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Community Transformation--Do Land Grant Universities still have a role?. Karl Stauber, Ph. D. Va Tech September 30, 2008. Community Transformation. Concept of Parallel Universes Prosperity Subsistence Survival LGUs were created to move people from Subsistence to Prosperity– Great Success.
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Community Transformation--Do Land Grant Universities still have a role? Karl Stauber, Ph. D. Va Tech September 30, 2008
Community Transformation • Concept of Parallel Universes • Prosperity • Subsistence • Survival • LGUs were created to move people from Subsistence to Prosperity– Great Success
Danville Regional Foundation • Created in June 2005, DRF seeks to develop, promote, and support activities, programs, and organizations that improve the health, welfare, and education of the residents of the primary service areas of the hospital: Caswell County, NC, Pittsylvania County and the City of Danville, VA. • About $200 million in assets; grants about $10 million per year.
DRF Mission • The Danville Regional Foundation is a catalyst for innovation and an agent for transformation. Understanding that significant community change takes time, the Foundation invests for the long term in efforts that promise sustained positive impact for the Dan River region. The Foundation is committed to development, promotion, and support of activities, programs, and organizations that address the health, education, and well-being of the region's residents.
Danville Region Two great Challenges • Create a New Economy Old economy based on textiles and tobacco is largely gone. • Create a New Culture Old culture was hierarchical and promoted passivity, under education, and a “mill town” view.
DRF’s Theory of Change • Change the conversation to focus on progress; • Almost simultaneously start to change who is in the conversation to include the “excluded;” • Change the behavior of key players; • Then, and only then, change the outcomes for individuals and the community.
Major Challenges • Under Education @1/3 people dropout, Va aver 1/5 @ 11% BA/BS, Va aver 30% • Poor Health Death due to cardio-vascular more than 2x Va Aver Diabetes—Danville is 3x Va aver
Major Opportunities • Economic Success Recruited over 7000 new jobs in 4 years @ 50% are good wage Growth of high tech firms in region like LunaWorks and NextGen Aeronautics, Inc.
Major Opportunities • Cultural Progress Galileo High IALR Positive Coverage in BBC, Wall St. Journal, and Washington Post
Community Transformation • Jane Jacobs’ Moral Syndromes Guardian Commercial Shun Trading Shun Force Exert Power Agree Voluntarily Adhere to Collaborate easily Tradition with Outsiders Respect Hierarchy Respect Contracts
Guardian Commercial Be Loyal Compete Be exclusive Be Industrious Treasure Honor Be Optimistic • LGUs were created to promote the “Commercial Solution.”
Higher Education institutions are one of the Keys to Transformation Friedman--“A developed country’s competitiveness now comes primarily from its capacity to innovate… “innovation is now the only path to growth, prosperity, environmental sustainability and national security for America. But it is also an incredibly competitive world. Many information industries require that products be improved by 100 percent every 12 to 36 months, just for the company to stay in business.”
Community Transformation Freidman—” Our competitiveness…is based on having a broadly educated work force, superb research universities, innovation-supportive taxes, immigration and regulatory policies, a productive physical and virtual infrastructure, and a culture that embraces hard work and the creation of new opportunities.
Community Transformation Why Invest In Rural America and How? • Communities and firms without competitive advantage will not prosper—they lapse into decline or subsistence.
Community Transformation Why Invest in Rural America and How? • Nations, communities, and firms that prosper constantly invest in creating new competitive advantage rather than protecting old advantage. Risk-taking entrepreneurs are one of the keys to the continual seeking.
Community Transformation Why Invest in Rural America and How? • Economic improvement and growth alone are not enough to sustain communities. They are necessary, but not sufficient. Communities that survive and prosper also invest in building the social and human capital of their institutions and people. But communities with high social and human capital and declining economic opportunity are not likely to have positive futures.
Community Transformation Public Research Universities are one of the keys to community transformation. • How do you get knowledge to communities? • How do you make sure the knowledge is actionable? • How do you get communities to see the difference between Confidence and Certainty? • How do you reach the “agents of change” at the community level?
Community Transformation • LGUs must customize the approach to each Customer. • What is the “theory of change” for every department, program, faculty member? • Communities/regions should be one of your key customers.
Investment Approaches Old Competitive Advantage New Competitive Advantage Cluster Development , Networking & Finance New Products & Production Efficiency High Capacity Community Low Capacity Community Training, Infrastructure & Recruiting Entrepreneurship, TA, & Bridge Finance
Culture Change Approaches How Communities Look: Influencing their Destiny + + + + + Inward Looking----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Outward Looking + + + + + Victims of Others Acts
Culture Change Approached How Universities Look: Knowledge of Field + + + + + Conceptual/ Theoretical----------------------------------------------------------Concrete/ Applied + + + + + Knowledge of Community
How does VT assist areas like Danville? • Focus on Creating New Competitive Advantage, not protect Old. • Build Community Capacity for New competitive Advantage. • Intentionally Focus on Closing the Gaps. • Get Opportunities from the Lab to Locale (targeted Communities) quickly. • Understand and support “mutuality.”
Contact Info Karl N. Stauber President & CEO Danville Regional Foundation 103 S. Main St. Danville, VA 24541 434-799-2176 kstauber@danvilleregionalfoundation.org www.danvilleregionalfoundation.org