Rankin MacSween of Cape Breton’s New Dawn Enterprises, on Community Development

Rankin MacSween, who gave an amazingly inspirational keynote speech at our 2015 conference, one that people still talk about, followed that up with an equally inspiring address at this year’s Keeping It Rural conference. For over three decades, Rankin has led Canada’s oldest – and most successful – community development corporation, New Dawn Enterprises, on Cape…

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Blanca Surgeon — Small Places, Big Successes

Blanca Surgeon, based in New Mexico, is the Building Rural Communities Training Coordinator with the Rural Community Assistance Corporation (RCAC). Blanca has worked with rural communities and Native American Nations across the western U.S. on rural community leadership and economic development.          

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A Look Back at 2019

2019 was a successful — and important — year in the BC Rural Centre’s evolution. Perhaps most significantly over the past 12 months, we’ve succeeded in implementing a new governance structure, creating an Advisory Committee featuring outstanding British Columbians from all across our province. We now, through our structure as well as our actions, clearly…

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Attracting Young People to Rural Communities

Many rural BC communities find themselves growing every greyer. The need to attract young, urban, entrepreneurial newcomers to communities facing a demographic crisis looms as increasingly important. In this presentation, BC Rural Centre communications director Randy Morse, joined by Kaslo, BC mayor Suzan Hewatt and Escape the City contest winner Rochelle Longval discuss what it…

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The Forest Sector & Rural Communities

BC Rural Centre Executive Director Gordon Borgstrom and BC Community Forest Association Executive Director Jennifer Gunter discuss trends, challenges, and opportunities of importance to forestry-dependent rural BC communities and First Nations in this presentation.     For more on forestry issues, visit our Forestry page.         

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