(upbeat music) - Hello and welcome to "the Journal."

I'm Steve Kendall, rural communities face challenges when it comes to competing with their larger counterparts, the re-imagining rural regions or R3 program at Bowling Green State University Center for Regional Development is an effort to bridge those divides.

In this edition of "Journal" we will be joined by several members of the CRD team.

For our opening segment, we're joined by the senior director of the Center for Regional Development, Dr. Russell Mils and the CRD Program Manager, Maddi Menich.

So, we welcome both of you to "Journal," and Dr. Mills, talk a little about the Center for Regional Development because it's been around for a number of years, does a lot of great things, but maybe not everybody's familiar with it.

- Yeah, thanks, Steve.

The center for regional development's been around on one form or another since 1982, we view ourselves as a community asset that serves 31 counties across Northwest Ohio, really in the areas of economic community and workforce development.

People know us for a variety of things.

One, I would say is our data analytics capabilities, our program evaluation capabilities, our annual State of the Region Conference, which we do up at Levitt's Commons, which usually brings about 300 to 350 people across the region together to discuss topics.

We do a lot of survey research, and then, what we've really branched into now with our re-imagining rural regions initiative is, or our re-imagining R3 program as we call it, is place-making and planning along those areas to really help rural communities think about their assets, and also, help position themselves to attract and retain young people, which is a very significant problem across Northwest Ohio.

- Sure, and usually, I guess, Mattie, especially when you come to rural communities, smaller communities, they don't have a lot of resources, larger cities, metropolitan areas tend to have a lot more resource to draw on for things like this.

So, it's important for you guys to be available for them because it gives them a resource they don't normally have in house.

- Yeah, a lot of these communities have some really cool things going on.

It's all about that community spirit, and they have some innovative things happening, but sometimes there's just not the capacity to do the planning, the surveying, the public engagement, and so, we're able to bring that by bridging the expertise and the resources of BGSU and bringing those into those communities around us and retaining young talent.

We really want to make sure that those towns are set up to bring home those kids who've come back from college and are excited about the fun things that are happening in their town.

- Now, and that's gotta be a challenge because I know, even with my own son, he grew up in Northwest Ohio, rural Northwest Ohio.

He got too far from Bowling Green, he wanted to go to a bigger city when he got out of college, and that's what he did.

He went to Nashville and he went to New York City, and he wanted to do that, and part of it was because that's where the positions that he wanted were available.

They weren't necessarily available here, and some of the other amenities that he didn't feel were here, and they might have been here, but they just weren't well-publicized, maybe, or marketed well.

So, that is a challenge for you guys to, when you look at these smaller communities, say, make sure you talk up your assets, make sure you are doing things that are gonna attract people to stay.

- Well, and I think, Steve, COVID changed a lot of the way we look at workforce development and attraction, and retention.

I think, now that the link between where a job is and where somebody lives is the weakest it's ever been.

So, you can live in rural Northwest Ohio, but work for a company that's based in New York City, for instance, and take advantage of the lower cost of living, et cetera.

The thing that we found is the missing link there is really that communities have assets, particularly in rural communities.

They just don't know how to either, A, invest in them or find grant funding to elevate those or to market those, and then they really don't quite know what the members of their community want in terms of new assets, speaking to these people about what kinds of things would help keep their young people there.

So, that's what we really tried to offer through the R3 program is that initial capacity for the communities to, A, figure out what they have in their communities, their assets, and how to elevate those, and then, really, do really deep public engagement to find out what are the assets that people would want in their community without losing that uniqueness that makes the town what it is.

- Well, and it's a case too, where they are a small town and that, in itself, can be an asset, but you don't wanna lose that in the translation now to try and make it more attractive.

You don't wanna lose that small or rural feel that is why people have been there to begin with.

- Exactly, and we had the unique opportunity to reach out to folks, especially college students who have moved away and might be in their prime time to either make a decision to move back or move somewhere else, and to see what those amenities are that they've gotten used to in Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati, and see if those are applicable to the smaller communities.

I mean, it's much more easier to afford a house in one of these communities, the quality of life and the cost of living are excellent, and so, to see that kind of difference between the bigger cities, but also still having opportunities in the smaller cities, you're able to put town roots and sometimes people wanna come home so that they can have childcare for their kiddos that they're starting to have, or just to have that small town feel again.

- Yeah, now, and I know you talk about, at the Center for Region Development around since the 80s, why this program now?

I mean, what was the impetus to kind of put this into place and develop this?

Did you do some research and say, "Oh, this is what people need now.

