I am the new executive director of the state’s Rural Development Council, Partners for Rural Washington (PRWA). Raising awareness about how PRWA can help small communities in our state is at the top of my to-do list.
At 30,000 feet, we are a nonprot working with rural Washington communities to develop their capacity to create a prosperous and sustainable future. We help make rural communities more livable, more viable long-term and ready for economic development.
At six feet, we meet with rural mayors, clerks and councils and ask what’s broken, or about to break and how can we help. We work with a variety of funders, including state and federal, to nd the best funding opportunities. We help with the NEPA/SEPA process and cultural reviews. We work with engineers to get pre-construction documents, we help develop a competitive grant application for funding, and, if awarded, we help with the contract award paperwork and grant administration training. We are the extra staff person that so many small rural communities need. And we do it with no cost to the community thanks to the entities that fund our work.
PRWA is excited to be forming new working partnerships with the Washington USDA Rural Development ofce, the Washington State Department of Commerce and Washington State University Extension to make our service to Washington’s rural communities even more effective. In addition, we (along with these partners) are working with colleagues in Oregon as the NorthWest Rural Investment Strategy (NWRIS). The second annual NWRIS Summit is being held at Skamania Lodge September 3 and 4. I hope to see some of you there.
I plan on regularly updating you about the impact we are having on the communities we serve, our growing partnerships, our plans to enhance our services statewide, and the inside scoop on some of our initiatives to help rural communities and their residents. I am reachable via email or phone if you want more information about the towns, projects or opportunities highlighted in these weekly posts. Thank you for taking the time to read this message and please feel free to to share with others we need to include.
Take care,
Jody
