Rural Work Force Development: Issues and Strategies for Rural Leaders

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Document provides an overview of issues related to work force development and examples of promising strategies for dealing with these issues.

NLC’s findings come from interviews with more than 100 rural officials in twenty rural communities. Policy recommendations include changing a top-down, one-size-fits-all strategy of funneling resources into rural communities, identifying and fostering local leadership, developing more comprehensive strategies for development, increasing efforts to address economic development by overlapping service delivery areas and municipal boundaries (contextualizing one’s area position within the larger region).

Aspen Institute Community Strategies Group