Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

1. Team members presented a session at the National Regional Science Association which laid out the multiphase research design and the methodology to determine the impacts of structure and local agency. The structural model was presented, which allowed for identification of the outliers. Descriptions and preliminary analysis of the outliers  the places that reduced the proportion of working poor more quickly than expected and those that did so more slowly  were presented for North Carolina (an example of unemployed poor), Ohio, Missouri, Kansas, Michigan, South Dakota and Iowa. 2. The team produced a first draft of a proposal to NSF, and began the formulation of a second proposal. 3. The team will revise the proposal via WebCT/Blackboard. It will be submitted in early January. 4. The next meeting will be with the National Regional Science Association meeting in Savannah, Georgia, November.

Feb. 1, 2006 we submitted a grant proposal to NRI, which was not funded. Building on the comments from the reviewers, we have broken down the proposal into a series of more focused proposals to a variety of granting agencies including NSF and USDA NRI competitive grants program. Based on the successful breakout session that the NC1100 group organized at the 53rd Annual North American Meetings of the Regional Science Association, Nov 16-18, 2006 in Toronto, Canada, we are planning to author a special issue of the Journal of the Nation Regional Sciences Association. This links us to a multi-disciplinary group interested in this issue of economic development and rural poor. As a member of the Advisory Committee for the National Symposium on Poverty and Economic Security, we are sharing our results on the working poor and new poor in the planning work. The Northwest Area Foundation is extremely interested in our research design and results. The National Rural Funder Collaborative is particularly interested in the work of the team on Native American communities in the Great Plains for the next phase of their work. At the Regional Science Association meeting the team developed a session entitled "Factors contributing to decreasing working poor in rural counties: comparative case studies of outliers" Scott Leverage, Mich. State University economist chaired the session and organized it with the assistance of Peter Schaeffer (soc) from West Virginia Univ. Three presentations by Flora, Schulman and Anderson framed the issue, set the context and state of knowledge about working poor and offered a regression (multi-variate, cross-sectional) model of the working poor in the North Central USA. NC1100 participants presented case studies using the model with particular focus on outlier counties for the states of North Carolina, Michigan, Ohio, Kansas, Missouri, South Dakota, and Iowa. Then four discussants ( am ix of sociologists and economists) addressed issues related to the methodology (the model) and the results of the case studies. There were about 25 attendees. The session was very robust and informative. NC1100 then convened a project meeting to work on development of research proposals. In addition, NC1100 in conjunction with NCRCRD is convening research working groups on: " New Immigrants and Rural Communities (scholars from Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, California, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Oregon, New York, and North Carolina) " The Impact of Visioning on rural community change, which is just beginning in collaboration with scholars from Illinois. " The community conditions under which entrepreneurship contributes to community economic development (Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin are the states involved to date, but we are expanding the work on this. " The intersection of local food systems, access to active recreation, and health, as measured by obesity (Iowa and New York, with new states being added). Two proposals are under development, with a third proposal for a conference in negotiation. " The impact of ethanol production on community capitals (Wisconsin, Iowa, and Missouri in the initial discussions) In the next year, we will complete the special issue of the journal, submit two research proposals, and convene each of the emergent research teams to share on-going research and to develop research proposalsShort-term Outcomes: Three major Foundations have adopted the capitals framework in their programming and evaluation. Two major Foundations and one Federal agency (USDA/Rural Development/ Rural Utilities are using our regional multi-variate regression model as a basis of determining community readiness for different kinds of rural investments. We have identified 84 communities in the North Central Region where structural trends do not predict the change in the working poor. Outputs: " Development of an econometric model of working poor for the North Central region " One session presenting our design and results at the National Regional Science Association. " Identification of the outlier counties for the North Central region. Activities: The team refined its multi-state multivariate model through a series of iterations and discussions. Case studies were carried out with positive and negative outliers in three NCRA states. All outliers were surveyed in one state. Two states were studied to compare those communities that followed the trend and compared them to the outliers. Milestones: Receive grants for different stages of the research. Outside investments in rural communities that intend to address the condition of the working poor are made by market, state and civil society based on the degree of readiness identified by the research. Rural communities and regions invest local resources in more effective ways to reduce working poverty. Return on investments in rural communities increases.

Emery, M., S. Fey, and C.B. Flora, 2006. Using Community Capitals to Build Assets for Positive Community Change. CD Practice 13. http://www.comm-dev.org/ Emery, M. and C.B. Flora. 2006. "Spiraling-Up: Mapping Community Transformation with Community Capitals Framework." Community Development: Journal of the Community Development Society 37: 19-35. http://www.ncrcrd.iastate.edu/pubs/flora/spiralingup.htm Fey, S., C. Bregendahl, and C.B. Flora, 2006. The Measurement of Community Capitals through Research: A Study Conducted for the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation by the North Central Regional Center for Rural Development. Online Journal of Rural Research and Policy 1.Available at http://www.ojrrp.org/issues/2006/01/index.html Flora, C.B. and A. Thiboumery. 2005. Community Capitals: Poverty Reduction and Rural Development in Dry Areas. Annals of Arid Zone 45 (3-4): 1-2. (Published in 2006). Green, Gary Paul. Forthcoming. Workforce Development in Rural America: Building the High Road. Cheltenham, UK and Northhampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing. Green, Gary Paul. 2006. Community-based anti-poverty programs. Forthcoming in Encyclopedia of World Poverty, Mehmet Odekon (ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Submitted: Green, Gary and Paul and Landy Sanchez. "Does Manufacturing Still Matter?" Submitted to Population and Development Review.