Three rural communities across Ontario – Dufferin County, Huron County and Northumberland County, have been selected as partners in the Rural Ontario Institute’s Measuring Rural Community Vitality (MRCV) Initiative.
Each community will collaborate with the ROI on a case study, “Engaging Newcomers: Building Social Capital in Rural Communities” to be completed in 2016.
The three selected communities will benefit from access to ongoing collaboration and knowledge transfer opportunities and will receive consulting services provided by Platinum Leadership Inc. to assist with
their community case study.
“There are many things to like about the ROI’s Newcomer Engagement project,” says Bill Reimer, Director of the Rural Policy Learning Commons and member of the MRCV Advisory Board. “It addresses issues that are timely, and likely to be more so, as Canada’s dependence on immigration increases. It explores some important challenges and opportunities as rural people become more mobileand externally connected. And it rightfully focuses on an under-recognized strength of rural places: their social capital as reflected in businesses, formal organizations, volunteer groups, and families. I also appreciate the project’s organization as a collaborative one in which local and regional participants work together on the design, collection, and analysis of the material.”
Source: ROI