ECD

Great Economic & Community Development Articles in the Journal of Extension

Submitted by Laura Hoelscher, Editor, Journal of Extension

During his presentation at the ECD Retreat last week, Chuck Hibberd referred Nebraska's Red Carpet Service program. You can read all about, "Red Carpet Service--Linking Rural Communities to Travelers and Tourists" in the December 2007 issue of the Journal of Extension (JOE).

And the April issue of JOE also has a few articles that may interest you, including another article on rural tourism and one on building entrepreneurship and leadership in rural communities. Check it out here.

Rural Self Employment

A new report on self-employment published by the Rural Sociological Society includes some fascinating findings. For example, since 1969 the number of self-employes rural workers has expanded by 240%.....and during this same time period the number of rural wage and salary workers increased by only 61%. The full report can be found here.

Rural Population Myth

There is a common misconception that the population of rural America is declining. That has not been the case for a long time....and that trend continues. The most recent data indicate that non-metro population growth is due almost entirely to more people moving from metro to nonmetro counties. More information is available here.

Rural Philanthropy

The National Center for Responsive Philathropy has released a report titled Rural Philanthropy: Building Dialogue from Within. This W.K. Kellogg Foundation report suggests grantmaking behavior and trends are skewed heavily toward support for urban-based or urban-focused programs. The report explores both real and perceived barriers between rural nonprofits and foundations in urban areas, as well as strategies for overcoming those obstacles. The complete report can be found here.