New campaign helps rural people find their hometown advantage
Every small town has something going for it — something uniquely its own. Co-operatives First, a non-profit organization in western Canada, wants to inspire rural people to discover, celebrate, and harness their “hometown advantage” to grow their local economies.
The Hometown Advantage campaign emphasizes the importance of people in small communities using their ingenuity to create and attract the services and infrastructure they need — and, of course, point out that co-operatives are a great way to do it.
“Rural people know the challenges that face their communities — they are also not afraid to roll up their sleeves and do the work of solving their own problems. With the Hometown Advantage campaign, we want to help people identify how to use the advantages and resources they already have to come up with local solutions,” explains Heather Hallgrimson, Cooperatives First Business Development Lead
“For many years, people have built co-operatives to provide goods and services they need when no one else is doing it for them. Some people think the co-op model is a thing of the past — but co-ops can be a great way to help grow modern economies. The first steps are identifying an opportunity and finding a group of local people who want to work together to make things happen,” adds Audra Krueger, Co-operatives First Executive Director.
The campaign includes:
• A 7- part video series at hometownadvantage.ca about how small towns can capitalize on their unique attributes and opportunities;
• An e-book guide for Economic Developers and community leaders on how co-operatives fit into business retention and investment attraction strategies;
• A social media contest, with prizes of $500 Co-op gift cards, where participants post great things about their communities using# hometown advantage;
• A webinar series, featuring timely conversations with economic development professionals about how to leverage local assets, grow the local economy and create community-building incentives.