We're always up to something real and rural. We're busy growing Miner County, SD as a place of rural opportunity, co-discovering with people in communities across the rural landscape, and working with many partners to rethink the structure of rural systems. Here's a quick look at a few of the things we're up to right now.

Facilitating Miner County's Ongoing Transformation
In Miner County, we're leading transformation both as employees and as residents. We're in the mess of community building work each day - both when we're in the office and when we're at church, at the game, or at the grocery store. Along with the people of Miner County, we've been working hard to make this place a place of opportunity. Through community initiatives around housing, healthcare, job creation, education, childcare, and people working together, we're making a difference one step at a time.

The ReImagine Rural Blog
The RLC partnered with As It Is, Inc. of Buffalo, NY to launch a website for rural leaders. ReImagine Rural is a weblog that shares insights, proven strategies, case studies, expert interviews and emerging concepts with readers, and connects rural people working to build a better future for their communities. Visit the blog here.

Building the Maroney Rural Learning Center facility
We're co-creating a place for rural people to gather and share discoveries and ideas, and help build the nation's green energy workforce. Learn more or get involved here.

Ventures Community Network
The Rural Learning Center has been a proud Venture Partner of the Northwest Area Foundation since 2001. The Ventures program invests significant staff and financial resources for ten years to support community poverty reduction strategies and promote sustainable prosperity. The ten Venture partner communities of the NWAF's eight-state region (Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Washington and Oregon) learn from and with each other throughout the year.

OpportunityHoward.com
Due to a remarkable turnaround, our hometown of Howard, SD is a place with more jobs than people. This website, part of the 'Opportunity lives here' brand, is a model tool for workforce recruitment, sharing the spirit of life in Howard with interested families anywhere. See OpportunityHoward.com

Green Jobs: Rural Opportunities in Renewable Energy Workforce Program ("ROW")
The RLC is partnering with 13 South Dakota public high schools, two global renewable energy companies and the SD Department of Education to launch an alternative high school training and internship program. ROW will provide hands-on learning and technical training to high school students enrolled in the newly formed High Plains Technical School

Deuel Regional Initiative
We've partnered with a group of organizations and businesses in Deuel County, South Dakota to create a collaborative change and development effort. We've set up our first satellite office in the Deuel County Courthouse in Clear Lake and have stationed a team member there full time to coordinate the regional effort.

design:South Dakota
With the Minnesota Design Team as mentor and coach, the RLC and other partners co-created this rural community design program. We assemble a team of volunteers from architecture, landscape, engineering, planning, and community and economic development professions to spend three days in one small town each year. The team learns and discovers with local people about the history, reality, needs and dreams of the community, and illustrates ideas on 'vision boards.' Learn more at designSD.org.

Rural Housing Playbook
In 2006, The RLC convened a group of thirteen South Dakota housing development organizations, called the 'SD Rural Housing Collaborative,' to study the realities and issues of housing development efforts in our home state. Following two years of research and learning, the Collaborative is now drafting a Rural Housing Playbook - a how-to manual for South Dakota communities - and rethinking the entire support system for housing resource providers across the state. Learn more at RethinkRuralHousing.com.

Great Plains Rural Policy Network
W F Kellogg Foundation hosts this learning network through its Rural People, Rural Policy (RPRP) Initiative. The Rural Learning Center joined the RPN in 2008. RPRP energizes and equips organizations and networks to shape policy that improves the lives of rural people and the vitality of rural communities. Rural People Rural Policy brings together 82 organizations from 31 states.

Meadowlark Project
The RLC is a partner in this ongoing leadership lab convened by Northern Great Plains, Inc. in Fargo, ND. Meadowlark formed a team of 35 people of diverse ethnic, social, professional and generational backgrounds, and lead them on a journey of self-discovery and change theory in search of strategies to create opportunity for all people of the northern Great Plains region. The group drafted four scenario stories about possible futures in our region and hosted community dialogs across five states. Now the team is designing and launching five specific pilot projects for regional social and economic change. Learn more about the Meadowlark Project.

Dakota Rising
The RLC has been a collaborative partner in this project headed up by South Dakota Rural Enterprise. Dakota Rising is a new initiative offering paid learning fellowships to rural entrepreneurs. It offers strategic partnerships with local communities to invigorate rural South Dakota entrepreneurs and their enterprises. Learn more here.

Learn a bit more about us: What we do (strategies and services), Miner County Roots (how we came to be), Remarkable Results (how we've reimagined rural so far), What we believe (our principles and values), or Who we are (staff, board, friends and partners).