Goals for the day:
We started today with a short video on an arts-based economic development project happening in Harlan County, Kentucky, one of the poorest communities in the country. The county has suffered from the decline of coal mining, which primarily because of the new abundant supplies of natural gas caused by fracking. I'm showing this to you for the following reasons:
· I want you to think about how to use arts and culture as a development tool
· I want you to think about how economic development can happen in a rural area
· I want you to feel connected to this region, both because of our own history with coal and our current ties to the natural gas industry
After the video, I asked for questions on the Economic Proposal Overview document that was your homework. This is project option 2. Everyone said that you were clear on what this option entailed. Tell me if you're not!
Next we spent time going over the economic profile I've put together for Southwest Colorado. An crucial step in the economic development process is gathering information about the community and using this as a baseline to make smart decisions about where to invest in the community.
Read this information and highlight or star statistics and facts that jump out at you. The question to ask is what's most important to fix and what good things are happening that we should build on. You want to first identify an issue area (e.g. housing, health care, agriculture, jobs, income, etc.) that you want to learn about and work on. Choose two, so you have options.
Once everyone finished this, I put students in groups to brainstorm and give each other ideas about how to turn that issue area into a project. I gave you a list of project ideas, organized under of the strategies you looked at yesterday. I also gave you a blank "logic model" to fill out. If you choose Option 2, you'll have to include one of these kinds of charts in your proposal. I want to get you familiar with the "logic model" and have you use it think through how your project will work.
Homework due on Thursday, February 5th
None
- Gain clarity on Option 2 for your project
- Identify a specific issue or opportunity you want to work on with your economic development project
- Identify questions about the local economy for Laura Lewis Marchino, our guest speaker on Thursday
We started today with a short video on an arts-based economic development project happening in Harlan County, Kentucky, one of the poorest communities in the country. The county has suffered from the decline of coal mining, which primarily because of the new abundant supplies of natural gas caused by fracking. I'm showing this to you for the following reasons:
· I want you to think about how to use arts and culture as a development tool
· I want you to think about how economic development can happen in a rural area
· I want you to feel connected to this region, both because of our own history with coal and our current ties to the natural gas industry
After the video, I asked for questions on the Economic Proposal Overview document that was your homework. This is project option 2. Everyone said that you were clear on what this option entailed. Tell me if you're not!
Next we spent time going over the economic profile I've put together for Southwest Colorado. An crucial step in the economic development process is gathering information about the community and using this as a baseline to make smart decisions about where to invest in the community.
Read this information and highlight or star statistics and facts that jump out at you. The question to ask is what's most important to fix and what good things are happening that we should build on. You want to first identify an issue area (e.g. housing, health care, agriculture, jobs, income, etc.) that you want to learn about and work on. Choose two, so you have options.
Once everyone finished this, I put students in groups to brainstorm and give each other ideas about how to turn that issue area into a project. I gave you a list of project ideas, organized under of the strategies you looked at yesterday. I also gave you a blank "logic model" to fill out. If you choose Option 2, you'll have to include one of these kinds of charts in your proposal. I want to get you familiar with the "logic model" and have you use it think through how your project will work.
Homework due on Thursday, February 5th
None