Rural Ready

Rural Ready supports Colorado professionals working in a rural economic development space, including at the staff, volunteer, and board levels. The online, self-paced learning platform provides a high-level overview of economic development best practices specifically tailored for rural areas. After successfully completing the online learning module, participants qualify for a one-time, reimbursable $2,500 seed grant. The main goal of Rural Ready is to provide a standardized introduction, common terminology, and best practices to individuals at all levels of organizations working in rural economic development. Recognizing that organizational leadership changes over time, and that in rural areas the work of economic development can span multiple organizations, any organization that contributes to their community’s economic growth and stability is encouraged to apply. Highly competitive applications will clearly describe the organization’s current work, its approach to community collaboration, and demonstrate a need for the educational content; the need for seed funding is secondary.