibilities for applying these ideas in their regions.   

Want to create opportunity in those Main Street empty building but don’t know how? Join Deb Brown, co-founder of SaveYour.Town, as she takes you on an odyssey to reimagine and reinvigorate a small town’s Main Street. Envision with Deb what these buildings can become. Learn to communicate with owners in new ways to change their minds and join your vision. Hear about communities already doing this work and reaping benefits. And don’t forget those empty lots, too!

Do you want to knit together a community of interest but wonder what to use and do to build those ties? The arts have the potential to sew the seams of a community frayed by a sense of loss or a lack of belonging. Communities across the country are harnessing the arts to build stronger regional communities and are reaping the socio-economic benefits.

Join a panel of experts as it leads demonstrations of art creation in order to build connections, empathy, understanding and inclusion. And learn how to measure the many successes of such projects.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says pricing carbon is the single most effective way to combat the climate crisis. In this session participants will be introduced to a free interactive climate solutions simulation tool from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. En-Roads is real-time scenario software that models carbon pricing and its effect on global temperature and carbon dioxide levels.

Learn how carbon pricing can become a reality in the United States from a preeminent voice on carbon fee and dividend, Dr. Danny Richter of Citizens Climate Lobby. He will speak about building bi-partisan support for HR 763, the Energy Innovation and Climate Dividend Act of 2019. The Act puts a steadily rising price on carbon and gives the money to households as dividends. Studies show that income, rather than geography, determines the effect of carbon pricing on citizens, and two-thirds of households will end up ahead. Predictions indicate this Act could bring greenhouse gas emissions down 40% by 2032.

Digital start-ups, non-profit and co-op ventures, radical new thinking at small news organizations - new journalism models with promise are springing up across the country, suggesting ways these can be replicated at the small-town level. Kristen Hare of the Poynter Institute and a panel of innovators present new models of news and ideas that we can all take home.

The PitchFork Challenge is a business pitch competition focused on supporting the rural entrepreneurial ecosystem. It was intentionally created to provide money and momentum to increase the rate of rural startups by supporting the idea phase and the early challenging years of being a small rural business. We created the PitchFork program in 2016 in response to the low startup rates in rural areas after the great recession. This is not just another pitch competition, but a great way to jumpstart ideas, connections, and small businesses. This session opens with a live pitch event, followed by a discussion with its organizers and a shared “operating manual” about how you can take this concept to your community. The session ends with the announcement of the winners and the presentation of cash awards of $10,000 and $1,000.

For the Radically Rural Summit, the PitchFork Challenge offers cash awards, but this pitch event can also serve as a model to bring together banks, community organizations, individuals, and others interesting in ensuring local businesses can access local loans and local investors. Join the excitement as these local rural entrepreneurs pitch their business and receive the “operating manual” on how to run this event in your own community. We’ll share all that we learned in putting this challenge together so you can take it back to your rural area and create something similar, but also unique to your region. The PitchFork Challenge How-To Guide is available on the Hannah Grimes Center’s website. We hope today’s event will inspire more rural entrepreneurs everywhere to start a business.

Are you a busy farmer looking for innovative ways to sell your products? Or a Co-op or restaurant manager looking for local farm products? Or a mindful consumer? Food hubs to the rescue! Food hubs help small farmers with production, distribution, and marketing services, and these services increase the economic strength of rural communities.

Food hubs are growing, with more than 200 in the United States, and becoming an established sector that contributes to the vitality of a region’s economy. They support local farmers and help boost profits. Join a panel from food hub communities for an inside peek into how successful hubs operate. Leave with a vision to initiate a food hub in your region and contribute to the vibrancy of your rural community’s culture, economy and food system.

What’s New Ruralism? It’s reimagining rural Main Streets to be more than structures, but alive with the hum of community answering the needs of it residents. From Arts Collaboratives to Food Hubs to Community Centers locally driven programs are drawing in community, creating hubs and enriching rural regions.

Join the New Ruralism Project on a virtual success tour of case studies. Start in Alaska for a story of spirit as locals take control of their food system to reduce costs and provide environmental and social sustainability; travel on to New York to learn how to turn an empty building into a thriving Community Center; go south to Alabama to learn lessons from an old auto dealership’s transformation into a cultural arts hub for the community and so much more. Leave inspired with case studies and references to provide guidance to create your own success story.

New Ruralism is a project of the Northern New England Chapter of the American Planning Association (APA) with support from APA and its Small Town and Rural Planning Division.

LOR Livability Idea Slam call for entries

Radically Rural, our online summit focused on ways to improve life in small cities and towns, is looking for great ideas about how individuals, businesses and institutions are making small cities and towns more livable. 

Sponsored by the LOR Foundation, 10 to 12 innovative approaches to solving local problems will be featured at Radically Rural, all drawn from the sectors that the summit presents: Community journalism, arts and culture, land use, entrepreneurship, downtowns and clean energy. 

The first LOR Livability Idea Slam will take place on Radically Rural’s main stage of the remote event from 1 to 2 p.m. on Sept. 24. We are seeking initiatives that have improved the quality of community life, ranging from physical betterments to social improvements—anything that has elevated a town’s livability.

Those interested in participating are asked to videotape their ideas and send links to event organizers via a digital form on the Radically Rural website. The videos will be shown, and attendees will vote on the best of those submitted. Five finalists will be selected and a winner from among those five will get a bounty of Radically Rural swag. Lively presentations of no more than three minutes are requested and should illustrate how an innovative idea had an impact on the community.  Attendees will appreciate creativity, brevity and humor. Simply present the idea, talk about its goal and the results, but don’t forget to do so with style and flair!

