Center of Everywhere Podcast

The Center for Rural Policy recently released a report outlining the trends of rural newspapers in Minnesota and some of the challenges and opportunities they are currently facing. On this episode, Marnie Werner, Director of Research, discusses the report and what she found while researching this important issue.

In this episode, Marnie Werner interviews Kelly Asche, Senior Researcher for the Center for Rural Policy and Development to discuss the most recent research report- "Shedding Light on the Education Formula".  They touch on the reason the education formula is complex, that it distributes funds "unequally" by design, and their amazement on how much the program attempts to take into account when distributing funds.

The Center for Rural Policy and Development partnered with Minnesota State University, Mankato - Center for Rural Behavioral Health to survey and interview rural mental health providers to identify barriers in recruiting and retaining workers. Through the survey it has become apparent that the mental healthcare workforce shortage is being aggravated by a handful of quite specific and identifiable problems around graduating workers, recruiting them, and keeping them once they are hired. You can find the report here. In this episode, Marnie Werner interviews the researchers Thad Shunkweiler, LMFT, LPCC, Associate Professor and Director, Center for Rural Behavioral Health, Minnesota State University Mankato and Tracie Rutherford Self, Ph.D, Assistant Professor, Center for Rural Behavioral Health, Minnesota State University Mankato to discuss their findings.

The 2023 Legislative session is in full swing so Julie checks in with Scott McMahon, the Executive Director of the Greater Minnesota Partnership. They discuss what the session may hold for various rural issues such as child care, housing, and broadband.

On this episode, Marnie Werner, Vice President of Research & Operations, interviews colleague Kelly Asche about this years State of Rural report. Every year the Center for Rural Policy and Development publishes the State of Rural - a report outlining the various economic and demographic trends taking place in rural Minnesota. Most years it's a simple update since trends tend to shift and move slowly over the course of a decade. Unless, that is, a significant event takes place which disrupts the trends. And that's exactly the era we are living - both the pandemic and the predicted demographic shifts have hit home and are disrupting the trend lines. Instead of small adjustments and tweaks to the language, this years State of Rural report needed some significant reworking to represent the major shifts that are occurring. In particular, the in-migration of people to our rural counties across Minnesota and the out-migration away from the seven-county metro.

On this episode, Marnie Werner, VP of Research and Operations, interviews Julie Tesch (CEO and President of CRDP) and Kelly Asche (Senior Research Associate) about their experiences working with and in municipal governments and their attempts to find, apply, and administer grants. What are some of the challenges, and solutions that would help our small local governments receive more grant dollars?

On this episode, Julie Tesch interviews Center for Rural Policy and Development Board member Martha Castanon. Martha is an Accredited Representative for the Immigrant Law Center in Moorhead, Minnesota. Julie and her discuss how her parents met in Comstock, Minnesota, the services that the Immigrant Law Center provides to immigrant and refugee populations as well as some of the issues these populations are facing in rural Minnesota.

Starting with the 2020 Decennial Census, the U.S. Census Bureau is implementing a new framework to ensure privacy of the census takers - essentially, making sure that a nefarious actor can't identify an individual from published census tables. Although the U.S. Census Bureau has been employing various strategies for decades, this new framework is very different. And although the intent of this framework has good intentions, the tradeoff between privacy protection and data accuracy will mean rural areas will have less than accurate data.  On this episode, Kelly Asche - Senior Research Associate, interviews David Van Riper from the Minnesota Population Center who has been one of the leading researchers exploring this tradeoff between privacy and accuracy, and what it might mean for rural data.

In this episode, Marnie Werner, VP of Research and Operations, interviews Amy Baldwin who works as the Community Development Director for Otter Tail County. Probably one of the top three issues facing most rural community and economic developers is solving the housing shortage. In this conversation, Marnie and Amy talk about Otter Tail's new initiative called "The Big Build" - an intentional effort around housing growth and investment within the county. 

In September, the Center for Rural Policy and Development released the results of an environmental scan of child care initiatives taking place across rural Minnesota. In this episode, Vice President of Research, Marnie Werner, interviews Don Hickman, the Vice President for Community and Workforce Development at the Initiative Foundation in Little Falls, MN. As an organization that partners with and supports communities in 14 counties across north central Minnesota, Initiative Foundation has been on the forefront of organizing and supporting initiatives to expand child care capacity in the region. 

This week on the Center of Everywhere hear research associate Whitney Oachs interview Zoe Martins and Ulises Linares about their Capstone thesis for the Humphrey School of Public Affairs regarding childcare access for first-generation Latino migrants in Worthington, MN.

