Turn Around Communities is Theme of Pre-Conference Workshop

In a recent poll of our Breakthrough News readers, "Turn Around Communities" was identified as the top issue people are concerned about. This is confirmed by a recent Census report, which found that only 8 of our 75 Arkansas counties grew as fast or faster than the national average, and 2/3 of our counties actually lost population.

As you know, it is difficult for communities, counties, and regions to improve or even maintain their quality of life and place if they are losing population. The loss of people and businesses reduces local government tax revenue, which diminishes the quality of infrastructure, and leads to a downward spiral. You can see these dynamics in this Development Spiral:

To respond to this important issue, our Breakthrough Solutions Pre-Conference Workshop on June 6 will focus on “Turn Around Communities in the 21st Century Economy”.

The morning will feature insights from experts in Missouri and Arkansas shedding light on this topic. After lunch, representatives from Mountain Home will describe their situation and challenge the workshop participants to come up with turnaround strategies for five key areas:

* 21st Century Tourism and Retiree Attraction

* Entrepreneurship

* Quality of Place to Attract Millennials

* Business Retention and Expansion

* Attracting Advanced Businesses

We will break into action planning groups and develop recommendations for Mountain Home community leaders to consider. Join us as we identify turn around (breakthrough) strategies for this vital Arkansas community.