October 2004 Volume II, Number 8

Compiled by Deb Miller Slipek, News Finder Extraordinary &
Jane Leonard, MRP President & Editor

IN THIS ISSUE:
-VOTE! Rural Matters!
-Minnesota Entrepreneurial Gateway
-Funding updates
-Training, Events and Conferences
-Tools and Miscellaneous

VOTE ! It’s YOUR CIVIC DUTY & RESPONSIBILITY

For a whole host of reasons, chief among them that voting is a duty of citizens in a democracy, please register and vote in this year’s upcoming election, November 2. In Minnesota, 44% of the population resides in the suburbs and we now have an 11-county metro area surrounding the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. But Rural Minnesota matters! So register (if you haven’t already) and vote to make sure the rural voice is heard. We are voting this year on the presidential race, for 8 U.S. Representatives, and 134 State Representatives and numerous state judicial officers. In Minnesota, with our progressive voting policies, you can register in your polling place and vote on Election Day. If you are already registered, still bring some sort of official identification. If you are not yet registered and want to vote on Election Day, you must bring identification that proves you live in the precinct, or bring a person with you who can vouch for you who is already registered to vote in your precinct. Check out specific information and instructions at the Secretary of State’s website at http://www.sos.state.mn.us/election/register.html.

Across the Field – by Jane Leonard

MINNESOTA ENTREPRENEURIAL GATEWAY NEEDS YOU!

Back in July and August, right before the 2004 Rural Summit, many organizations worked together to apply for the Kellogg Foundation’s $2 million grant to build an Entrepreneurship Development System, which was to be called the Minnesota Entrepreneurial Gateway (MEG).

Minnesota Rural Partners agreed to be the host agency for the application, and many people and agencies came together, including local government, tribes, local non-profit and for-profit organizations, Regional Development Commissions, Initiative Foundations, Minnesota State Colleges & Universities system, and the University of Minnesota Extension Service. Regional staff from the MN Department of Employment and Economic Development also assisted in the application. Many thanks go to Lisa Hughes of Region Nine Development Commission, who worked so hard with all the players to pull together the pieces and write the application.

Last week, we heard we did not make the semi-finals for the Kellogg grant. Our colleagues in Northeastern Minnesota did make the semi-finals for their NE region approach, and we support them and hope they make it all the way to March, 2005 when the grant awards are announced.

However, MEG should continue to move forward, too. Minnesota’s long-term statewide health depends on it. People anywhere, all across Minnesota, shouldn’t have to wonder where to go for help if they want to start or grow their businesses. Communities shouldn’t have to wonder if they are doing the right things to promote entrepreneurship. Yes, there are some obvious places to go for help, like the wonderful Small Business Development Centers – but how many of those are there in Minnesota? Nine offices? For 120,000 small businesses and over 4 million people? Local and county economic developers are often first stops, too, but they need help refering folks who aren’t ready for their more advanced assistance. Yet we don’t want good ideas to slip through our hands for lack of serious attention. So many innovations are already happening around the state – in training, funding, mentoring – we need to find an efficient way to share that good word and the Minnesota Entrepreneurial Gateway can be the way.

People should be able to walk into their city or county offices, or the library, or the phone company, or schools, workforce centers, or the bank or Chamber of Commerce and say – hey – I have this idea, where do I go to get some help on it? They should be able to go online and get started through BizPathways, which is the online foundation of MEG. All of those places and more can be and should be a local Minnesota Entrepreneurial Gateway – the first stop that gets a person headed in the right direction.

One important note -- most public agencies are overwhelmed and under funded, and MEG doesn’t seek to put additional burden on them – in fact it seeks to help reduce their burden by more precisely connecting resource seeker with resource. Most of the technical, financial, and human resources do exist to help individuals and communities succeed. We just have to spread the word, get people to the right place at the right time in their development path, and follow-up more diligently. We will slowly and surely build the human and online network that will help Minnesota stay strong and open and accessible for all the people and ideas coming our way.

MEG is a comprehensive strategy and we will continue to seek funders to underwrite it. All of MEG’s founders agree that a locally-accessible and customized system for helping entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial communities is key to a healthy Minnesota future. What makes local assistance work efficiently and effectively is to encourage statewide coordination and resource-sharing. That’s the unique feature of MEG – locally homegrown and cultivated, locally accessible AND coordinated to the wider world, too.

If you would like to see a copy of the grant application and give us your feedback, please email me at jleonard@minnesotaruralpartners.org. The original partners in the MEG application will meet soon and invite others to join us who are willing to commit to making MEG happen. Let me know if you are interested.

FUNDING

--The Wells Fargo Housing Foundation Grant Program aims to increase low-income homeownership through the development of affordable housing, and to provide shelter and supportive services for homeless and disabled adult populations. Established nonprofit housing organizations (those with at least two complete audit cycles) meeting these needs in communities where Wells Fargo provides products and services may apply. Application deadlines are February 1, May 1, August 1, and November 1 (or the first business day thereafter). Applications postmarked by the deadline will be decided within 90 days. For more information, see www.wellsfargo.com/about/wfhf/guidelines.jhtml.