This week on the Center of Everywhere hear researchers Phil Jensen and Kelly Asche discuss the topic of Phil's newest report, "Why Grandma May Stay at Home: Property taxes and home ownership in rural Minnesota." Attracting workers to more rural parts of the state is a complex problem, but housing plays a major role. Encouraging workers to relocate to Greater Minnesota depends on the availability of housing. That availability is a product of turnover, or “churn,” where residents transition through different types of housing at different points in their lives. The rate of housing churn can be different in rural communities than in metropolitan areas. Previous work from CRPD has shown that rural housing stock is more likely to be occupied by older residents who are less likely to move. The result is slower churn, which leaves fewer single-family homes for new workers and their families. Here we identify factors that may contribute to rural areas' slower housing churn. These factors vary significantly across the rural-urban spectrum in Minnesota and may influence residents' economic incentives regarding housing:  Property taxes Non-tax ownership costs Higher rates of outright home ownership

On this episode, Julie Tesch is joined by Reed Anfinson - owner and publisher of three rural newspapers in Minnesota - the Swift County Monitor News in Benson, the Stevens County Times in Morris, and the Grant County Herald in Elbow Lake. Also joining the conversation is Lisa Hills, the Executive Director of the MN Newspaper Association which is a voluntary trade association of weekly and daily newspapers in Minnesota. Their conversation touches on the importance of the community newspaper for a functioning democracy, how the concentration of businesses in larger economic centers has hurt the local newspaper business model, and the future of community newspapers.

Now that we are beginning to exit the pandemic (hopefully), the data from the previous year and a half are being released. In this episode, Marnie Werner and Kelly Asche discuss what they've been seeing in the data. And although the illness and deaths associated with COVID-19 hit hard in our rural areas, some of the data related to jobs, wages, local economies and child care provide a lot of reasons for optimism. Through it all, our leaders and our state as a whole have done quite well.

On this episode, Marnie Werner and Kelly Asche speak with the Minnesota State Demographer Susan Brower. The conversation covers how the process of drawing new district and approval differ on paper vs. the reality, how much of rural Minnesota isn't growing in population, but isn't really declining either, and ideas on how rural areas might have access to more accurate data if the Census surveys turn out below standards.

This week hear Kelly Asche discuss the rise in working from home, and what telecommuting can mean for rural Minnesota. Features special guests Xinyi Qian and Neil Linscheid of the University of Minnesota - Extension. 

On this episode, Marnie Werner discusses her newest research report coming out in February on the rising values of agriculture lands and the rising property taxes associated with these values. We discuss the disconnect between the value of ag land and farm profitability, the increasing role investors and non-farmers are having on the issue, and whether we should be worried about rural counties who have a disproportionate amount of their revenue coming from these lands.

In this episode, CRDP researcher Whitney Oachs discusses her new research examining the issues, barriers and opportunities facing rural energy providers in shifting their infrastructure to renewable sources. She is joined by Tim Velde, who sits on the Board of Directors for the Minnesota Valley Cooperative Light & Power Association as well as on the Board of Directors for the Minnesota Rural Electric Association. She is also joined by Jennifer Cady who is the Manager of Regulatory Strategy & Policy for Minnesota Power.

Each year, the Center for Rural Policy and Development provides a brief update on various economic and demographic data pertaining to rural Minnesota. As policy discussions concerning rural Minnesota unfold, it is important to understand the past, present, and potential futures of rural regions. This report provides historical data points that illustrate how rural conditions have changed and where they are at now, making for healthy discussions about the current demographic and economic vitality of these areas. In this episode, hear from Kelly Asche and Ben Winchester as they discuss the narrative myths surrounding rural Minnesota, from population statistics, to workforce and housing.  Rural Atlas Online To supplement and support the annual State of Rural Minnesota report, we also maintain and regularly update an online, interactive collection of maps and charts that show readers this data broken down in different ways. In addition to this report with its high-level analysis, our Atlas of Minnesota Online provides more interactive maps and charts showing a variety of data on demographics, the economy, and more at the state, county, planning region, and economic development region levels. Visit www.ruralmn.org/rural-atlas to view the site.

