Rural Vision Project
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What is the Rural Vision Project?
With leadership from, the Rural Vision Project is a multi-faceted and multi-step approach to identifying challenging issues and emerging opportunities facing rural New York State, and a focus on state-level policies to address these issues. The Project is a collaborative endeavor, involving Cornell’s Community & Rural Development Institute (CaRDI), the Department of Development Sociology’s Rural New York Initiative (RNYI), Cornell Cooperative Extension, and the NYS Legislative Commission on Rural Resources. Project goals include fostering a productive dialogue resulting in a well-articulated vision for rural New York State – a vision that highlights choices integrating economic opportunity and environmental health with individual and community capacity for planning, problem solving and entrepreneurial leadership, effective decision making; and implementation of targeted strategies for rural community and economic development. The Project will bring together researchers, policymakers, and practitioners through a variety of planned activities.

Why Cornell? Cornell’s Land-Grant Mission → The Rural Visioning Project
Cornell’s land-grant status necessitates an integrated vision which emphasizes the connections between the agricultural, environmental and social dimensions of both Cornell’s multi-faceted expertise and the needs of our world—including the needs of rural New York. The Rural Vision Project has an emphasis on outreach, engagement, and Extension; connecting with stakeholders and policy makers around the state.

Our Relationship with the NYS Legislative Commission on Rural Resources
The bi-partisan Legislative Commission on Rural Resources (LCRR) is charged with providing state lawmakers with a clear focus on the needs of rural New York. Our collaboration with the LCRR will assist the Rural Vision Project to have a strong focus on state-level policies.

Some of the major activities planned to date
A series of planned activities over the next year will gather information on existing and newly emerging issues facing Rural New York State, and the development of strategies and action steps with which to address them.

Stakeholder Engagement
Regional Listening Sessions
Rural Forums hosted by Cornell Cooperative Extension
Future of Rural New York Seminar Series
Empire State Poll reports & activities
Legislative Briefings
Rural Research Roundtables
July 19-21 2006 Future of Rural NYS Symposium

For more information:
Rod Howe at rlh13@cornell.edu Robin Blakely at rmb18@cornell.edu.
CaRDI website: http://www.cardi.cornell.edu/ RNYI website: http://rnyi.cornell.edu/