Reviewing the ripple effects from UNL's rural economics discussions in Fairbury

An economics class at the University of Nebraska is designed to help Nebraska's small communities stay afloat.

The students received their final grades and now, nearly a year later, it's time for the school to see if the students' suggestions helped affect change in one of those small towns.

Leaders from UNL's economics department came back to Fairbury last Monday to meet up with a few local leaders in government, finance and healthcare. All four of the participants (Lana Likens from Jefferson Community Health & Life, Lori Adams from American National Bank, Laura Bedlan from the City of Fairbury and Jefferson County commissioner Mark Schoenrock) had all been part of the process from the beginning and returned to share their experiences and conclusions.

Monday's conversation was built around UNL professor Mary Emery's Community Capitals Framework, which discusses how different elements in a community interconnect.

"One of the challenges of economic development is sometimes it just focuses on one thing, and if you’re focusing just on housing that impacts a lot of other things, so Community Capitals reminds us to look across the community," said Emery, who is the director of UNL's rural prosperity program, directly tied to the findings from courses like these.

The goal of this brainstorming session? To see if the discussions they had with the Nebraska students last year left any lasting ripple effects that sparked positive change.

"We’re doing this research where you sort of plop into the Fairbury pond, and that first ripple is what are the things that you think about differently as the result of that [experience]? Are you doing anything differently as a result of that?" Emery said. "And then that second ripple is, if I’m thinking about things differently or doing things differently, then I’m interacting with other people differently, maybe they’re doing things differently. And then that third ripple is, if people are saying that we need to change what we’re doing, then we start to see evidence of changes in shared practices, systems, institutions."

As evidence of those ripples, Schoenrock cited the creation of the Super Board, a new political body designed to directly connect city government and county government with the administration of Fairbury Public Schools. Aside from that, Bedlan referenced the city's collection of local economic data for city projects such as grant writing, and Likens referenced the recently-established Jefferson County Gives fundraiser, though that was developed independently from the Rural Economics initiative.

Monday's participants helped to map out if and how last year's conversations - and any elements of progress stemming from them - tie into the interconnected aspects of even small societies, which Emery's Community Capitals Framework helps to elucidate. She explained all of the pillars:

"Natural capital is what situates you here. Social capital is the people we trust, the people who can connect us to resources. Political capital is “the sticks and carrots” that we can access. Financial capital is things like grants, business income, those kinds of things. Human capital is our health, what we know, how we use what we know. Built capital, schools, highways, daycares. And then Cultural capital, we think about that as things we celebrate in the community and things like that, but Cultural capital also is what’s the narrative in the community about how things work?"

Everyone participating in this month's discussion was all part of the larger group discussions held twice last spring here in Southeast Nebraska.

Through prior research, the UNL students determined some of Fairbury's biggest challenges are attracting people to this part of the state and getting them to stay here, plus providing access to affordable childcare and quality housing, something that directly lined up with the experiences of the people who live here.

"You guys came and participated, it was not just ‘we want to know what you kids think,’ no, you were very active, giving your perspective, and very honest about the problems, about the issues," said Daniela Mattos, a UNL economics professor of practice and this course's instructor. "Usually the communities just want to talk about what’s working, but you guys were very upfront, so that was another thing that they [the students] took away – this community, they were very honest, so if we can help in some way...” 

Mattos said the final report submitted was roughly twice as long as what the instructors normally expect for one of these final projects. The students knew they couldn’t implement all the recommendations they received because they simply don’t spend as much time in the area as anyone living here does.  

“Although most of these small communities look the same, they are not the same. Each of these communities, they all have different priorities, things that they have seen are more needed," Mattos said. "So they tried to be very careful. I don’t know if you remember, their message at the end was, we hope you guys continue this, engaging, bring in more people, participate, bring young people to be part of these meetings."

After working in Auburn, Crete and Wahoo in recent years, the next stop for UNL's rural economics class is Milford.