One-to-one: Telling the stories of changing rural communities

One-to-one is a section of News + Views where alumni interview each other and current students. Everyone has a story to tell, from their personal interests or advocacy to professional pathways and passions. And who better to tell that story than alumni? Each article is as different as the graduates who write them. If you would like to interview a fellow alum for a future edition, please e-mail barr0396@umn.edu.

Lindsey: Staff at the UMVRD saw a need to connect our communities with the latest Census data in an easy-to-understand manner that would help them make the best decisions for their futures. This spring, we teamed up with staff at CST to develop community profile brochures for our region as a whole, as well as for each of the 37 cities and all five counties in our region (Big Stone, Chippewa, Lac qui Parle, Swift, and Yellow Medicine). The community profile brochures include statistical information from a variety of sources that provide snapshots of historical and current demographic, economic, and social trends in the region. We hope these publications help our cities and counties to better understand the make-up of their communities. They are meant, not only to help local officials use Census data to guide development and investment decisions, but also to market their communities.

Kelly: The community profiles really helped paint a picture of the last 50 years in this region. The increases in population in the 1960s and 1970s and very sudden and dramatic decreases during the 1980s and 1990s are clear. The current population in many communities is beginning to stabilize. Small changes in a community can result in significant changes in the data. For example, a community might see a 20 percent increase in population, but, in real numbers that was only 20 people, maybe a few families. This also is true for population decreases, which can sometimes lead people to believe that the population is dropping significantly. What this can teach us is that one significant event can make a huge difference; the opening of one manufacturing plant, the closing of a school, or opening an assisted living facility.

Lindsey: That is another reason why I like the community profile brochures and why I think they will be useful for the cities and counties in our region—sometimes statistics can be deceiving or they don’t tell the whole story. The brochures provide a summary and explanation of the Census data. For instance, there has been some migration back into the region among families wanting to get away from the city, as well as an increase of minority populations. By looking at the Census data alone, it is difficult to tease that out. But, because we live and work in the region and have other researchers looking at this information, we are able to draw more from the Census data and share it with our communities.

 Kelly: When I first started working in Morris, I was surprised by how many people my age there are in these smaller communities. Ben Winchester (University of Minnesota - Extension) has done amazing research on the in-migration demographics in these communities. This research has shown that young families make up a large percentage of the in-migration population. What is even more interesting is that some of the initial research shows that this population is moving to this region for quality of life issues, not jobs. Quality of life is an interesting topic here because it does not revolve around material goods. It is focused more an individual’s life-style, opportunities for outdoor activities, clean water, access to a quality public education, and safe communities.

Lindsey: For the past several decades, the story of our region has been dramatic population decline, but developing the community profile brochures revealed the somewhat surprising fact that our regional economy is quite diverse—it is not solely dependent upon agriculture. Certainly, that is a part of our economy, but education and health services; trade, transportation, and utilities; and manufacturing make up our top three employers by industry segment.

Kelly: When speaking to a number of communities here, I am struck by how the political discourse doesn’t match the reality. A lot of legislators talk about bringing jobs to the area. However, in Western Minnesota there are a ton of jobs. That’s not the problem. The problem is that many jobs are in the manufacturing industry, and many of those are not entry-level positions. So, this plethora of jobs does not equal economic development since there has been considerable difficulty in filling these positions. The issue is to identify why these jobs aren’t being filled and focus development and planning to resolve these issues. The issue is more complicated than the common “jobs, jobs, jobs” rhetoric we hear from our elected officials.

Lindsey: Both of us agree that there is a lot of nuance to issues in our region and that the current discourse surrounding rural life doesn’t often match reality. We are both excited to uncover these differences while living here and excited to play a role in developing the new rural narrative.