-- The Seva Foundation is a nonprofit foundation building partnerships to respond to locally defined problems with culturally sustainable solutions throughout the world. Seva Foundation: Native American Funding Programs support local grassroots partnerships with Native Americans who have devised their own solutions in the areas of spiritual and cultural renewal; health and wellness; environmental restoration; sustainable agriculture and community economic development; education; and treaty rights protection. Small grants of up to $5,000 are provided throughout urban and rural Native American communities for programs that may otherwise be overlooked by larger foundations. Nonprofit organizations led by Native Americans in the U.S. are eligible to apply. Applications are accepted throughout the year. For more information visit http://www.seva.org/communitygrants.php

TRAINING, EVENTS, AND CONFERENCES

--The Minnesota Rural Health Association is proud to host the Rural Health Conference 2004 "Rural Minnesota: On the Road to Better Mental Health", scheduled for Tuesday, October 26, 2004, in St. Cloud, Minnesota. A pre-conference Central Minnesota Regional Workforce Forum is planned for Monday afternoon, October 25. Sessions are planned on health care workforce and resource mapping, rural mental health initiatives, children's mental health programming, EMS response to acute care psychiatric patients, followed by a legislative/commissioner panel on rural health. For registration information, visit http://www.mnruralhealth.org/ or contact Sonya McNamara at 507-389-3262.

--Leading the Way – Community Leadership course sponsored by the Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines, November 2 & 3, Ruttgers Bay Lake Lodge near Deerwood. Taught by the well-known Heartland Center for Leadership Development. This dynamic community leadership development training workshop is being held at five locations across the Federal Home Loan Bank district. You are encouraged to join with your local banker and attend with a 3 to 5-member community team. Just $70 per team member plus cost of lodging. Presentations include the “20 Clues to Community Success,” and sessions on project funding and action planning. Contact Kevin Welsch at KWelsch@fhlbdm.com, Phone: (515) 281-1025 or go to http://www.fhlbdm.com/ci_cldw.htm for more information.

--Grantseeking for Beginners Seminar will be held on November 9th at the Earle Brown Continuing Education Center, St. Paul. Learn the basics of effective grant seeking through sessions with top experts and discussions with Minnesota grant makers. Sponsored by the Minnesota Council on Foundations. The cost is $95. For more information call 612-338-1989 or go to http://www.mcf.org/mcf/grant/beginners.htm

--Digital Junction: Getting Minnesota Back on Track! Using 21st Century Tools for Community & Economic Development -- December 1, 2004, The Depot Minneapolis

Co-hosted by Minnesota Rural Partners, Inc. and the Community Computer Access Network (C-CAN), the Twin Cities-based Community Technology Empowerment Project. Sponsored by the Minnesota State Network (MSNet) Fund of The Minneapolis Foundation.

Over the past ten years, a host of information and communications technology (ICT) tools have been developed to assist and empower community advocates in making informed and sustainable decisions and investments in community and economic development. Technologies once the province of researchers and scientists – such as geographic information systems and complex database programs -- are now much more user-friendly. Their everyday use can empower communities and nurture local knowledge, rather than treat citizens passively with standard solutions. Yet these ICT tools remain hidden from view, not used on a widespread basis for lack of statewide coordination and visibility. The MSNet Fund of the Minneapolis Foundation has been quietly investing in these transformative technologies, waiting for the time when the seemingly disparate tools can be brought together in a comprehensive package useful to citizens, community and economic development leaders, and elected officials. We are at the digital junction -- a running together of separate paths -- finally meeting to unlock their combined potential.

Come to the Depot in December to learn about these 21st Century tools for community and economic development. Then depart the station committed to lead your community in their use.

Free registration will be available to the first applicants from grassroots community and economic development organizations wanting to send representatives to this conference. Space is limited for these free registrations. Thereafter, a sliding scale will help reduce the costs for additional representatives from the same organizations to attend the conference. There are also a limited number of travel scholarships for those persons coming from outside of the Twin Cities metro area. Registration opens online October 15 and closes November 19. Please check the conference website at www.MSNetfund.org after October 15 or contact Jane Leonard at jeonard@minnesotaruralpartners.org for further information.

TOOLS AND MISCELLANEOUS

SIGN UP FOR BIZPATHWAYS!
The online economic development assistant for your county or your organization.
www.bizpathways.org

Show your rural pride -- support the 10th anniversary campaign! www.minnesotaruralpartners.org
--The Association for Enterprise Opportunity (AEO) put together, Innovations in Microenterprise Development: >From the Rural Experience. This publication outlines successful practices identified by the Learning Cluster participants during the course of the two-year project. The practices have been divided by sector. Please contact AEO if you are interested in obtaining a copy: aeo@assoceo.org

--Earnings gap a concern for rural small cities. A study by the Minnesota State Demographer has highlighted an issue of growing concern for many rural small cities. The urban-rural earning gap, which has never been good, is rapidly widening, even within the same industries. According to a story in the September 17 issue of the Minneapolis Star and Tribune, “per capita income in Hennepin County, the state’s richest ($44,302 in 2002), is more than twice as high as the state’s poorest, Mahnomen County, in the northwestern part of the state ($20,547).” Some larger rural cities and small cities in the northern lakes areas are doing better, but red flags are going up in many parts of the state.

Archive Issues:

August 2004
July 2004
June 2004
May 2004
April 2004
Mid-March 2004
March 2004
March 2004 Press Release
June 2003
Mar 2003
June 2002