Wisconsin Rural Partners announces its 2021 Virtual Rural Summit that begins on May 5th through June 2nd. Because of the COVID pandemic, WRP was forced to postpone its annual Rural Summit in person for the 2nd year.
Hosting the Virtual Rural Summit allows for a 5-week, 2-hour sessions that attendees can attend each Wednesday from 12:00pm – 2:00pm.
The Virtual Rural Summit line-up includes:
MAY 5TH – THINK DIFFERENTLY ABOUT HOUSING
• Success Stories & Leveraging your Community for Housing
o Seth Hudson – Cedar Corporation – combating community complacency & champion affordable housing
o Mariah Goode – Door County Housing Partnership – creating a Housing Trust
o Wally Orzechowski – SWCAP – Developed 32-unit housing project for farm workers & families in Darlington, WI
• Resources for Rural Housing
o Shreedhar Ranabhat – WHEDA – Rural Housing Tax Credits Updates
o Steve Deller & Kristin Runge – UW-Extension – Housing CEA program aimed at helping communities better understand housing markets & identify strategies
o Ed White – Sauk County EDC – Lessons learned from Sauk County’s Housing study and implementation efforts
MAY 12TH – BECOMING AN IDEA FRIENDLY TOWN
• Deb Brown – SaveYour.Town – No more being stuck in an endless cycle of meetings, meetings, meetings that take a year to accomplish anything.
The Idea Friendly method is about gathering your friends and those who think like you to talk about your big idea for the community. You find the people who can help you and get started taking small steps.
MAY 19TH – BROADBAND IN YOUR BACKYARD!
• Broadband and how we did it in our own backyards!
o Dale Knapp – WI Counties Association
o Scott Larson – Wood County
o Scott Feldt – Kewanee County
o Boulder Junction – TBA
o Taylor County – TBA
• Data & Maps
o Jaron McCallum – WI Public Service Commission
o Kurt Kiefer – WI Dept. of Public Instruction
• Working with your Private Internet Provider
o Jim Costello – LYNXX Networks
o Steve Schneider – Bug Tussel Wireless
• Funding & Grant Sources
o MaryAnn Lippert – MaryAnn Lippert Consulting, LLC
o Jaron McCallum – WI Public Service Commission
o Wendy Gehlhoff – Florence County Economic Development
MAY 26TH – COMMUNITY BUILDING IN YOUR SMALL TOWN
• Deb Brown – SaveYour.Town – Every small town has divisions between people and between competing organizations. No one tells you how to overcome divisions between people and build a unified sense of community.
o You’ll learn to:
Convert existing projects to bring people together
Improve group coordination
Rally everyone around local small businesses
JUNE 2ND – TOP RURAL DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVES WINNERS – SUCCESSES & UPDATES
• WEESSN – WI Early Education Shared Services Network – Learn how the Wisconsin Early Education Share Services Network is working to stabilize and grow the childcare sector in local communities, especially during the pandemic.
o Kelly Matthews & Paula Drew
• Village of Baileys Harbor – Community Vitality – Within months of the Team visit, community action teams transformed an existing community building into a community center, started their own community recycling station, and created community park space along the waterfront.
o Mariah Goode
• The Grantsburg Revitalization Operation – While working on growing community resources for a diverse population, the goal is to grow the population and provide housing for these individuals once they decide that Grantsburg is a good place to live.
o Nicki Peterson
• The Rural Wisconsin Initiative
o 70th District Representative Nancy Vander Meer
o 75th District Representative Dave Armstrong
• Governor’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Rural Prosperity
o Director Marcy West
Registration is open — https://www.wiruralpartners.org/2021-rural-summit-agenda
5-week Session Package – $60 (best value because you are getting 1 session free)
Individual week Sessions – $15 per session
