Center on Rural Innovation (CORI) to present at national Rural LISC Conference convening more than 250 rural community development experts to catalyze new opportunities in rural America]
The Center on Rural Innovation (CORI) is pleased to announce its leadership staff will present at the 2019 Rural LISC Seminar, an annual national conference for rural community development professionals. This year’s Seminar will be held in Monticello, New York from June 4-7 and will provide a unique forum to learn about new rural economic development opportunities; gain valuable insight on critical issues facing rural America such as the 2020 Census; develop asset building tools and organizational development strategies; and offer a networking environment for sharing knowledge with rural development colleagues from across the country.
“Rural LISC is at the forefront of developing community-driven solutions that create lasting economic success,” said Matt Dunne, Founder and Executive Director of the Center on Rural Innovation. “CORI was honored to join Rural LISC’s national network of partner organizations earlier this year. The national conference is another opportunity to bring rural-focused organizations together to identify opportunities for collaboration and creative problem-solving to meet local needs.”
LISC President and CEO Maurice Jones will welcome attendees with a keynote address. Participants will engage in three days of plenary and workshop sessions organized around:
Economic Development – exploring new ways to catalyze economic development through downtown revitalization efforts, innovative wealth and skill-building strategies, and Opportunity Zones.
Capacity Building – discovering how to increase organizational capacity through bridging generational differences in the workplace, asset and property management, and innovative financing tools.
Community Development – learning about the latest rural community development trends and how to best respond to them, including the opioid crisis, transportation barriers, and fighting isolation/striving for inclusion among our LGBTQ community.
“The Center on Rural Innovation exemplifiesthe very best in bringing innovative programming to their community, and we are delighted that they are presenting at this year’s Seminar,” said Suzanne Anarde, LISC Vice President and Rural LISC Director.
In addition to naming CORI to its national network of partner organizations, Rural LISC is a financial supporter of CORI’s Rural Opportunity Map (ROM), a free, web-based, open-source geospatial platform built to assist organizations working in rural America. Unlike other GIS tools that require extensive programming and data manipulation skills, or which are too expensive for a large portion of the nonprofit and public sectors, ROM facilitates productive collaboration between rural stakeholders by making data open, searchable, shareable, and customizable. The current version of the Rural Opportunity Map is available at https://ruralinnovation.us/rural-opportunity-map/. ROM 2.0 will launch in late 2019.
This year, through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Economic Development Administration, CORI and its sister organization, RISI, launched the Rural Innovation Initiative to provide technical assistance to nine communities in eight states as they work to create innovation hubs — an economic development strategy that builds inclusive entrepreneurship ecosystems. This national network of innovation hubs focuses on educating and training local residents in digital skills, employing them in new economy jobs, and supporting the creation of startups that will drive local digital economies. CORI collaborates with community leaders to plan and execute the downtown innovation hubs by leveraging local assets and building on partnerships with local, regional, and national stakeholders.
About the Center on Rural Innovation
CORI is a Hartland, Vermont-based nonprofit action tank working to rebuild rural America using progressive public, private, and philanthropic partnerships and data-driven strategies to help small towns achieve sustainable economic success. Learn more at www.ruralinnovation.us.
About Rural LISC
Launched in 1995, Rural LISC is the rural component of the largest community development support organization in the country, called LISC (Local Initiatives Support Corporation). For 24 years, Rural LISC has partnered with rural communities, helping to forge innovative solutions that lead to prosperity and opportunity. Rural LISC’s investments in rural America have totaled $1.25 billion in grants, equity and low-cost loan funds. Rural LISC has leveraged this investment resulting in $3.3 billion from public and private sources, to produce 35,000 affordable homes and apartments, create 4 million square feet of commercial and community space, assist 700 businesses, create 12,000 jobs and support 20 early childhood centers. By generating resources and investing in the grassroots efforts of its 89 partner community-based organizations, Rural LISC is committed to making rural communities good places to live, work, do business and raise children. Learn more at www.lisc.org/rural.