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News from the Heartland Center
One of the most common complaints among most small town
leaders around the nation is "our young people are leaving and they don't come
back." We hear this over and over again
in communities that suffer from chronic and historic out-migration, trends that
began as early as 1930 in some rural communities. Recently, new attention has gone into
research on why young people leave, what might bring them back, and what will motivate them to stay if they do. The research supports common sense about what
draws young people away from their hometowns:
Further education, military service, more job opportunities and
curiosity about the world "out there" are among the most common attractions. Our colleague Craig Schroeder, who serves on the
Heartland Center's board of directors, has been doing surveys of middle and
high school students in the Midwest. His
survey data confirms why
young people leave, but the findings also indicate that a surprising number
would return for the right opportunity.
Craig's work in this arena has been sponsored in part through support of
the HomeTown Competitiveness (HTC) collaborative, whose core partners are the
Heartland Center, the Nebraska  Community Foundation and the Center for Rural
Entrepreneurship, where Craig is a senior associate. A Heartland Center intern, Brittany Sturek,
has been seeking out young people who return to their hometowns after a time
away. In this issue of our Visions
newsletter, Brittany's profile of a young man from Ord, Nebraska
provides some insight into what might work to reverse the out-migration
trend.
--Vicki Luther & Milan Wall, Co-Directors
Heartland Center for Leadership Development
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 Summer Webinar Series to Focus on Developing Community Leadership and Board Effectiveness
The
Heartland Center for Leadership Development is pleased to announce its
new Leadership Development and Board Effectiveness series. These five webinars on developing community
leadership and building board member capacity will begin in June and conclude
in October, 2010. Each webinar will be designed to provide interaction,
discussion and feedback. Webinar participants will receive a packet of
downloadable training materials that include session powerpoints and readings.
Registrants will also be able to view the webinar via recording, so you can
refresh your learning experience at any time. Webinars will last 60 minutes and
will be hosted by an experienced team of Heartland Center trainers. This
summer's topics include:
- Leadership Styles and Practices: Learn what it means to be an
effective leader. Assess your own leadership strengths and aspirations and
create an action plan for building new skills and practices.
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Working with Groups: Managing effective meetings may seem
simple, yet it's often a challenging job for community development
practitioners, whose role includes leading diverse groups to consensus and
beyond.
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Engaging the Community: Outlines practical strategies for
strengthening your organization through community
participation and volunteerism. Once a project is off the ground and you
have enough people engaged, this session will also help you maintain momentum.
- Stewardship Essentials: Explains the essential concepts of board stewardship and how stewardship applies to the board's role in interpreting and updating an organization's mission, strategy development, evaluation, resource development and being an effective emissary.
- Governance Effectiveness: Provides an introduction to tools, techniques and processes that effective boards use to plan and manage their meetings, document their decision-making, successfully navigate conflict, recruit and orient new members to board service. The webinar will also help clarify the dual governance roles of staff and board for developing organizational strategies and documenting progress.
Each
webinar will start at 12:00 p.m. (Central) and end at 1:00 p.m. The
training team includes Milan Wall, Vicki Luther and Kurt Mantonya from the Heartland Center
staff and Gordon Goodwin, a former Heartland Center board member with expertise in building board capacity. The cost of each webinar is $59.99, or purchase
the entire webinar series at one time for is $250.00, a savings of
$49.99. Each registration entitles a single user to have more than one person attend at their computer in one site. Additional registrations from the same organization will be treated as another single registration.
For more details and registration information about this exciting webinar
series, please visit the Heartland Center's webinar page. You can also contact Kurt Mantonya for additional information.
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Ord Graduate Finds Opportunity Back Home
A thriving community of more than
2,000 people in the Nebraska Sandhills, Ord has seen its ups and downs
throughout the years. But recently the
town has been on an upswing. With the
growth of new businesses and facilities, several people who grew up here have moved
back, including Matt Eppenbach.
Eppenbach
was your typical rural farm boy. He worked on a cattle ranch north of Ord
during high school and grew to love the land. "I learned my love of cattle at a
young age helping my dad and grandpa with their cattle herds, from birth all
the way through until the cattle went to market," he said. "I now own my own herd of
cows."
Eppenbach's
passion for rural life motivated his move back to his hometown. He said he had always hoped that one day he
would return to Ord--he just needed the opportunity to do so. "I always kind of knew that one day I wanted
to move back," Eppenbach said. "I like the area a lot. I like the agricultural
aspect, and it's a good place to raise kids."
After
graduating from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with an accounting degree in
2006, he married his wife, Janet. They moved to her hometown of Omaha and lived there for
almost three years. In June 2009, he got the opportunity he had been looking
for: A job offer from an accounting firm back home.
Eppenbach
has known his current boss since he was in high school, so accepting the job
was not a tough call. His wife has also
adjusted well to the area, working as a graphic designer for Valley County
Hospital, one of the
local institutions that is expanding.
Ord's prospects have been improving
since the community affiliated with HomeTown Competitiveness, or HTC, a
community revitalization program sponsored by the Heartland
Center for Leadership Development, the
RUPRI Center for Rural Entrepreneurship and
the Nebraska Community Foundation. HTC
has been implemented in communities across the country since it was piloted in
Ord in 2002. Many of these communities
have experienced new successes when applying the HTC strategy of Engaging Youth
and Young People, Expanding Community Philanthropy, Energizing
Entrepreneurship, and Building Local Leadership.
Since implementing HTC, Ord has
seen the creation of 73 new businesses, 10 business expansions, over 330 new
jobs and $90 million in new investment. Per capita income is growing at more than twice the state average, and
people like Eppenbach have helped curb the trend of out-migration: Ord's population is increasing for the first
time since 1930.
Eppenbach is proud of his
community, and hopes to take advantage of everything it has to offer.
"Ord is a good, progressive town,"
Eppenbach said. "The community boards get new things going and are constantly
looking into the future."
Above all, Eppenbach said, it is
the people of Ord who make it such a great place to live.
"Everybody has treated me with
respect since I've moved back," Eppenbach said. "The people are all willing to
work to keep Ord alive. They have everybody else's interests at heart."
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Strategies for Community Leaders
Youth as Change Agents
Youth
are remarkable change agents. This is particularly true in situations
where youth are given greater range to challenge norms that may
restrict innovation and change among adults. Youth entrepreneurship
activities can energize the entire community quickly as young people
bring new ideas to their parents, teachers and peers. This is just one
of several valuable strategies found in the book, Energizing Entrepreneurs,
co-authored by the Heartland Center's Vicki Luther with Deborah Markley and Don Macke of the RUPRI Center for Rural Entrepreneurship. To purchase Energizing Entrepreneurs, visit the Center's publications page.
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On the Calendar at the Heartland Center
May 2010
- Co-Director Milan Wall will be attending the Grassroots and Groundworks Conference in Portland, Oregon, sponsored by the Northwest Area Foundation.
- Milan will be facilitating a leadership development retreat in O'Neill, Nebraska.
June 2010
- Milan will be attending a convening in Moline, Illinois on innovative rural development programs.
- The Heartland Center's first Summer Webinar Series on Leadership Styles and Practices will take place.
July 2010
- Milan and Senior Associate Kurt Mantonya will be attending the Community Development Society's International Annual Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana.
- The Heartland Center's second Summer Webinar Series on Working with Groups will take place.
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The
Heartland Center for Leadership Development is an independent nonprofit
organization developing local leadership that responds to the
challenges of the future. The Heartland Center is headquartered in
Lincoln, Nebraska with a field office located in Kerrville, Texas.
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