{"id":15212,"date":"2023-11-09T10:25:13","date_gmt":"2023-11-09T16:25:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/?p=15212"},"modified":"2023-11-09T10:25:13","modified_gmt":"2023-11-09T16:25:13","slug":"solve-rural-community-challenges-the-idea-friendly-way-stories-from-iedc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/2023\/11\/solve-rural-community-challenges-the-idea-friendly-way-stories-from-iedc.html","title":{"rendered":"Solve Rural Community Challenges\u00a0the Idea Friendly Way &#8211; stories from IEDC"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_15236\" style=\"width: 1210px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-15236\" class=\"size-full wp-image-15236\" src=\"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/2023-09-IEDC-interactive-workshop.-Photo-via-IEDC-19-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"a group of people work around a table to apply the Idea Friendly Method to a rural challenge\" width=\"1200\" height=\"798\" srcset=\"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/2023-09-IEDC-interactive-workshop.-Photo-via-IEDC-19-scaled.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/2023-09-IEDC-interactive-workshop.-Photo-via-IEDC-19-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/2023-09-IEDC-interactive-workshop.-Photo-via-IEDC-19-800x532.jpg 800w, https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/2023-09-IEDC-interactive-workshop.-Photo-via-IEDC-19-768x511.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-15236\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo courtesy of IEDC<\/p><\/div>\n<h3>Guest post by Deb Brown<\/h3>\n<h3><strong>What attendees learned from attending the Idea Friendly Session by SaveYour.Town at the International Economic Development Council Conference &#8212; Big Ideas you can copy in your town\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Becky McCray and I were excited to lead an interactive Idea Friendly workshop at the International Economic Development Council Conference in Dallas in September of 2023. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Idea Friendly Method is:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>You gather your crowd with a big idea.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li><b>You turn that crowd into a capable network through building connections.<\/b><\/li>\n<li><b>You and the crowd accomplish the big idea through small steps.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>What Happened in the Idea Friendly Workshop<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Attendees developed their own Idea Friendly Projects after learning what Idea Friendly is and how to use it effectively in rural communities.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Engaging the audience, we asked what their rural challenges were. Not surprisingly, they aligned with the top 5 rural challenges on our <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/saveyour.town\/survey-of-rural-challenges-2023-results\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Survey of Rural Challenges results<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Shortage of good housing<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Downtown is dead<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Not enough volunteers<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Losing Young People<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lack of Childcare<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The attendees broke off into groups and chose a challenge to work on together. Each table had a flipchart sheet and the group worked the challenge through the Idea Friendly Method. The different groups presented their results to the entire room.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_15245\" style=\"width: 1210px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-15245\" class=\"size-full wp-image-15245\" src=\"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/2023-09-IEDC-interactive-workshop-Becky-McCray-with-attendees.-Photo-via-IEDC-16-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A group of people around a table work to apply the Idea Friendly method\" width=\"1200\" height=\"798\" srcset=\"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/2023-09-IEDC-interactive-workshop-Becky-McCray-with-attendees.-Photo-via-IEDC-16-scaled.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/2023-09-IEDC-interactive-workshop-Becky-McCray-with-attendees.-Photo-via-IEDC-16-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/2023-09-IEDC-interactive-workshop-Becky-McCray-with-attendees.-Photo-via-IEDC-16-800x532.jpg 800w, https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/2023-09-IEDC-interactive-workshop-Becky-McCray-with-attendees.-Photo-via-IEDC-16-768x511.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-15245\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo courtesy of IEDC<\/p><\/div>\n<h2><b>What the Big Ideas were:\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n<h3><b>Challenge: Housing<\/b><\/h3>\n<h3><b>Big Idea: Offsetting public infrastructure to incentivize private development<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This idea brought to light the number of people who wanted help with a 12 unit housing development. <\/span><b>The first small step they would take is to work with the economic development organization to find ways to bring the interested parties together for a conversation<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-15240\" src=\"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/IEDC-Idea-Friendly-workshop-results-2.jpg\" alt=\"A big sheet of paper with the Idea Friendly Method applied to housing. \" width=\"750\" height=\"1000\" srcset=\"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/IEDC-Idea-Friendly-workshop-results-2.jpg 750w, https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/IEDC-Idea-Friendly-workshop-results-2-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/IEDC-Idea-Friendly-workshop-results-2-600x800.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\" \/><\/h3>\n<h3><b>Challenge: Not enough volunteers<\/b><\/h3>\n<h3><b>Big Idea: Volunteer engagement and involving the whole community<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Their ideas included helping to promote all the possibilities for volunteering and creating a guide to managing volunteers ensuring any required government protocols are well explained. <\/span><b>They created a brilliant tagline: <\/b><b><i>making volunteering painless<\/i><\/b><b>.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-15241\" src=\"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/IEDC-Idea-Friendly-workshop-results-3.jpg\" alt=\"A big sheet of paper with the Idea Friendly Method applied to finding volunteers. \" width=\"750\" height=\"1000\" srcset=\"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/IEDC-Idea-Friendly-workshop-results-3.jpg 750w, https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/IEDC-Idea-Friendly-workshop-results-3-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/IEDC-Idea-Friendly-workshop-results-3-600x800.