Director’s Message

Over the past two months, I’ve been thinking a lot about kitchen table talk—passionate conversations around the table with friends, family and co-conspirators in life to explore and make sense of issues and challenges that affect our communities. The Blue Ribbon Commission Report serves as a North Star for the Office of Rural Prosperity's (ORP's) work and was born out of those types of kitchen table conversations with rural advocates from across the state who know best what it will take to advance prosperity in their communities.

ORP has taken the wisdom and guidance of those kitchen table conversations and has begun to put recommendations into action over the last 18 months. We’ve made it easier to navigate state and federal resources through the creation of RuralWI.com and partnered with the U.S. Economic Development Administration to enhance grassroots support to rural communities to navigate resources through our specialists with the Revitalizing Economic Vibrancy After a Major Pandemic (REVAMP) program.

At my kitchen table, I’ve had the privilege to meet (virtually) and learn from the talented and passionate ORP team about the important work the office has been doing the past two years. I’ve sat in on inter-agency meetings to strategize with colleagues across state government about how we can maximize resources in service of rural development by building the capacity of rural municipalities to access competitive funding to enhance community projects through the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. I’ve been invited into conversations with economic development professionals, nonprofit partners and rural citizens to continue to move important projects forward for rural Wisconsin.

It is an exciting time to have joined ORP as its director. I look forward to building upon the wisdom and guidance that served as a framework for this office—and to working with rural stakeholders like you to advance great ideas for rural Wisconsin. Over the coming months, there will be many more virtual calls from my kitchen table, as well as opportunities to visit communities across Wisconsin to meet with stakeholders at conference tables, coffee tables and kitchen tables in person. Together we can be co-creators of a more thriving and prosperous rural Wisconsin.

Beth Haskovec
Director, Office of Rural Prosperity

Child care in rural Wisconsin: Challenges, a crossroads and hopeful opportunities

by Ruth Schmidt
Executive Director, Wisconsin Early Childhood Association

At Wisconsin Early Childhood Association (WECA), we know child care access and affordability are critical for Wisconsin’s workforce productivity and growth, particularly in rural Wisconsin. Employers and economic leaders are becoming more vocal about child care as the economic ripple effect of the broken private business model and continued lack of resources becomes more and more apparent.

Over the past year, WECA has hosted employer-legislator forums across Wisconsin and has heard countless stories of child care access and affordability challenges. 

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