By Paula Jensen Having a passion for rural community development and leadership is what drives my personal and professional life. My personal vision statement reads, “I will be a clear voice for rural people and places by mobilizing and empowering rural changemakers to build vibrant communities.” It has taken me a number of years, a…
Is there a distinction between wishing and hoping? Wishing is feeling or expressing a strong desire for something that is not easily attainable. It’s like wishing to win the lottery but you don’t buy a ticket. Hoping is to look forward with desire and reasonable confidence that something can happen. You can hope that you win the…
Our friend Maury Forman of Washington state, sent us this idea from Madras, Oregon: On February 16 the Madras Downtown Association and Petite Sweets hosted the first-ever Cookie Crawl. Participants paid $5 and received a box and map that listed all the locations where the beautifully decorated cookies were available. Petite Sweets decorated cookies…
Guest post by Paula Jensen I remember in 1997, just following the birth of my second son, when more than one elder in my community told me, “It is so sad that your children will never graduate from Langford High School like you did!” Those comments told me that the local leaders were questioning…
Have you got a “coming soon” biking trail? Or a biking trail that is not completely finished yet? Well, don’t keep it a secret! A couple of places I’ve visited lately, I’ve heard about trails that are in the partially-finished stage. Some segments of the trail have been improved, others are still rough. “Once…
Have you heard of “soup” events? People pay a small amount, say $5, to attend a local pitch event. Local groups pitch their ideas, everyone votes, and the winner gets the money. The real winner is the community, of course. It boosts activity, gets people talking to each other, builds momentum and rewards people…
Holding an event and want to get people to mix across some divide? Put the drinks and plates on one side, the food and cups on the other. See what you did there? You’ve separated the food from the plates, and the cups from the drinks. This simple trick of making people move around…
This one is a simple idea that came up when I was visiting Cathlamet, Washington, population 553: Post your local hashtag where visitors will see it. The Cathlamet Chamber of Commerce does an awesome local photo contest. Most of the photo submissions come from locals. They use these on their annual events calendar and other…
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