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Summary The Center
for Community Action in Lumberton, North Carolina and the University
of North Carolina at Pembroke’s Regional Center for Economic, Community
and Professional Development in Pembroke, North Carolina are hosting
a rural development conference for rural leaders and organizations from
across the U.S. This conference is designed for deliberation and defining
common strategies for sustainable, rural development. Our rural communities and cultures
across the U.S. are experiencing major changes in their economic and
social systems that have led to increased job loss, rising rates of
poverty, and diminishing numbers of stable manufacturing firms and family
farms. Many proposed solutions, such as more aggressive approaches to
chasing the ‘global market’ and urbanization do not honor rural assets
and interests and are generally not sustainable. More and more, rural leaders and
organizations are asking the question: “How can we build a sustainable
rural economy that promotes, preserves, and protects local resources
for the support and benefit of our rural communities and people?” “Sustaining Rural America”
is the second annual conference focused on rural jobs loss and recovery
in the U.S. In 2004, 450 participants gathered over two days in rural
North Carolina to identify key issues and obstacles facing rural development
and build a stronger network of rural leaders and organizations committed
to sustainable development practices, policies, and research. The plan
and program of the 2005 Conference will go a step further.
September 23-24, 2005
UNC Pembroke
Pembroke ,
North Carolina
The 2005 Conference design highlights the efforts of working groups that will
focus long-term on specific issues of rural sustainable development. Each Working Group
will be organized in advance during July – September with web-based submissions
and discussions. During the conference, the groups will work
independently and draft a work plan that outlines effective strategies, best
practices, and optional models for supporting and achieving sustainability in
their specific area of rural development. Through
a highly participatory process, 20 Working Groups will develop and refine templates
that rural communities can utilize in planning, preparing, and implementing
sustainability-related projects, programs, policy advocacy activities, and important
research initiatives. Conference Working Group themes (see below) will fall
under the following basic categories: economy, health, education, housing,
policy, and research. Although separated by category, each working group
will identify and document policy recommendations and research needs to enhance
their portion and discipline of practice. On Friday, September 23, Working Groups will
convene for three, 90-minute sessions during which they will discuss and draft
action outlines and strategies. On Saturday, September 24, the Working Group
draft templates will be shared in a general plenary session and immediately
posted on the conference website. A strategy
session on national rural policy development will follow the close of the 2005
Conference on Saturday afternoon. Post-Conference facilitation will focus on
sustaining and enhancing Working Group deliberations and editing/broadly disseminating
tool kits and other resources for sustainable rural development based on the
templates developed by the Working Groups. As a result of this process, participants
and rural communities will have access to a readily accessible and user-friendly
map of strategies and models for comprehensive, rural sustainable development.
The
conference’s working group process will enable participants to not only share
and acquire knowledge, but also apply it as they identify and develop effective
strategies, best practices, and optional models in 20 key areas of rural sustainability.
Second, the 20 new templates and toolkits will provide concrete outcomes to
enhance local, state, and national efforts in rural development practice, policies,
and research. Third, the working groups will continue their discourse after
the conference, leading to further knowledge acquisition, application, and preparation
for the 2006 conference.