One of our favorite conferences to attend is the Arkansas Rural Development Conference (ARDC) hosted by the Arkansas Department of Rural Services. Since our target audience at the Center is small to mid-sized community leaders, this conference always opens new doors for us within the state (which is especially handy with all the new elected officials making their mark in Arkansas municipalities this year). As an exhibitor and sponsor of ARDC 2015, our team met Arkansas leaders from every corner of the state including mayors, county judges, city administrators, police chiefs, city council members, state agency employees, non-profit leaders, and a variety of others. We were able to rub shoulders, shake hands, spread the good word of the Center and the Community Development Institute (CDI) to potential future partners, and learn a few things along the way. By the end of the three daylong conference, we were rendered exhausted – but in a good way!
Though “Exhibitor Life” has its perks (NETWORKING!), we did miss out on quite a few intriguing sessions, but our team was able to attend two.
The first session we were able to sit in on was “Session 5: Political Roundtable” held on Tuesday, May 20. This session was especially helpful because we got a glimpse into the minds of several prominent state legislators on the upcoming special session called by the governor and their opinions on several other hot topics. Topics discussed included moving the Arkansas primary to March 1, restructuring government agencies, the issuance of bonds for “super projects,” funding for Arkansas infrastructure (most prominent: funding for highways), the future of the Private Option, tax cuts, and the transformational Criminal Justice Reform Act.
The other session we attended was “Session 6: Workforce Readiness.” Two pieces of important information that came out of this session included two key programs: the ACT Work Ready Community program and Career Readiness Certification provided by the Arkansas Department of Workforce Services. As stated on their website, “The ACT Work Ready Communities (WRC) empowers states, regions, and counties with data, process, and tools that drive economic growth. Participants are leveraging the National Career Readiness Certificate (NCRC™) to measure and close the skills gap — and building common frameworks that link, align and match their workforce development efforts.” The Career Readiness Certification is described as “a portable credential based upon the WorkKeys® assessments that demonstrates to employers that an individual possesses the basic workplace skills required for 21st century jobs.
Getting a CRC will allow an individual to show prospective employers that he or she possesses the basic skills they are looking for.” Both programs are free of charge to participants.
A learning experience in and of itself was the final agenda item for ARDC 2015 – the Governor’s Luncheon and Awards Ceremony. All those in attendance had the privilege to hear Governor Asa Hutchinson speak about the upcoming special session and the importance of the agenda items that will be discussed. In connection to the theme of rural Arkansas, Governor Hutchinson also left the audience with fundamental advantages of rural communities (originally outlined by Diane Smith of The New Rural). These advantages include: high speed broadband internet access (which Governor Hutchinson called a “necessity and must”), availability of Telehealth, opportunity to capitalize on distance learning, and the rising availability of financial capital for entrepreneurs and innovators. Governor Hutchinson also made a point to relay to the audience that all high schools in Arkansas will offer computer science courses to capitalize on those advantages and the importance of technology as Arkansas continues to progress.
Following the lead of the wrap up of the conference, we would like to wrap up this blog post by congratulating all of the Arkansas Rural Development Conference grantees and the 2015 Rural Advocate of the Year Sam E. Angel (and Arkansas Department of Rural Services Director Alex Johnston and AEDC Deputy Director Amy Fecher for coordinating such an excellent conference)!
