Video
Successful BC Farmers’ Market Farmers
In partnership with the Institute for Sustainable Food Systems, the BC Association of Farmers’ Markets has developed a resource guide to highlight successful farmers’ market farmers, and communicate their best business and operations management practices. The objectives of the resource guide are to strengthen the marketing skills of farmers selling at farmers’ markets. identify…
Read MoreYouth Exodus to Art Epicentre?
What kind of future should a struggling rural town choose? In the town of Green River, Utah, population 950, a nonprofit called Epicenter aims to use art and architecture to bring youthful new energy, life, and economic development to the community, as Jeffrey Brown reports in this PBS video.
Read MoreYoung City Couple “Escape the City”!
Rochelle and Jean-Michel Longval are typical young urbanites. Or are they? Both are professionals. They have no children, an extremely cute dog named Geo, and a nice home in a leafy Calgary neighbourhood. Life for the Longvals would seem to be idyllic. There’s only one catch: they long to escape the city! With some help…
Read MoreHighlands & Islands Enterprise — Prickly Thistle
Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) is an ambitious Scottish organization with a unique mandate, one that successfully integrates economic and community development in rural northern Scotland. HIE, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, works in a diverse region which extends from Shetland to Argyll, and from the Outer Hebrides islands to Moray, covering more…
Read MoreBy Their Own Hands — St. Andrews, Nova Scotia
Building on the legacy of pioneering Scottish and, later, Dutch immigrants, St. Andrews, Nova Scotia, a rural agricultural community, has been able to muster active and enthusiastic volunteers for a series of ambitious community initiatives and has maintained a thriving community into the 21st century. This 22 minute video explores some of the reasons why…
Read MoreCormac Russell Explains Asset-Based Community Development
Cormac Russell is Managing director of Nurture Development, one of eleven strategic partners of the ABCD Institute, and the lead partner in Europe. Russell and his Nurture Development colleagues have worked as ABCD social explorers, trainers, mentors, facilitators, researchers, and consultants with change partners and disruptive innovators around the world. These include communities, charities, NGOs/NPOs, faith-based organizations,…
Read MoreFarmers Have a Future — Lindsey Shute
Farmers have a future. At least according to Lindsey Lusher Shute, Executive Director and co-founder of the National Young Farmers’ Coalition, (NYFC) a membership-based organization dedicated to the success of the next generation of sustainable farmers in the United States. NYFC’s supporter network includes thousands of farmers and consumers from all fifty states, who…
Read MoreLocal Manufacturing Big in Rural America
Local manufacturing matters in rural America, employing more than 3.5 million workers. As rural America’s second largest sector, manufacturing employs 14% of rural civilian employees and produces 15% of total rural US earnings – that exceeds the retail sector, and is more than double agriculture’s presence in the US rural economy. After an era of…
Read MoreIs There a Doctor in the House? Attracting Physicians to Rural Towns
Is there a doctor in the house? Rural health care is a pressing challenge for many small, often isolated, communities in rural BC. The challenges facing small communities struggling to provide an acceptable standard of care for their citizens are legion, ranging from long distances to major care centres to dangerous roads. Often the most…
Read MoreAffordable Rural Housing — the View from Yorkshire, UK
Affordable rural housing is often at a premium in small communities and rural regions. While rural housing prices may appear a bargain to newcomers and second home buyers from overheated urban real estate markets, they are often anything but for long-time residents, often saddled with relatively low-paying jobs. In this video produced by by the North…
Read More