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New program inviting new residents to region

YELLOW MEDICINE COUNTY — Attracting and retaining residents is a key component for the sustainability of the region. Newcomers will fill jobs, start new businesses, populate the schools, become homeowners, taxpayers, and new community leaders through the new Get Rural program.

According to research completed in the region, Ben Winchester, a research fellow at the University of Minnesota Extension Center for Community Vitality suggests that most rural Minnesota counties including those in UMVRDC’s five-county region are really experiencing a “brain gain.” Statistics show that although our bright and talented youth are leaving for college, there is an influx of 35- to 44-year-olds that are coming into the region and bringing their education, experience, wealth, and children with them.

“Many of them are not coming for a job nor have family ties; many are just looking for better quality of life and are willing to leave a higher paying job elsewhere for what the rural areas have to offer,” Prairie Waters/Get Rural Coordinator Melissa Streich said. “The notion of people coming into the region on their own got a few economic developers thinking, what if we started marketing to this demographic? Would more people come? Would more people stay?”

The benefits of the program are that the program is working on attracting and retaining residents for the sustainability of the region. Filling jobs, starting new businesses, populating the schools, becoming homeowners, taxpayers and new community leaders are all benefits to the region. Through the program, cities and counties are highlighted to promote the region as a great place to visit, work and live.

Relationships between employers, schools, healthcare facilities, and local Realtors are key to the overall success and sustainability of the program. These entities can benefit from one another by working together.

“The purpose of the Prairie Waters/Get Rural Program is to market the five-county region of Yellow Medicine, Swift, Lac qui Parle, Chippewa, and Big Stone as a great place to visit, work and live,” Streich said.

“Prairie Waters is a program of the Upper Minnesota Valley Regional Development Commission (UMVRDC). It started in the early 1980s as a small coalition of partners in the region who saw the benefits of collaborating marketing efforts,” Streich said. “In 1999, at the request of a group of local citizens, a study was conducted by the UMVRDC titled ‘Regional Tourism Center and Tourism Development Study.’ This feasibility study recommended an increased effort throughout the region to promote and market the area as a tourism destination.”

As a result, in 2000, the UMVRDC met with local units of governments in the region and discussed the possibility of collectively funding a more aggressive regional marketing and promotional program. In 2001, voluntary funding was provided by cities and counties to create a Regional Tourism Program at the UMVRDC.

The funding for the program comes from the UMVRDC’s Region 6W cities and counties. The 2017 members consists of the following: Big Stone, Chippewa, Lac qui Parle, Swift, Yellow Medicine, Madison, Dawson, Appleton, Graceville, Clara City, Milan, Montevideo, Canby and Granite Falls.

Over the past few years the UMVRDC has received funding through the Blandin Foundation to move forward with the discuss and implementation based off this research.

“We have been convening local chambers, economic development professionals, and other local stakeholders to determine how we want to move forward with the implementation of the recruitment efforts,” Streich said. “The core committee had identified four areas in which a potential newcomer would perhaps want more information on to make their move to the region easier.”

Those four areas comprise the following: employment opportunities, housing, family essentials (education, healthcare, childcare) and things to do. The Prairie Waters website covers the “things to do” bucket already; now the goal is to incorporate information from the other three areas into the Prairie Waters website, she said.

Based in Appelton, Streich’s work plan is driven by her board which consists of a representative from each city and county member. She works closely with the local chambers, city and county representatives, and other local stakeholders.

Statewide, there is currently a lot of buzz focused around this type of work.

“We have been inspired by a few other counties/states working on similar projects,” Streich said. “From the few entities that we’ve been inspired by, there are bits and pieces of their projects that we have identified that would fit our region’s needs. We are focusing on combining those pieces to customize our very own project.”

Every five years, the UMVRDC sends out a survey to the local units of government within the region to determine the region’s needs. The TOP issue identified was marketing our communities/area to attract new residents, workers and families. Knowing the importance of this topic to our region, we knew that is where we should be spending our time addressing our region’s needs of marketing our region to attract and retain residents.

Get Rural is a branch of the Western Minnesota Prairie Waters Regional Tourism Program focused on marketing our region to attract and retain new residents, Streich said. The Get Rural/Prairie Waters programs are programs of the Upper Minnesota Valley Regional Development Commission.

For information on how your community and/or organization can get involved contact Melissa Streich at melissa@umvrdc.org or 320.289.1981. extension105.

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