Please join rural advocates from across the Midwest at the second annual Midwest Rural Assembly  upcoming gathering on August 16-17, 2010, in South Sioux City, NE!

Projects to increase the purchase of food grown or produced in Wisconsin are eligible for competitive grants this year through the Buy Local, Buy Wisconsin (BLBW) program.

The Wisconsin Downtown Action Council, in partnership with Downtown Rhinelander invites you to join community leaders and statewide experts to examine network and exchange ideas with dedicated downtown professionals.

Saturday, September 25, 2010, 5:00 – 10:00 pm, Saxon Homestead Farm, Cleveland, WI

Make plans to join us for the 2nd annual Partnering for Progress event – an old-fashioned barn dance featuring a lively swing band and locally sourced food in a wonderfully restored hay barn.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City’s Community Affairs Department is issuing a call for economic development practitioners to present at a national conference titled, “Economic Development in Underserved Communities: Where Research and Practice Meet,” to be held September 9 – 10, 2010, at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.  This conference will bring together the latest research and practice in economic development in underserved rural and low-and-moderate-income urban communities. In an effort to foster thinking and action on relevant issues impacting these communities, this conference will highlight best practices in the application of economic development policy.

Connecting Wisconsin is a coalition of concerned citizens, businesses, and government leaders, dedicated to determining the best path forward to achieve rural broadband access through collaboration and public-private partnerships to address these challenges.  The coalition is led by Wisconsin Rural Partners, Wired Wisconsin, Badgerland Financial and Southwest Wisconsin BEST (Building Economic Strength Together).

The Voices of Rural Wisconsin project is a partnership between Portal Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters. Working together, they hope to share the stories, thoughts and histories of the state's rural population. This expanding collection of authentic and authoritative voices, collected by writer and reporter Bill Berry, represents a rich cross-section of Wisconsinites who work, love and live for the land. We hope you will utilize this resource as a means to connect with and better understand Wisconsin's rural citizens.

The University of Wisconsin - Extension, Wisconsin Rural Partners, Wisconsin Downtown Action Council and Wisconsin Main Street are excited to present two regional Small Town Forums on July 13 in Shullsburg and July 14 in Tigerton.
 
Everyone is invited, but this workshop was developed to create a dialog among small town leaders with populations of 1,500 or less. The format of the workshop is structured to allow participants to learn from each other through case studies, roundtables and discussion groups.
 

Wisconsin Rural Partners has been selected as the lead State Rural Development Council for a new and exciting national project.  The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has requested assistance from Partners for Rural America (PRA) and State Rural Development Councils to establish stronger partnerships with key institutions at the state and regional level and to encourage communities to work together at the regional level.