In our third episode of the Center of Everywhere Podcast, researcher Kelly Asche explores the topic of the amazon effect on retail and local tax revenue with UMN Extension community economics educators Neil Linscheid and Ryan Pesch. Online sales have permeated everyday life and their impacts stretch beyond convenience of shopping. Local leaders see the evidence every day in their communities: more and more delivery trucks going down their roads, stopping at their neighbors' or their own houses, dropping off products that were once maybe purchased in their own or a nearby community. They're also seeing the closure of retail storefronts. They hear about their local landfills reaching capacity earlier than predicted due to the higher amounts of waste from household deliveries. And after decades of watching businesses move away from their communities to concentrate in economic centers, rural leaders are left wondering if this is the “next shoe to drop” in their community's economic demise. And at the same time, leaders in the economic centers that have benefited from decades of shopping behaviors shifting in their favor now worry that online sales are a threat to the revenue they've been relying on themselves. This episode touches on many of the topics explored the Center's report, The Amazon Effect and Rural Tax Revenues, including the shifting retail landscape in rural communities, the rise of online shopping, and the actions taken by the state of Minnesota to ensure tax revenue from online sales are distributed to the proper county or municipality.

On this episode, Marnie Werner, the Vice President of research at the Center for Rural Policy & Development is joined by graduate students from the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota. If you're a regular listener to the Center of Everywhere, you'll remember Whitney Oachs, who has been our research intern here at the Center for the past year and published research for us regarding the some of the challenges facing transit for healthcare. Since January, her and a few of her colleagues from the Humphrey School of Public Policy have been working on a capstone ... The post Ep. 23: Building Community, Embracing Difference – Research by the Humphrey School Capstone students first appeared on Center for Rural Policy and Development.

On this episode, Kelly Asche got an opportunity to chat with the Minnesota State Demographer Susan Brower where we discussed our surprise that Minnesota kept all eight of it’s congressional districts, how our high self-reporting rate likely helps the accuracy of our data, and our concerns of the U.S. Census Bureau’s plan to add noise to the data. Note: At about the 3:55 mark, Susan said “if Minnesota had counted 29 fewer people, we also would have lost that seat.” Susan let us know the actual number is 26. The post Ep. 22: State Demographer Susan Brower and the release of the Census first appeared on Center for Rural Policy and Development.

Back in January, President and CEO of the Center for Rural Policy and Development, Julie Tesch, had a conversation with Scott McMahon, the Executive Director of the Greater MN Partnership on the upcoming legislative session. In this episode, Julie brought Scott back on for a mid-legislative session review. So far, this session has lived up to it’s unorthodox hype. From a state budget forecast projecting a deficit to now a billion dollar surplus, the interesting legislative interactions due to Zoom meetings, and rural speakers testifying on the need for broadband literally dropping out in the middle of their testimony due ... The post Ep. 21: Mid-legislative session review with Scott McMahon first appeared on Center for Rural Policy and Development.

This episode is a discussion with Marnie Werner who just published a new research report looking into rural child care. In this interview we speak about the current lack of availability of child care slots , the challenges center based care face in rural Minnesota, and some of the community-level solutions that has Marnie excited. Quick note: At around the 20:00-minute mark, Marnie misspoke and said we lost “5,000” family child care spaces in 2020. The number is actually 4,000. The post Ep. 20: Research discussion on child care research with Marnie Werner first appeared on Center for Rural Policy and Development.

On this week’s episode, Julie talks with Rhonda Otteson, Minnesota Coalition for the Homeless, about homelessness in rural Minnesota. It’s easy to overlook since homelessness doesn’t always look the way we think it should. Rhonda and Julie discuss the many hidden factors that put people at risk for homelessness, why the housing situation in Greater Minnesota is at a critical point, and what we can do to help. The post Ep. 19: Homelessness in rural MN, with Rhonda Otteson first appeared on Center for Rural Policy and Development.

In a previous episode, we discussed the importance of rural grocery stores. Kathy Draeger, the statewide Director of the Regional Sustainable Development Partnerships at the University of Minnesota,  discussed their discussed their recently published report outlining results from a survey they sent to rural grocery stores  across Minnesota. For this episode, we brought her back to dive a bit deeper into a specific issue related to the future of rural grocery stores; the rise of the dollar store. We were also joined by Monica Jarvi, PHD candidate with Dept of Sociology at the U of MN. In this conversation we ... The post Ep. 18: Rural grocery stores and the rise of the dollar store first appeared on Center for Rural Policy and Development.

For the last ten months, Minnesotans have been waiting along with the rest of the world for a vaccine to protect us from COVID-19. Now that we have one, though, officials face the next big issue: how to get those shots out to the public. For this topic, we’ve invited back Sue Grafstrom, a CRPD board member who is also the Homeland Security Management Director for Roseau County and a Public Health Preparedness consultant for the state for northwestern Minnesota. We first brought Sue on for episode 2, back in April 2020, to talk about what the public response to ... The post Ep. 17: Vaccine rollout in Greater Minnesota first appeared on Center for Rural Policy and Development.