LOR is a private foundation that works with rural communities in the Mountain West to enhance livability and prosperity while preserving the character that makes each community unique.

Let’s dig into the value and vibrancy of the rural arts scene and ask: What makes art essential in rural communities in this moment in time, and why?
This session will give participants tools to be better advocates for the arts in their communities, and it will be a great learning opportunity to better understand WHY the arts are so valuable. These Radically Rural panelists will use affirming language, data, and stories from the field that demonstrate the impact arts can have - from the individual to a group to a community-wide level.
After the discussion, the session will break out into smaller groups to dive into deeper questions about the current moment and how to maintain sustainability and strive for longevity within it. Can we imagine a radical reinvention of the sector together?
Let's pool our resources to make a case for essential arts and move forward together!

Farmers are experiencing the environmental destruction and financial hardships caused by climate change. Altered growing cycles, poor soil health, and unpredictable water cycles have left many farms producing less while investing more. Regenerative agriculture holds the potential to sequester carbon and combat the impacts of the climate crisis. Join Nobel prize winner Dr. Keith Paustian from Colorado State University and Dr. Adam Chambers from the United States Department of Agriculture as they discuss regenerative agriculture and its promise for farmers and foresters.

It’s back! A romp through some of the best ways to increase audience and revenue from some of the game-changing news organizations in the country. We present a lively show and tell on tactics, techniques and products (including examples of outstanding COVID-19 coverage). You will leave with a magazine profiling new approaches and ideas. Looking for an ROI on attending Radically Rural? This is it.

Co-operative enterprise has been part of the American economy since its beginnings, and has played a particularly important role in our rural communities.  Today, 1 in 3 people in the U.S. being co-op members and we are seeing this business model used in new and innovative ways.  Co-ops enable people to work together to meet their needs and aspirations, providing themselves with everything from farm supplies to groceries, good jobs to financial services, and shelter to electricity.  Learn how the co-operative model is being used to help small towns provide access to fresh food when the last grocery store has left the area; or how co-ops in the South help Black farmers hold on to their farms and empower their communities; or how retiring business owners are using co-ops to transition to shared ownership with their employees and communities, retaining jobs and infrastructure; or enabling residents of manufactured housing to own their neighborhoods, together.  Co-operatives are member-owned and democratically-governed, offering a business model that is more inclusive, sustainable, and resilient.  As we work to rebuild our communities in the wake of COVID-19, let’s rebuild co-operatively.  

Do you promote a locavore lifestyle in your rural community? Have you thought about the next step of growing, producing and composting local textiles? Our prospective speaker, Rebecca Burgess is working on just these goals in her northern California community and wants others to build Fibersheds too.

Fiber offers a new frontier for localizing efforts that can have powerful economic, environmental and social impacts. Soil-to-soil fiber systems can play a vital role in generating lasting prosperity with positive effects on regional economies, global climate and the health and diversity of our ecosystems. Imagine a community built around producing, creating, marketing and selling quality – rather than quantity - clothing. These community ties build resilience. Come and be inspired. Leave with tools to reimagine your community and its connection with clothes.

Rural downtowns have emptied with the shift of consumer spending habits to the online environment.  Vacant store fronts and underutilized upper stories in deteriorated historic buildings have become commonplace on Main Street.  Traditional development isn’t happening because it simply doesn’t pencil out – it costs three times as much to redevelop a building as its value when completed.  Is there a solution to reverse this trend and bring life back to your downtown?  There is and it lies in the power of the community.  Learn how community members can become developers and answer the question “How does a community begin a downtown revitalization project?”

In 1979, while attending seminary, John Molinaro realized that he had a different calling.  Having grown up in a declining industrial town of 30,000, where many families had been reduced to poverty, he realized he had a passion for lifting up the economies of rural places and providing opportunities for struggling families to prosper.  For more than forty years, Molinaro has pursued that calling, working across America to help small communities and rural regions build jobs and philanthropic resources that provide better lives for people who have been left behind and all but forgotten.
For twenty-seven years John focused his efforts on building prosperity in west central Minnesota where he helped double manufacturing employment and increase average weekly wages from lowest in the state to sixth among eleven regions.  In 2006 he joined the Aspen Institute Community Strategies Group in Washington DC, where he helped rural and small urban places across America organize and adopt innovative and effective approaches to build local wealth and family and community prosperity.  
In 2012 Molinaro left Aspen to serve as founding President of Appalachian Partnership, Inc., (API) the first-ever regionwide economic development organization serving the 32 Appalachian counties of Ohio.  Over 8 years he built the organization into a multi-service economic development agency with 22 staff, 3 subsidiaries and a $4 million annual budget.  By the time he retired from API in 2020, it had helped create more than 8000 jobs, and attracted more than $30 million in federal and state resources to help communities, businesses and families prosper.  In addition, API’s Appalachian Growth Capital, LLC subsidiary has attracted more than $14 million in public and private investment in its loan pool to support growth of rural businesses and jobs.
On July 1, 2020, John started a new chapter, founding RES Associates, a consulting business focused on advising communities and regions on strategies they can use to build rural economic success, and on pursuing state and federal policy initiatives that support rural development.   
Molinaro has served as a policy fellow at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, as a multi-term appointee to the Minnesota Governor’s Workforce Development Council, and as an appointee to the US SBA’s Council on Underserved Communities and the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland’s Community Advisory Council. John holds certifications in Economic Development Finance and Housing Development Finance from the National Development Council and a Master’s Degree is in Community and Regional Planning. He has also participated in advanced studies in theology, leadership and policy.