"This is one of the things we should be providing."

- Well, I would say, after COVID, we, as a team really got together and what we were hearing from a lot of our communities were, we want to take advantage of this remote work shift, and so, when we really started digging into that, we really uncovered that, a lot of communities didn't know where to start.

They didn't know what kind of questions to ask.

They didn't have the capacity to go out and get a grant.

So, we actually started this program without grant funding ourselves, and we're gonna do it, and then we were fortunate enough to get a USDA Rural Placemaking Innovation Challenge Grant.

So, it was a competitive grant.

We wanted to do our first cohort of communities, which were Marysville, the City of Van Wert, and also the village of Gibson Burke, and so, we're wrapping up the first part of that.

The other thing that sort of motivated us to do this was really leveraging BGSU, graduate students and undergraduate students, and we've worked with students for years at CRD, that's mainly most of our staff, I would say, but we really wanted to figure out a more purposeful way to train our students, and then, also, use them in the communities, giving them a great educational experience as well.

So, that was really the two competing things, and then, honestly, I've been surprised a bit by the success of the program.

We've had more applications, a lot more applications to do it, than we can actually do.

So, we did picked another three communities, including Bowling Green Mansfield, and then the Village of Pauling for our second cohort, which we were working with this year, and so, we know that there's a lot of demand for this across Northwest Ohio, and we're trying to find resources to expand the program in the future.

- Now, Maddy, when you talk about, we're talking about smaller communities, rural regions, what are the criteria?

So, how small do you have to be, or what, where do you cross the threshold of being too big for the program?

- That's a great idea.

That's a great question, and we've kind of grappled with that as we went into the second cohort, but really, we've looked at the identity of the towns and what they self-identify as.

I believe with the USDA, they'd say about 55,000 or younger, or less, is that about it?

And so, some of the communities are up towards that population, but there's still that sort of roots of a rural community.

What are the different industries happening there?

How do the folks identify, and really capitalizing on the fact that you can have a little bit of a bigger population, but still be small town?

And then we have someone like Gibsonburg who has about almost 3000 folks.

So, it's nice to have a range of all of them and work with different communities.

- Yeah, and the reality of it is most of Ohio is rural.

I mean, we obviously have big cities, but the reality is once you leave a city, even like Bowling Green, it becomes visually rural within 500 yards, or whatever, your cornfield comes right up against the city, and so, when we talk rural, people think, "Oh, it's farm country, whatever," but you do have these small towns, and even something like Van Wert, which is a city, but it's located, it's surrounded by basically rural territory.

It's not part of a big metropolitan area.

So, yeah, we've got just a moment.

Is there anything else you want to add about the program if people want to get involved?

And I know we're gonna talk to a couple of your grad students in the upcoming segments who are kinda like the boots on the ground for this a little bit.

- Yeah, so, yeah.

I would say, again, we're trying to find funding to continue the program out into the future, and work with more communities.

So, our website, we have a whole page on the Reimagining Rural Regions Project, and I would just say one of the very interesting things, I think we're most proud of, in standing this up is, we were nominated for a University of Economic Development Association.

So, the trade association of all the organizations like us, basically, you do economic development.

We're a finalist for the Awards of Excellence this year for the program.

So, I don't think we thought it was gonna go this quickly, but again, the reason for that is Maddi and our students, frankly, the hard work and dedication they've put in this far.

- Well, to gather instance too, of the university being out there, working for the public, with the public, to improve life for everybody in Northwest, Ohio and beyond, for that matter too, so great.

Well, Dr. Mils, thank you so much for being on.

Maddi Menich, thank you so much, and we'll be back in just a moment with a couple of the grad students who are working, literally, on the ground with the R3 program in just a moment back on "the Journal."

Thank you for staying with us on "the Journal."

Our guests are representatives from Bowling Green State University Center for Regional Development, and specifically, what's called the R3 program, and we're joined in this segment by Maddi Menich, who is the program manager, and then, two of the graduate students that work on the program, Kylie Stanley and Jon-Luke Martin.

So, thank you for being here today and talking about this, and Maddi, in the first segment, we kind of got into what our three was, but talk a little about now, obviously, you pick three communities initially, and as you folks mentioned in the first segment, three additional communities, but right now, the focus is on three current communities.

So, talk a little about that, and then, you guys are the boots on the ground on this.

You can talk about how you've been doing that and how it's been going.

- Yeah.

- We have three communities and we have a graduate student for each of those communities, and then, we recruited PACE students.