Last week we released our report exploring how the pandemic has impacted jobs and the workforce in Rural Minnesota. And on this episode, we get to dive in a bit deeper into this topic with a couple of our Workforce Development Boards and a labor analyst with the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development in rural Minnesota.  Carrie Bendix is the Executive Director of the Southwest Minnesota Private Industry Council.  Vicki Leaderbrand is the Executive Director of the Rural Minnesota Concentrated Employment Program. Luke Greiner is the Regional Analyst for Southwest and Central Minnesota for the Minnesota Department of ... The post Ep 16: Pandemic’s impact on the rural workforce first appeared on Center for Rural Policy and Development.

Today marks the start of the 2021 MN Legislative Session. A session that will likely be very different than any other legislative session since it will begin and likely remain an online affair. Our CEO, Julie Tesch got an opportunity to chat with Scott McMahon, the Executive Director of the Greater Minnesota Partnership about the issues that he will be bringing to legislators on behalf of rural Minnesota, how there needs to be more understanding that challenges and opportunities look different in rural and metro areas,  and – how the heck do you lobby without a lobby? The post Ep 15: Preview of the 2021 Legislative Session with Scott McMahon – Greater Minnesota Partnership first appeared on Center for Rural Policy and Development.

Rural communities across Minnesota are tapping a new program to help bring a fresh set of ideas to their community development toolbox. Offered in partnership by Rethos and Springboard for the Arts, staff from these organizations will come and assist communities in planning and implementing artist-led projects. Assistance comes in the form of training, one-on-one technical assistance, and cohort exchanges all focused to integrate the arts and creativity into addressing downtown challenges and opportunities. It also helps that these communities receive $20,000 for project funding and program implementation the first year and $10,000 the second year. The Center for Rural ... The post Ep 14: Artists on Mainstreet Program - Small towns tapping artists for community development first appeared on Center for Rural Policy and Development.

Kathy Draeger, the statewide Director of the University of Minnesota Extension –  Regional Sustainable Development Partnership, wants rural communities to see their local grocery stores as the assets they are. Small town grocery stores have been facing an uphill battle against increasing competition from the big national chains. In this interview, Kathy and Julie will be talking about the important roles small grocery stores play in their communities, especially in a time of COVID, and the innovations she and her team have developed to help them succeed. The post Ep 13: The importance of rural grocery stores - Kathy Draeger, University of Minnesota Extension | Regional Sustainable Development Partnerships first appeared on Center for Rural Policy and Development.

So just what is the Association of Minnesota Counties? Our President and CEO, Julie Tesch, talks with AMC’s Executive Director, Julie Ring, about the association that supports and advocates for Minnesota’s 87 counties. This year of Covid has been especially challenging for county governments. Julie discusses the difficult issues counties have faced and are still dealing with in terms of public health and human services. But it’s not all bad as she discusses how this time has also spurred a revolution in how our counties deliver services and how these changes may stick around once the pandemic has passed. The post Ep 12: Julie Ring, Association of Minnesota Counties first appeared on Center for Rural Policy and Development.

On this episode Julie Tesch and Marnie Werner talk about two topics that only come around every ten years, the Census and legislative redistricting. They discuss  why redistricting is so important but has been so troublesome in Minnesota history, the role of accurate census data and how a salamander became a symbol of democracy in the U.S.   The post Ep 11: CRPD Research - Census and redistricting in Rural Minnesota first appeared on Center for Rural Policy and Development.

On today’s episode, we stay in-house to discuss our most recent research brief. Julie talks with our research intern Whitney Oachs and Director of Research Marnie Werner about volunteer drivers,  a little-known but essential program in rural Minnesota that helps the elderly and handicapped stay in their homes. We’ll discuss who these volunteer drivers are, why their numbers have been dwindling over the last couple decades, and how we can fix it.  The post Ep 10: CRPD Research - Volunteer Drivers first appeared on Center for Rural Policy and Development.

In this episode, we’ll be talking with Dave Unmacht, the executive director of the League of Minnesota Cities.  He’ll be sharing his thoughts on the challenges and opportunities facing Minnesota’s small towns, how uncertainty will be the defining characteristic of the next five years, and why getting involved in local government may just be the best thing you ever do in life.  The post Ep 9: David Unmacht - League of Minnesota Cities first appeared on Center for Rural Policy and Development.

We wanted to get to know more about the Citizens League, a Twin Cities nonpartisan, nonprofit think tank that has led discussions and developed solutions to policy questions in areas like transportation, education, and infrastructure for more than sixty years. Now they would like to expand their volunteer-based model for solving problems into rural Minnesota, too, so our CEO Julie Tesch sat down with the Citizens League’s public policy director Amanda Koonjbeharry to talk about what they’re working on right now and directions they’ll be going in the future. The post Ep 8: Amanda Koonjbeharry - Citizens League first appeared on Center for Rural Policy and Development.

