Among many other things, schools, art, pizza, and beer are all recent RIPPLE blog post topics. Many of the new posts have been focusing on small town economies and the powerful economic development tools that are helping rural communities thrive. 

Bill Mintiens' has started a series of posts addressing the question, how does a small rural community like Maupin, Oregon help residents with new business ideas develop those passions into viable businesses that fuel community economic development? Maupin discovered the Sirolli method of enterprise facilitation, which has resulted in the success of several businesses including a neighborhood grocery, an organic farm, and a pizza restaurant.

Joanne Steele looks at art as an economic development tool, and Teresa Roark examines the benefits of SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. SNAP not only puts healthy, local foods within reach of low-income community members, but its use as an economic development tool provides needed assistance to the local economy.

In his post, Small Town Survival―Schools, Bruce Sorte reminds us that schools, the heart of a community, contribute to small town survival. "...Without a school, the community will gradually disappear." Lily Brislen's advice for helping rural economies is to drink more beer; the Oregon Liquor Control Commission is prohibiting home brewers and winemakers from drinking or sharing their beer and wine outside their homes which, considering the fact that Oregon's craft beer industry generates about $2.33 billion in annual sales, this may have far reaching economic consequences.

Oregon Public Broadcasting's Cassie Wieden has been blogging about small town economies and the Rural Economy Project, and she brings us an inside look at the Rural Economy Project on the road with Think Out Loud, plus other pressing rural issues such as small businesses, solar power, and recycling.

Rural Development Initiatives' Executive Director Craig Smith outlines his best practices for creating vital rural economies and stresses that the first step should be developing a community vision and a plan. Creating economic vitality takes time and commitment from community leaders, citizens, volunteers, and businesses, but once these best practices take hold, they will become part of the community fabric. Do you have examples of what's worked in your community or ideas of how to implement best practices to strengthen small town communities? Like Lily Brislen says, "My best guess is that it all starts with free pizza." What do you think? Let us know your thoughts by commenting below.

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