So, Placemaking and Community Engagement Students who are undergrads, to have two of those in each of those communities, we have six undergraduate students and three graduate students, and they really make this program work because they're the ones on the ground, like you said, building capacity and doing these projects with the communities, and one of the biggest parts of that is that we did a really intensive training throughout the spring so that they are able to go out there and make a difference.

- Okay, now, when you guys first go out, obviously, now, which are you working each with separate communities, both of you?

- Yeah, I'm in Van Wert and then he's in Marysville.

- So, when you first go out, Kylie, who generally is your contact, and you know that ahead of time, obviously, but who typically is there, do they assign to work with you at level, at the municipal level?

- Yeah, it's different for every community, but, for Van Wert, we worked closely with the County Foundation and also, with a nonprofit called Van Wert Forward.

So, they actually already had a lot of revitalization going on.

So, those two organizations were really good about getting back to us, and giving us ideas for public engagement, because they already have this 10 year plan that they're kind of in the middle of.

So, we were able to jump in and help them with those public engagement processes.

- And Jon-Luke, what was your experience, initially?

- So, we mainly worked with the Marysville Union County Economic Development Organization, which was a pretty established organization, and with Jason Stanford, who was the director at that time, and it was a great experience, very knowledgeable, Marysville was the largest of the three communities.

So, I got a pretty unique experience in getting to see kind of this still role, but larger expanse kind of unfold with maybe a bit of a more established steering committee and other things like that.

- Now, when you go out, obviously, as both of you mentioned, they had initiatives in place, how do you work with them to say, "Okay, we can take what you have, "but here's some things you might want to think about doing, "because sometimes convincing people "to try different things or approach things differently "when they're already in the process "can be a little difficult."

So, how do you manage that, because that's a lot of people skills, a lot of interaction, and saying, "Hey, you've got good ideas, "but here's some other ideas you might want to try."

- Yeah, I think we had really good training.

I had the unique opportunity to be a PACE fellow and now transition into being a graduate assistant.

So, I got all that training on public engagement, what you should say to people, how you should react to what they tell you, and meeting with our partners, they were very open.

One of the projects we actually did, my partner, Emma and I, we came up with the idea to do interactive posters.

So people could come put stickers on what they wanted to see in their community, and we said that in a meeting and they'd jumped on it, they really liked the idea.

So, I think the training to have the confidence to give those kind of ideas really helped.

- Sure.

- Yeah, and my experience was a little bit different because I wasn't a PACE student to begin with.

I came in right as an R3 graduate, and so, at that time, I would mainly lean on my team leads, who would be Maddi and then Dr. Mils, who you've talked to before and they would kind of instruct me on how to do those kinds of things, and then, over the course of the year, after we taught the PACE students, I have gotten to take more of a leadership role.

So, now, I've had more direct contact with those kinds of people and I've got to lead that community engagement a bit more directly.

- And the main part of the program really is that it's all driven by the community.

We have community steering communities.

So, we're not really coming in and saying, this is what you should do because we know better than you.

It's more of us helping to bring out those voices, especially, of folks who haven't been heard before.

- Yeah, and like any community, there are diverse opinions on what should happen, not happen, should we do this, should we not?

Do you run into situations too, now, of course, you're dealing with people who are looking forward, generally, has there been any resistance to any of this because sometimes communities are like, "No, no, we like where we are, "but then, they wouldn't have gotten involved "if they didn't wanna move forward, I guess," but do you ever encounter that when somebody comes up after a meeting and says, "Wow, I don't really like "what we're doing here at all "or has it been pretty seamlessly forward going?"

- Actually, I've gotta say it's been pretty seamless.

All of the communities have been pretty excited to have us in there.

That BGSU name seems to elicit a lot of positive reactions, and I think the biggest thing is, is that we are doing that community-led engagement.

We're not coming in on some ivory tower telling them what they should do, we're asking them what they want and then helping them to complete those projects.

- Yeah, listening and gathering information and then taking that, and yeah, what was your biggest challenge when you first got there?

Were there any that were like, "Oh, I didn't see this one coming kind of, "when I got together the first time, or not?"

- Yeah, I think going into it, people expect things to get done very quickly, and a lot of us have learned over the program that it takes time because you have to ask the community what they want and then meet with your community partners to see what resources you have to meet that need.

So, I think a lot of us went in really expecting something quick, fast-paced, but it's really nice, because even though it does go a little slower, you're seeing that end result, like what we do in Van Wert.

We have all this research now about what the community wants to see, and we get to give that back to the County Foundation and say, like, "This is what people really want.