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\" \/><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One attendee said to me, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cFriend, I\u2019m just a redneck from Alabama and I never get to meet people from other places. <\/span><\/i><b><i>This was awesome!<\/i><\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201d Attendees came from the continental United States, Puerto Rico, Bermuda, Saipan, and Canada.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<h3><b>Challenge: Losing our young people<\/b><\/h3>\n<h3><b>Big Idea: Helping youth boomerang back<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This group was excited about working with different organizations and people to create a strong publicity campaign. This big idea uses storytelling and sharing the small wins with some catchy promotional pieces<\/span><b>. \u201c<\/b><b><i>Wish you were here<\/i><\/b><b>\u201d, \u201c<\/b><b><i>While you were gone<\/i><\/b><b>\u201d, and \u201c<\/b><b><i>We\u2019ve grown up<\/i><\/b><b>\u201d are some of the hooks to use in promoting the community to their audience of young people.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<h3><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-15239\" src=\"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/IEDC-Idea-Friendly-workshop-results-7.jpg\" alt=\"A big sheet of paper with the Idea Friendly Method applied to helping youth boomerang back to rural places\" width=\"750\" height=\"1000\" srcset=\"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/IEDC-Idea-Friendly-workshop-results-7.jpg 750w, https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/IEDC-Idea-Friendly-workshop-results-7-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/IEDC-Idea-Friendly-workshop-results-7-600x800.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\" \/><\/h3>\n<h3><b>Big Idea: Downtown is dead<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These folks took their big idea to fill the downtown and built out a list of who else wanted to work with them, and then built possible connections that could help get it done. <\/span><b>They realized they were not alone and had others in their towns that wanted to help.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<h2><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-15243\" src=\"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/IEDC-Idea-Friendly-workshop-results-5.jpg\" alt=\"A big sheet of paper with the Idea Friendly Method applied to reviving a dead downtown\" width=\"750\" height=\"1000\" srcset=\"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/IEDC-Idea-Friendly-workshop-results-5.jpg 750w, https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/IEDC-Idea-Friendly-workshop-results-5-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/IEDC-Idea-Friendly-workshop-results-5-600x800.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\" \/><\/h2>\n<h3><b>Challenge: Lack of childcare<\/b><\/h3>\n<h3><b>Big Idea: Create a downtown childcare facility<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n<p>After identifying a long list of people and organizations that would want to join this project, the group came up with the idea of playground &#8220;playdate&#8221; to bring them all together for productive discussion. <strong>They were excited to see how a new downtown childcare facility could not only improve the availability of childcare, but also spur downtown revitalization and contribute to positive placemaking.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-15242\" src=\"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/IEDC-Idea-Friendly-workshop-results-4.jpg\" alt=\"A big sheet of paper with the Idea Friendly Method applied to the lack of childcare\" width=\"750\" height=\"1000\" srcset=\"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/IEDC-Idea-Friendly-workshop-results-4.jpg 750w, https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/IEDC-Idea-Friendly-workshop-results-4-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/IEDC-Idea-Friendly-workshop-results-4-600x800.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\" \/><\/p>\n<h2><b>Creating Idea Friendly Projects is an easy to use and effective way to address our rural challenges.\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This interactive IEDC session was a great success, and it was inspiring to see the plans the participants came up with to address the challenges they were facing. By working together and using innovative approaches, we can create more vibrant and resilient rural communities that are better equipped to face the challenges of the future.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><b><i>\u201cThank you both so much for your preparation and execution of your session today!<\/i><\/b><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Sincerely, it was a true pleasure meeting and supporting you today. <\/span><\/i><b><i>Your preparation and professionalism was reflected in your session. I appreciate your adaptability as well.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Alexa Schultz, IEDC<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h2>Next steps:<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/saveyour.town\/contact\/\">Reach out to SaveYour.Town about an Idea Friendly Workshop for your community or event<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Read more about the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/saveyour.town\/idea-friendly-method-explained\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Idea Friendly Method<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You can also watch a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/learnto.saveyour.town\/idea-friendly-method\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">24 minute Idea Friendly<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> video for a $5 investment into your community.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Don\u2019t forget to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/saveyour.town\/signup-newsletter\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">sign up for our free weekly newsletter<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that addresses rural challenges!\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Guest post by Deb Brown What attendees learned from attending the Idea Friendly Session by SaveYour.Town at the International Economic Development Council Conference &#8212; Big Ideas you can copy in your town\u00a0 Becky McCray and I were excited to lead an interactive Idea Friendly workshop at the International Economic Development Council Conference in Dallas in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":97,"featured_media":15235,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,10,13,8,19],"tags":[764,767,475,615,358,768,481],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/2023-09-IEDC-interactive-workshop.-Photo-via-IEDC-6-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15212"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/97"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15212"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15247,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15212\/revisions\/15247"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}