Last month MinnCAN spotlighted four rural Minnesota schools in their recent report, Starting Strong: Pre-K through 3rd grade success stories from across Minnesota. Vision, collaboration and leadership were three key elements in each featured school. With alignment as the goal, read how each school rallied their resources to make lasting positive change.
By Tim Marema Here are the words you don’t want to hear at the beginning of rural policy meetings: “Before we get into our topic, let’s take a quick look at how we are going to define rural.” There’s never anything quick about it. Hours later, after the last statistician, artist, organizer, or demographer has …
In Minnesota, 826,000 jobs, $18.3 billion in wages and 16 percent of our GDP comes from manufacturing. Last week rural communities across Minnesota celebrated Manufacturers Week, “a statewide celebration that puts the spotlight on a crucial sector of the state’s economy.” From Red Wing to Sauk Centre, Bemidji to Pequot Lakes, Warroad to Aitkin, Minnesotans toured …
On the surface, Warroad, Minnesota, seems like countless rural Minnesota places: a small town (population 1,781), near a big lake (Lake of the Woods), in one of the state’s sparsely populated areas (northwestern Minnesota). With vital stats like these, you might assume Warroad is clinging to survival, struggling with a decimated economy and discouraged residents. …
Common perception holds that millennials no longer value newspapers as a key source for information. Well, as a millennial, I beg to differ and in observation of National Newspaper Week, I would like to thank newspapers for playing a vital role in the health of rural communities. It’s morning. I pad to the front door, swing …
Hope springs eternal. These uplifting words were spoken by our president, Kathy Annette, in a recent MNSights article. While this message pertained to a specific instance in Kathy’s life, it could be said that MNSights, a publication of the Minnesota Philanthropy Partners, showcases stories that spring eternal hope – stories about energizing kids’ creativity to stimulate …
A small rural clinic closes. A home buyer chooses to look elsewhere. A teacher can’t teach. While these situations seem unrelated and strangely paired, they all have one common denominator — broadband. Not what you expected? Here’s the skinny behind the stories: The Bigfork, Minnesota clinic, a satellite of Essentia, can’t upload patient files because …
Stories have connecting power. They give us a behind-the-scenes look into people’s lives. They invite us to relate to people on a human level and have the potential to inspire action. That might be why video is expected to be the dominant form of online content by 2017. In today’s Daily Yonder, TechSoup blogger Jim …
Sometimes innovation springs from the strangest places – like a palace housing over 275,000 ears of intricately designed corn. Mitchell, South Dakota is home to the nation’s only Corn Palace and as Northern Minnesota author Aaron Brown says in his recent Daily Yonder article, While some might only know Mitchell as a tourist trap on …
If you threw a dart at a map of the United States, it might get stuck in a canyon in the Southwest, perch on the peak of a prodigious mountain in the Northwest or skim swaying wheat fields of the Midwest. Regardless of where you land, it’s likely to be in rural territory. An astounding 72 …