Search pages for "community development"

Butte Creek Mill has been a mainstay of the economy in Eagle Point and its surroundings since it first opened its doors in 1872. Its customers then were farmers, who came with wagons filled with grain, townspeople, who gathered to...  Read More

In 2016, when Elizabeth Gronert graduated from the University of Iowa, she didn’t quite know what to do next. She knew she wanted to get out of the Midwest. She knew she wanted to build career connections. And she knew she wanted an...  Read More

Dave Buswell knows a golden opportunity when he hears one. OnlineNW, the primary Internet provider for rural communities in the mid-Willamette Valley area, came to Willamina last year to invite the community to partner with it in building...  Read More

When the northwestern Oregon city of Vernonia suffered catastrophic flooding in both 1996 and 2007, the town’s infrastructure took a big hit. The flooding inundated the city’s water treatment lagoons and weakened virtually every part of...  Read More

Almost 20 years ago, community leaders in the Illinois Valley embarked on a process they hope will never end. It’s the process of community visioning, or developing consensus among residents about the future they want to see, and then...  Read More

Community building is a complex process with a lot of moving parts. It helps to know what has worked. Many people start by doing extensive research into what has worked in similar towns, but doing the research that identifies these...  Read More

Our team is growing. Six new employees have filled newly created positions. Kathleen Flanagan is a program officer for Community Economic Development. Flanagan comes to the Foundation from the Wildhorse Resort and Casino in Pendleton...  Read More

“If the viability of rural communities is to exist in a more sustainable way, then more has to be done in the area of economic development, and I don’t think there is any other organization [other than The Ford Family Foundation] in the...  Read More

 Read More

Maury Forman is on a mission to rebalance the stool in rural communities. It’s the economic development stool—the widely accepted three-part theory for creating economically healthy communities. Traditionally, that strategy consists of...  Read More