Our tradition of rural support
Our continuous drive to give rural communities equity has guided the organization during its lifespan. Up until the middle 1990s, Rural Wisconsin was active in many of the areas of identified in its Mission Statement. Activities included, for example, the Cornucopia Project, an investigation of Wisconsin’s food security. This well-regarded study was first distributed at a statewide meeting held at Kamp Kenwood under the auspices of the Farmers’ Union. Rural Wisconsin also conducted a monitoring assessment under contract to the Wisconsin Department of Development (DOD) of the Small Cities Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program. Rural Wisconsin co-hosted a Wingspread conference on “Wisconsin’s Vanishing Farmland”. Organizational development assistance was provided to organizations such as Farmer to Farmer and the Wisconsin Farm Unity Alliance. The Rural Wisconsin board authorized and members testified on rural issues. Statewide meetings were utilized to facilitate policy. Rural Wisconsin board members were in the forefront of innovative community development efforts across the state.
During the early part of 1990s general interest in rural issues was in decline. Personnel active in rural Wisconsin changed jobs, moved on to other parts of the country, or had other life transitions. Rural America and the National Rural Center ceased operations and a general feeling of satisfaction with rural development was present. Despite the decline in interest and activities, board members maintained the organization’s 501©3 status to shepherd its modest financial resources.
Current Vision
The Wisconsinites who live in our rural areas are talented, resourceful, diverse, and mutual aid oriented. We have strong family traditions, eager young minds, committed teachers, pastors, entrepreneurial small business owners, and dedicated public officials. Wisconsin is blessed with bountiful natural resources – rich farmland, beautiful lakes and rivers teeming with life, and growing forests. We ought to be doing better. Despite these rich fundamentals, the current state of rural development in Wisconsin reads like a litany of lost opportunities, e.g., exploitation of natural resources, decline in family farming, struggles of small businesses, dwindling livelihood possibilities, continuously declining support to vulnerable individuals, increased substance abuse and domestic violence, under-resourced schools, and increases in sub-standard housing has re-inspired founders of the organization who remained active as board members to become concerned about equity, development opportunities, and quality of life issues in rural communities in Wisconsin. We generally feel that rural communities in Wisconsin are on a long-term decline both for businesses and people living there. One only needs to drive through rural communities in Wisconsin and see boarded up storefronts and to feel the general malaise. We have agreed that the time has come to relaunch Rural Wisconsin and see if we can create a coalition of organizations engaged in community-based development promoting progressive solutions with progressive solutions to join together in a broad-based coalition concerned the original issues referenced in Rural Wisconsin’s mission statement. To this end, we have proposed a statewide meeting of concerned individuals and organizations to be held in the early fall or late summer. It is not our intention to supplant existing organizations and coalitions or to propose our own solutions to community problems but rather to seek the advice and counsel of organizations that are actively working in areas of interest to rural Wisconsin and build a platform that allows an opportunity for diverse voices to speak together.
Covid-19 Response and Future
The coronavirus has created barriers to achieving this vision and we have so far been unable to actively survey potential organizational members and individuals or organize a statewide meeting. Beginning in 2020, a team of students from the UW-Madison La Follette School of Public Affairs identified a number of organizations which we feel share our vision. Over the next few months, we will begin to make contact with representatives of these organizations, survey them about their interest in participating in a coalition of organizations concerned with rural development, and determine their willingness to participate in an organizational meeting in the Fall of 2022. If you share our concerns, we welcome your engagement and participation.
Rural Wisconsin Inc. 