The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development is hosting a series of leadership summits to promote rural development.
The summit has been to Alma, Lawrence, and Munising. On Friday, the summit is taking in place in Gaylord before heading to Hart and Cadillac next week.
The Office of Rural Development is spearheading the event. With the office being a year old, the summits will be used as feedback to build a report to identify rural trends and opportunities in Michigan.
“In many cases they simply do not have the bandwidth to plan for those projects and pursue the funding and investment opportunities that would bring them to a community,” Office of Rural Development Director Sarah Lucas said.
Lucas said while rural and urban areas might experience similar issues, rural areas have to be more creative and targeted to solve problems.
“That’s one of the things that we’re trying to lay the groundwork for with these events,” Lucas said. “Bringing different partners together and talking about what are some of the elements of what we call readiness for future investment that they need to be thinking about.”
Conversations at the summit in Gaylord include economic development, capacity, collaboration, and housing initiatives.
Rural communities struggle with available resources and the ability to address issues that its population might face.
Lucas said the Office of Rural Development acts as a liaison to connect communities with potential partners, state agencies, decision makers and other communities across the state.
She said between 50 and 75 community leaders attend each summit.