LA CROSSE – The WMC Foundation released its Revitalizing Rural Wisconsin Report Wednesday, highlighting five challenges facing rural Wisconsin and a plan to address them. They include limited workforce availability, gaps in broadband, stress on legacy industries, lack of new housing, and affordability of healthcare.
The report highlights policies that can make a difference and looks at how other places across the country are doing solving these challenges to come up with potential solutions that will work here.
“If you’re looking to attract talent, look at Grant County Indiana. They actually have a program called Grants got Talent that gives down payment assistance to college graduates who move into that rural county and take a job in a targeted industry. This is a way we can attract new people to smaller towns all across Wisconsin,” said Nick Novak, WMC Vice President of Communications & Marketing.
The report also looks into different available technologies to expand rural broadband and lower healthcare costs for businesses so they can provide affordable insurance to their employees.
Watch the segment at Channel8000.com.