Rural Economic and Community Development

Rural Health Futures' efforts at community and economic development are related to rural communities and regions investigating the role of advanced technologies and telecommunications. During those efforts we focused on education and community dialogue that helped develop a strategy for how these technologies could be used to enhance the viability of the community.

Community Development

So, how can advanced technologies and telecommunications enhance community and economic development? Advanced technologies and telecommunications allows the community together to share resources that enhance existing community services, create new services, and encourage the exporting of services to surrounding communities and the rest of the world. Existing services can be enhanced through greater sharing of information and knowledge about the status of the community. Citizens are encouraged to fully participate in education, business, health and government programs because they become knowledgeable about these services. Access to outside expertise can be used to supplement local knowledge resulting in a more educated, healthier, and economically vibrant community. Newer services can be created because of the heightened awareness of community needs and services. This enhanced community awareness also encourages educational institutions, businesses, health care providers and government agencies to recognize levels of expertise that can be distributed to other communities, increasing the general economic viability of each community.

During the community and economic development activities organized by Rural Health Futures focus is placed on three primary issues.

1. Education the describes how advanced technologies and telecommunications can be used by a community to support existing businesses, educational institutions, healthcare providers, government agencies, and individuals. This educational program describes how the technologies are used and emphsizes how communities around the country are making use of the technologies. Education also includes strategies that can be employed by entire communities to share these resources so that expensive investments are made affordable.
2. The vision the community has of its long term quality of life and how an economic development strategy can be tailored to emphasize this quality of life. The community is encouraged to dialogue the strengths of the community and the unique characteristics that separate it from other communities in the region and around the country. Economic development strategies are formulated that fit this quality of life and focus on the economic opportunities found in pursuing economic solutions involving information and technology based enterprises.
3. Developing a sound basis on which to measure and monitor the community's quality of life. The community is encouraged to identify and collect data which describes the important characteristics of the community. The result is a comprehensive, breadth oriented description of the community and those quality indicators they believe are important. These same indicators can then be used by the community on an ongoing basis to determine whether the implementation of their economic development strategies are adding or taking away from the community's quality of life.

Regional Development

Rural Health Futures also focuses on how advanced technologies and telecommunications can support regional economic development? These advanced technologies and telecommunications allow you to provide a number of technologies to your community, such as videoconferencing, and InterNet access, that can be used to link to libraries, college/universities, government agencies, health care providers and businesses world wide. Access to this expertise can be used to supplement local knowledge resulting in a more educated, healthier, and economically vibrant community. These technologies will also serve to reduce the isolation of your community and its residents. Most importantly, technology will encourage networks of communities to consider ways to collaboratively solve the shortage of resources or expertise, whether these shortages are business services, educational expertise, or access to physicians or other health care services. Communities can use advanced technologies and telecommunications to bring individuals and/or institutions together, resulting in the enhanced economic opportunities for all communities. At the same time, by viewing economic development in a regional perspective it is possible to distribute the impacts of growth throughout an entire region.

For additional information contact Kelli Schneider @ (970) 207-9798 or

E-mail address ptc@socencom.net