"This is what they are striving for in the future.

"So, if we could find some kind of program to fund it "and get that going," it just was such a good experience to get out there and ask people, not just, steering committees and nonprofits, but what the people wanna see, and then, that can be transformed in the next however many years.

- Well, and I think you guys are clear on the fact that you go out and listen, you don't come in and say, here's a list of things you need to do.

We've looked at what you have, here's what you wanna do.

You listen and get their feel for where they think they are, where they think they want to be and then kind of package that together for them.

When you first go out, I guess, when you entered the program, what were your thoughts?

Has it been what you expected it to be?

I mean, was it what you thought it was gonna be?

So, "I wanna try this."

"This is what I think it is," and then, "Oh, it's a little different," or, was it what you thought it was gonna be?

- I guess, personally, it was a lot more than what I thought it was gonna be.

I have gotten so much out of this experience, especially, as an undergrad going into my masters, it was an internship far beyond any I've ever done before.

The skills that we learned during training, and then, just the experience of getting out, and doing public engagement, interviews, focus groups, stuff like that, it's just so valuable to me, and when I go forward, after my masters, I'm really confident that this role as a PACE fellow and as a graduate assistant will get me really far in life.

So, it's been a really cool experience.

- [Steve] And your experience?

- It's actually been pretty fantastic.

I moved fields when I entered this master's program, and so, I was a bit behind all of my classmates, and so, getting this, I didn't really know what to expect, but I drew great things about the Center for Regional Development and knew that this was a pretty fantastic program.

So, I was excited to get into it, and it's pretty much given me a bit of a jump.

I now have direct experience in the field that I want to do coming in at a disadvantage.

So, I've gotta say that it's been pretty fantastic.

- Yeah, yeah, good.

Well be back because we're gonna take a break here.

We'll come back because there's a lot more to talk about with you folks.

Back in just a moment, the R3 Program at the Center for Regional Development at Bowling Green State University.

Back on the journal in just a moment.

Thank you for staying with us here on "the Journal."

We're talking with representatives from the Center for Regional Development at Bowling Green State University, and specifically, their R3 Program, and we're joined this segment as we were in the last one by Maddi Menich, who's the program manager for R3 and then two graduate students, Kylie Stanley and Jon-Luke Martin, and I know, early on, we talked about the fact, the City of Bowling Green, which is, of course, the home of Bowling Green State University is one of the upcoming projects, and Jon-Luke, I know you're kind of integral in that right now.

So, talk a bit about Bowling Green, which is a university town versus some of the other communities you guys have been working in.

- Yeah, this is the first one we'll have that has a college, and I'm not the only graduate student on this one, Marcus Golsby, as well, will actually be joining me.

We're gonna double team it, and so, mainly we're currently going to work with the mayor's initiative of the Heritage 2025, which draws back to that Heritage 2000, and the goal is to kind of look back at Bowling Green, positively, see what has brought up, and see what we can do for it.

Maybe even look ahead into the future and see kind of what we can bring to this town going forward and maybe even combining those different populations within the city.

- Oh, yeah, and both of you, I know we were talking about this.

You come from relatively small communities, not necessarily small towns, but communities that are rural in nature.

So, that kind of gives you a perspective too, that maybe other people wouldn't have coming from a larger city.

I know you mentioned that you come from a town that's a lot of factories, a lot of things like that, but it's still very rural in nature.

- Yeah, and I think, coming from the rural background, you see how much they've struggled throughout the years to get the same kind of funding and initiatives as the bigger surrounding towns get, and going into college, I didn't think I wanted to work in rural areas.

I wanted to go to a big city and do something different, and just doing research through this program has really steered me into the direction of rural areas because they need so much help, and the way we do it with place making, it's not telling them what they need, which I know a lot of rural towns have experienced and backfired.

So, it's nice to kind of make my hometown proud a little bit with all this knowledge I've gained in going out into the community.

It just makes me hopeful for what we can do.

- Yeah, and because I know, and I'm sure you know, and Maddi, when you talk about this too, all the communities have to be successful in a region for the region to be successful.

You can't have pockets of success in other areas that have fallen way behind, and that's sort of, I mean, especially with the way things have evolved over the last 20, 30 years, smaller communities seem to be losing population, losing jobs, losing things that made people wanna live there to begin with.

So, this is a way to kind of try to recapture that and get them moving back in a direction where a lot of them can be successful at that again.

- Yes, I think we're at a time where there's a lot of positive movement about to happen.

