How to Get Involved

Indicator Report Strategies…

People and Talent

• Initiate a collaborative community effort to improve our graduation
  rates and our rates of post-secondary participation. Maximizing our
  own human capacities is the best way to enhance our workforce and
  talent position. These are tough challenges. Success will come about
  when these goals are community goals, not just school goals.

• Undertake an initiative to strengthen the connections between the
  community and its “alumni.” Park Rapids will be successful at retaining
  its talented people (and attracting back talented former residents)
  to the extent that it can develop deep connections between those people
  and the community. There are ways to do that for existing residents
  (mentorships, internships, civic engagement efforts), and for
  “community alumni” that have left (using new telecommunications
  technology).

• Target improvements that make Park Rapids attractive to those
  future workers with knowledge and skills. What does that type of
  community look like? It has a broad range of educational, health, recreational
  and cultural amenities. Skilled and talented people have options
  and are looking for great places to work, live and play.

People to contact:

Economics and Prosperity

• Complete the Downtown Revitalization Project. This is both an economic development project and a quality of place initiative.

• Develop efforts to make the community “telecommunications friendly” to grow businesses. As technology changes the Park Rapids community will have to make the intentional effort to position ourselves for success. This could take two different forms: an effort to expand broadband access, and an initiative to create a business center that can serve the needs of small business dependent on telecommunications technology.

• Continue and enhance local entrepreneurship training. The Hubbard EDC has initiated some local entrepreneurship training that is of real benefit. The community should find ways to enhance this initiative.

People to contact:

Community Wellness and Safety

• Enhance our existing partnership for health. Healthy Park Rapids 2010 is already doing some remarkable things, but the size of the community’s health issues demand broad community engagement. Possible projects that could result from this would be a community-wide weight loss challenge, an active living initiative, and an effort to make Park Rapids more pedestrian friendly.

• Make the work of the Hubbard Youth Drug and Alcohol Task Force a centerpiece in this community. Intervention at this level pays so many long-term dividends.

• Provide alternative positive activity to reduce the frequency of sedentary life styles. The ongoing discussions about a community center could be a key component of a strategy. There are other initiatives that also deserve attention: Rice Park improvements, increasing the bike and pedestrian trail system in the community, and increasing the summer outdoor recreation programs.

People to contact:

Livability

• Use our arts and culture assets to carve a niche for Park Rapids. It is obvious Park Rapids has something special going on when it comes to arts and culture opportunities. Not many communities of this size can say they house as many artists or cultural offerings as Park Rapids. Moving into the future Park Rapids can capitalize on this niche by continuing to expand these types of opportunities to attract more of the creative class. One example might be the planning of a community center in such a way that the facility can support the local arts and culture scene.

• Implement an initiative to make Park Rapids a green community. Going “green” can mean many different things on the community level, but by making Park Rapids a more environmentally friendly community we will preserve our natural environment, a major community asset, as well as the quality of life in our area. An initiative like this could take many forms but could include efforts to reduce energy consumption and waste production. Partnering with Green Park Rapids and building on initiatives they are already working on will be a key to success on this strategy.

• Develop a response to the threat to our lakes from invasive species. Our lakes are one of our key assets. One of the emerging threats is from invasive species.

• Begin to implement the Park Rapids Parks Plan. The City of Park Rapids recently completed a parks plan that identifies the ideal improvements for the existing city parks. Through implementing this plan the city parks will become even more of a community asset than they already are.

People to contact:

Social Capital and Community Readiness

• Address major future issues by creating new bridges between people of different backgrounds and institutions with different missions. New issues and opportunities can be a good excuse to enhance the community’s bridging capacity.

• Explore new ways to link leaders/decision-makers with constituencies. This is a perennial question for all leaders. How do you create the relationship needed with a constituency to effectively lead? Telecommunication technology allows those connections to be made in ways not even imagined a few years ago. We ought to explore how to make it work for us.

People to contact:

Introduction | People and Talent | Economics and Prosperity | Community Wellness and Safety | Livability
Social Capital and Community Readiness | How to Get Involved | Sources and Links