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By Nina McCormack
As a former mayor and county council member, Connie Stewart has labored in the community development trenches for years to address the needs of her rural, northern California constituents.
Kathy Moxon comes by her experience from the other side of the table, funding community and economic development as director of programs for the Humboldt Area Foundation.
Both perspectives have led to the same conclusion: that rural community issues must be addressed on a regional basis to be effective – because the underlying challenges are regional.
Creating a new tradition, Redwood Coast Rural Action is developing regional cohesion and project initiatives across communities and institutions. Realizing this vision of regionally coordinated planning and problem solving is a tremendous challenge because of all the jurisdictional and profession-based segmentation in the region. Each town, Native American tribe and county has its own hierarchy and boundaries, just as the education, health care, economic development and environmental establishments have their independent silos. Many start from a “zero sum” world view that collaboration could result in a net loss to their institution's short term interests.
Yet Redwood Coast Rural Action (RCRA) partners foresee their collective efforts may empower the entire region to strategically address long term problems. Brain child of the Humboldt Area Foundation, and further seeded by Humboldt State University and College of the Redwoods, RCRA is a “managed network… a virtual organization of partners agreeing to work together to support regional, community based leadership for interlinked progress in the economy, health of our communities and vitality of our conservation practices and environment,” as described in the RCRA Spring 2006 Report.
The core group recruited leaders from each county, convening three times over 18 months. The assembly agreed on key initiatives that would greatly further regional development goals: for instance Internet access for all and a regional branding strategy. While the network task forces have not yet established how projects will be staffed, RCRA has secured two years of funding for Kathy Moxon to coordinate overall efforts. Meanwhile the connections forged and strengthened among leaders within the region are already advancing Redwood Coast Rural Action causes.
“The building of this network has created, what one community leader referred to as an infrastructure of intimacy, where leaders from throughout the region do not have to track down each other through his or her secretary or assistant,” Moxon said. “They can call that person directly and that speaks to his or her commitment and the effectiveness of the network. It is an infrastructure…of people who know each other well, and know each other's capabilities.”
As a result of these connections the RCRA's Working Group on Universal Connectivity has co-hosted two regional broadband forums in the past year. These forums advanced infrastructure plans within the region. While the region only has one fiber-optic line today, alternative technical and financing approaches are being assessed.
Connie Stewart sees internet access as critical for managing town governmental business. “As more state services go on-line, our community is limited due to the lack of internet access,” she said. “And our cost for internet connection is three times what others in the state pay for the same services.”
RCRA's Leadership team has also identified the need for more accurate information about their region. In many reports, the population of rural communities is too small for researchers to provide accurate information, particularly about issues such as health. In response to the need for accurate information RCRA created the California Center for Rural Policy (CCRP) at Humboldt State University.
“CCRP will not only provide regional leaders with accurate and timely information, it is integral to keeping rural on the radar screen for policy development at the state level in California” said Moxon.
RCRA has identified entrepreneurship and internet connectivity as statewide priorities for rural economic development. The Redwood Coast network is gaining recognition from the California governor's office and statewide.
“This is of particular importance in light of the lack of dedicated resources for project implementation, the full plates all the leaders have and considering many of the county leaders worked in other fields.”
“We see the need for better rural policy input at the state level and have taken it upon ourselves organize rural regions statewide to create a state agenda for rural communities,” Moxon said. “We can see the trends here and know that other regions face similar challenges.” This collaboration with the California Center for Regional Leadership, Humboldt Area Foundation and the California Endowment is giving rural issues the legislative visibility needed for action and uniting rural regions around the state to amplify their voice.
This momentum and statewide collaboration encourage RCRA leaders to work nationally with Kellogg Rural People, Rural Policy colleagues.
They would also like to work with others to improve federal policy because they have seen firsthand how governmental policy and practices can hinder cooperative regional efforts.
In one instance, the redwood region created a a cooperative work plan for an application to the federal Regional Workforce Preparation and Economic Development Act, which was an innovative cross agency funding partnership focused on economic and workforce development. The planning went well, and the application was approved, but when it came to funding, the federal programs fell back into their traditional funding silos each with their own criteria and performance benchmarks making the regional partnerships and plans virtually impossible to implement, Moxon said.
This frustration plagues rural groups all around the country, she said. “We would like to affect policy on all levels and see the (RPRP) initiative as an opportunity to help us achieve that goal.” |