Tourism makes up a significant piece of rural Minnesota’s economic pie. Our guest on this episode is Cynthia Messer, the director of the Tourism Center at the University of Minnesota Extension. She talked with CRPD president Julie Tesch about the research they do at the Tourism Center, the role tourism spending plays in Greater MN, the training they offer communities to enhance their tourism economies, and some of the silver linings coming out of the pandemic. The post Ep 7: Cynthia Messer - U of MN Extension | Tourism Center first appeared on Center for Rural Policy and Development.

One of the things people in rural areas talk a lot about is entrepreneurship and building a successful business. On this episode, our president and CEO Julie Tesch will be talking with Lucas and Alise Sjostrum, the owners of Redhead Creamery in Brooten, Minnesota, about their dream of cheese, how they got started in cheesemaking, how they’re navigating the Covid-19 shutdown and why just because Wisconsin makes a lot of cheese doesn’t mean they necessarily know cheese.  The post Ep 6: Alise and Lucas Sjostrom - Artisan cheese in the center of everywhere first appeared on Center for Rural Policy and Development.

Neela Mollgaard has spent the last twenty years helping entrepreneurs in Greater Minnesota get their business ideas off the ground, first with Red Wing Ignite and now with LaunchMN, a new effort from the state to foster high-tech startups. We talk about what worked with Red Wing Ignite and now what LaunchMN is doing with grants and partnerships to build support and give entrepreneurs all over the state the resources they need for a successful start. The post Ep 5: Neela Mollgaard on LaunchMN and helping entrepreneurs get started first appeared on Center for Rural Policy and Development.

Click to listen: RuralMN Radio, 1/11/19 We’re with Kevin Paap, president of Minnesota Farm Bureau, again this week to continue our conversation on the Farm Bill and some of the big issues with agriculture this legislative session. The post Kevin Paap talks Farm Bill, pt 2 first appeared on Center for Rural Policy and Development.

Dorian Grilley, executive director of the Bicycle Alliance of Minnesota, joins us to talk about the impact biking has in Greater Minnesota. https://www.ruralmn.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/RMR-06-21-2017-Bicycling-in-Rural-MN.wav The post Talking bicycle-friendly communities first appeared on Center for Rural Policy and Development.

CRPD President Brad Finstad gives his wrap up of the 2017 Minnesota legislative session. The post Legislative wrap-up with Brad Finstad first appeared on Center for Rural Policy and Development.

Rural Minnesota Radio's Jim Gullickson talks with Community and Economic Development Associates' Courtney Bergey, a Lanesboro native, about the economic impact and opportunities artists bring to rural communities. The post Impact of Art on Rural Communities first appeared on Center for Rural Policy and Development.

Tim Velde of the Center for Rural Policy and Development talks with Rural Minnesota Radio about strategies to expand clean energy production despite proposed cuts by the Trump administration. The post Clean Energy Strategies first appeared on Center for Rural Policy and Development.

Initiative Foundation President Matt Varilek talks about the aging population in rural Minnesota and what his organization is doing to reach out to a younger demographic. The post Aging Population in Rural Minnesota first appeared on Center for Rural Policy and Development.

This week on RuralMN Radio, Jim is joined by Emily Steinmetz, the central MN regional coordinator for the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits, and Michelle Kylie, of the Initiative Foundation in Little Falls, to talk about the impact of nonprofits in rural areas. Nonprofits exist in just about every town in Greater Minnesota to help people locally, showing that there will always be people willing to rise up and help their communities, says Steinmetz. The impact of nonprofits in Greater MN The post The impact of nonprofits in Greater MN first appeared on Center for Rural Policy and Development.

Following up on their discussion of small business development, this week Jim and Tim Penny talk about the shortage of skilled workers in Greater Minnesota, the education community's efforts to help, and the potential for immigrants in today's workforce. Small business development with Tim Penny, part 2 The post Small business development with Tim Penny, part 2 first appeared on Center for Rural Policy and Development.

Tim Penny, president of the Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation, joins us this week to talk about small business development and the challenges and opportunities in Greater Minnesota. Small business development with Tim Penny, part 1 The post Small business development with Tim Penny, part 1 first appeared on Center for Rural Policy and Development.

This week the Center's research director Marnie Werner talks about the Center's newest publication, “A quiet crisis: Minnesota's child care crisis.” The number of in-home family child care providers has dropped precipitously in the last ten to twenty years, and it causing problems not just for families but for their employers as well. Minnesota's child care crisis The post The search for child care first appeared on Center for Rural Policy and Development.