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• Strengthen three to six community-based projects through the involvement of UMM faculty and students;
  
• Provide 10 faculty fellowships and four student fellowships for community-based research projects;
  
• Cultivate and improve the perceived viability (by UMM faculty) for the west central Minnesota region as a "laboratory" that can be utilized to complete research;
• Mentor faculty members who have an interest in developing rural research agendas;
• Increase statewide awareness of rural research findings.

Three regional development projects are now underway.

Project 1: Collaborative School Bus Routing. UMM faculty: Dr. Peh Ng, Professor of Mathematics. The goal of this project is to develop models of school bus routes both within a school district and between five school districts in west-central Minnesota.
The project entails determining optimum models for vehicle routing across our area in a cost- and time-effective way. By determining the location and number of students in the dispersed areas, together with time, models can be built to determine routes, and flows, of student pickups. Mathematically, these are referred to as combinatorial problems. The solutions would allow our school districts to save transportation funds (at the approximate rate of $1.60 per mile) while at the same time providing an efficient solution to overlapping geographic areas brought about by open enrollment. The schools involved in this project are Chokio-Alberta, Clinton-Graceville-Beardsley, Cyrus, Hancock, and Morris.

Project 2: Skills, Careers, Employees and Employers. UMM faculty: Dr. Engin Sungur, Professor of Statistics. The goal of this project is to identify gaps between employers in the region who have entry-level positions that will lead to higher-wage positions and those individuals seeking employment. Employers report they are unable to find workers who have the necessary skills to enter employment. Prospective employees report they are not able to find entry-level positions in the region. In order to build skills that qualify family members to hold better jobs within the region, it is imperative that we understand what skills are required for positions that allow individuals to move into high-demand, higher-wage positions, directly or through career ladders. This will be completed through interviews and/or a survey of employers, employees, and employee training programs.

The Jobs, Careers and Employability workgroup requested this project. This workgroup is a subcommittee of the Family Economic Success program provided by the West Central Initiative with funding from the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The workgroup will identify a series of questions for employers, adult job seekers and K-12 organizations that provides data to better understand the current gap between the skills that current perspective employees present to the labor market with the skills currently required by employers. In this way, programs or other strategies can be developed to address the gap rather than making assumptions about the needed skills.

Project 3: The Value of Culture and Education. UMM faculty: Carol Marxen, Associate Professor of Education. The goal of this project is to work with the Long Prairie-Grey Eagle High School to demonstrate the value of culture and education to the Hispanic community. It has been found that Hispanic students that finish high school generally do not pursue post-secondary educational opportunities. The Willmar School District will provide a basis for models to develop curricular, co-curricular, and community-based integrative strategies. The objectives are to provide professional development opportunities for teachers, connect the community to the school to provide role models and mentors, as well as develop and implement a team teaching environment.

This program serves non-profit groups, schools, and local units of government in west central Minnesota. For more information conact us at the Center for Small Towns at (320) 589-6451 or email us. To apply for assistance, please fill out this form.