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Success Stories

A mother and three daughters pose around a dining room table. There are lace curtains and blue wall in the background and some dishes on the table in the foreground.

“This is Home” – A Family Finds Their Forever Home in Calais, Maine

One of the first rooms Heather Gagne and her daughters began redecorating in their new home is the dining room, shown in the top photo. They have been busy repainting and making other updates. Raising a family in coastal Machias, Maine may sound lovely, but for Heather Gagne recent years proved stressful. There were few housing options in their Downeast community, and Heather was glad to find a rental home to…
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Use the filters below to find additional stories about how our programs have helped rural communities across the nation.

Search Results: 84 Stories
Jennifer Quail with Vision Brookings

Establishing Unique Resources for a South Dakota Community

Brookings Economic Development Corporation (BEDC), through Vision Brookings Foundation, has received a USDA Rural Business Development Grant to create a commercial kitchen and implement a technical assistance program to assist the efforts of area food entrepreneurs. The kitchen… [Read More]
Business
Photo: Meant Manufacturing, a woman-owned, startup business in Florence, Oregon, is creating jobs and improving the local economy.

From Artisanal Hobbyist to Successful Business Owner: Rural Entrepreneur Contributes to Job Creation and Local Economy

Creating one-of-a-kind bags and accessories from locally sourced materials, like Pendleton® Wool, started as a hobby for Lindsey Phillips. Gradually, she began selling her products through third-party sites. Then she created her own website and sold wholesale to local boutiques… [Read More]
BusinessEconomic DevelopmentSmall Business
Photo: The nonprofit REACH helped Rosa Cortes secure a job that can accommodate her disabilities.

Creating a Path to Employment in Rural Areas for People with Disabilities

Rosa Cortes was struggling to find work in the rural town of Klamath Falls in southern Oregon. She volunteered at Good Will to build her experience, but found her disabilities made employers reluctant to offer her a job. Rosa has ankylosing spondylitis, a hereditary form of… [Read More]
Business
Photo of downtown Hood River, Oregon, in the Columbia Gorge

Fueling Wage Growth, Business Expansion in the Columbia Gorge

Rural businesses on both sides of the Columbia River—from a brewery to an assisted living facility, from a Thai restaurant to a tribal fish market—are improving the local economy by hiring more employees and providing higher wages. These myriad small businesses have one thing in… [Read More]
BusinessSmall Business

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