There has been so many things that have been going great within these communities and so many smaller communities working together, and I think now that there's attention towards that, there's a lot of funding out there to bring to those communities and then to just make sure that they're part of that bigger community of Ohio in Northwest Ohio, and that we're, and when you think of economic development, we're not just thinking about Toledo or the bigger Metro cities, we're looking at all of the region.

- Sure, now, one of the things I know, obviously, you've recruited a lot of really good graduate students that work with the program.

We have two of them here today.

You'll be looking for more students, as the program, obviously, it's expanding, and you want to obviously get as many people involved as you can.

So, talk a little about what you're looking for when you go to recruit graduate students for this program.

- Yeah, so actually, it's a one year program for the undergraduate students.

The graduate students we've been able to keep them on and actually, transition two of our undergraduate students into graduate school.

We weren't willing to let 'em go, and so, we are actually recruiting for more undergraduate students now.

So, we'll be starting off at Campus Fest.

We'll be at all of the big events for the Weeks of Welcome for the University, and we're looking for anybody who's just really excited about doing something big in their community or something that's different.

We are open to any major really, and some of the majors even would allow this to be an internship.

So, we look for anybody who's usually not the first year, but maybe their second or third year looking for their place on campus because this has become a great community.

I've loved watching the PACE students become a little group of their own and doing bonding activities outside of the training.

It's just been a really great opportunity for all of the students, I think.

So, we're looking for that next cohort.

The applications will be out this fall.

So, keep an eye out on your campus update and we'll be sure to get in touch with you.

- Now, how long, we didn't ask you this earlier, how long have you both been with the program?

I mean, we touched on that a little bit.

How long are they in for, generally, if you recruit an undergraduate student, you expect to keep them through two or three years?

- Usually, it's about-- - You said one year.

- One year, yeah.

So, Kylie started training in January.

We hired her right before that, and it is a paid internship, which is a big part, a big bonus.

(laughing) - Very nice.

- We all love paid internships.

- Right?

- Yes, we do.

- It's a way to do it.

So, yeah, and then, going through the summer.

So it's about nine months or so, I'd say.

- Now both of you, what are you majoring in?

- Yeah, I actually just graduated with my undergrad in April.

So, I was a pay student and I studied philosophy, politics, economics, and law, and then both Jon-Luke and I are going into our master's of public administration, but it was really, I got a lot of good foundation in my undergrad, a lot of background knowledge on how economics impacts people differently in different areas.

So, it's been really cool to transition that knowledge into tangible place making.

- Yeah, well, and the four things you mentioned all come in extremely handy for what you're doing, and how about you Jon-Luke?

- So, this would be the second year of my Masters of Public Administration, and so, I started my first year and I started with R3 at the same time.

- Yeah, and it's interesting because right now government work isn't, a lot of people aren't thrilled by, you get classified into a group of people like, "Well, it's the government," but the reality is, folks, you and the people that do that are always working to improve neighborhoods, improve communities, that sort of thing.

So, it's good to see that you guys are really enthused about going into something that's gonna serve the public in a extremely great way, and glad that there are people like you around to do that because some people go, I don't know, that could be a little tricky right now, but you guys are enthused, and you've seen the success, and that that's a good thing.

So, yeah, yeah, is there one thing you would...

If somebody's interested in the program and say, here's why you should become a PACE student or become an R3 student.

- I guess, for the PACE fellows, it is such a great experience, and not only did I get skills for jobs, I also made really awesome friends and managed to get one of my PACE fellows to go to grad school with me and go continue in the program.

So, just taking away like so many amazing skills and also, the friendships and connections I've made in BG and in my community have been super invaluable.

- Yeah, and for the graduate assistantship, I mean, you're getting direct work experience for the field that you're trying to go into.

You're gonna be a step ahead above anybody else.

The CRD does fantastic work from what I've seen and what I've participated in, and so, having that on your resume is gonna be a pretty huge uptick when you're looking for employers later.

- Yeah, good point, good point.

Well, thank you so much for coming on and doing this, and thank you for your hard work and your success in these communities, and best wishes as you move your careers forward, and Maddi, thank you for coming on.

You can find all this information, if you go to BGSU Center Regional Development, you can find the R3 and get all the information for it.

So, good, yeah, thank you so much.

Thanks for coming on.

- Thank you.

- Thank you, Steve.

- Yeah, and you can check us at wbgu.org, and of course you can watch us every Thursday night at eight o'clock on WBGU-PBS.

We'll see you again, next time.

Good night, and good luck.

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