FROM THE PRESIDENT by Beth Davis

Lin VanHofwegen, our vice president of operations, grew up on a farm, owned a hardware store in a small community and has lived in rural South Dakota all of her life. She is constantly challenging me about the price we pay for nostalgia and our sense of entitlement. These notions impede the creation of more viable futures, especially for rural communities.

This idea came up again as we were talking about three different pieces I read recently. One involved Bill Gates’ belief that capitalism can help cure poverty and disease in Africa. Christine Hamilton shared another story about James Tufenkian, an entrepreneur using profits and employment opportunities to enrich the lives of workers and communities in Nepal and Armenia where he has rug factories. Still another example is Greg Mortinson, who tells in Three Cups of Tea about investing in education, basic infrastructure and small women’s cooperatives in Northern Pakistan.

I was struck by how we seem to be investing in the right things in third world countries and the radical impact these investments have on the lives of people and communities. Yet inner cities and rural places in America continue to struggle with outmigration, poverty and other social and economic challenges.

As we explore the differences in these scenarios, we realize that there are places in the world that long for real change, want to do things differently and create new outcomes. Often people in rural communities claim they want things to be different—until they are confronted by the need to make an investment in taxes and bond issues or change “the way things have always been done.” Those changes may include voting in new leadership or taking a chance on a new development strategy. Resistance often arises, as people ask “Aren’t there grants out there to help us?” and flatly state “This is the way we’ve always done it.”

The laws of physics tell us that if there is not forward motion then ground is being lost. We somehow believe that if we know something in our heads, that counts as change—even if our behavior doesn’t alter one iota. Many organizations, along with SD Rural Enterprise, are committed to support community and economic development in South Dakota through capital and capacity building programs. I sometimes hear that it is well and good that we bring these resources, but then we go on to work with other communities. There seems to be a misunderstanding that it is also our responsibility to implement those strategies for community change.

There are rural communities that are thriving in South Dakota. The reasons for this prosperity are simple. They have recognized that to grow and prosper, those communities must

1. do things differently;
2. invest in themselves, especially by hiring staff whose job it is to work on community and economic development;
3. include young people in meaningful ways in community life;
4. take risks by trying new things and being willing to learn from, rather than condemn, failure; and
5. recognize that it is truly up to the people who live and work in the community to not only envision but to create the future they want for themselves and their children.

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