Current Projects

HomeTown Competitiveness

A major HTC project in rural Pottawattamie County, Iowa, is continuing with support from the Iowa West Foundation, the Pottawattamie County Board of Supervisors and the 12 participating rural municipalities outside of Council Bluffs.  This multi-year initiative will focus on leadership development, entrepreneurship, youth engagement and community endowment building.  Collaborators include Iowa State University Extension, the Western Iowa Development Association, Iowa Western Community College, Promise Partners, the Pottawattamie County Community Foundation and the Center for Rural Entrepreneurship. 

 

Another HTC initiative is beginning in three rural counties in collaboration with Central Nebraska Community College and the Nebraska Community Foundation.  This project, funded by a USDA grant, will focus on Greeley, Sherman and Valley Counties.  A third USDA-funded HTC project is nearing completion in Garden County, Nebraska. 

 

Youth Engagement

A new project, funded by the Small Business Administration, focuses on youth engagement and community leadership in towns that are affiliated with the Nebraska Community Foundation (NCF).  The Heartland Center, in collaboration with the Center for Rural Entrepreneurship and NCF, is surveying attitudes of Nebraska youth in grades 7-12 about their community and their future plans for returning after college or staying home.  Survey results consistently show that middle school and high school youth like their hometowns and would consider returning some day if career opportunities were available to them.

 

Community Development Society

The Heartland Center is collaborating with a number of land-grant universities and other agencies to organize a pre-conference workshop on community change just before the Community Development Society’s annual conference next July in Cincinnati, Ohio.  The pre-conference workshop will be organized around the themes of community readiness, community capacity and measurement.   

 

Webinars

The Heartland Center is continuing our new 30-minute “Heartland Hints” series which kicked off in September with 20 participants using the publication, “5 Strategies for Active Economic Development.”  Each webinar covers one topic in the booklet. See our Webinars page for more details.

 

Helping Small Towns Succeed

The Center’s annual community leadership institute will take on a new look this year, with a revised and updated list of topics.  Watch soon for our announcement about time and place by clicking on Workshops and Institutes.

 

Growing Jobs in Kansas and Nebraska

A just-completed project funded by USDA Rural Development focused on job creation and retention in two Great Plains counties:  Rawlins in Kansas and Chase in Nebraska.  In collaboration with the Center for Rural Entrepreneurship, this project created a total of 24.5 jobs and retained 15.  These jobs were across a variety of businesses, including ag manufacturing and services, regional food systems, health care, automotive repair and retail, among others.  The project’s secondary focus was on youth entrepreneurship.