Our founder, Meaghan Kennedy recently served as a Product Advisor to the technology team from Columbia University in the City of New York as they developed a tool for economic developers as part of The Opportunity Project's rural economic development sprint. The Opportunity Project is a program of The U.S. Census Open Innovation (COIL) Lab. The tool was developed with guidance from Marc Miller, Economic Development Director, Manistee Area Chamber of Commerce. During The Opportunity Project's Demo Week in December 2020, the tool, R Story was presented and demoed to a live audience. The R Story team is continuing to develop the tool with a full launch planned for summer 2021.
R Story Introduction
R Story provides rural community leaders with relevant, digestible data to achieve economic development goals. Developed in collaboration with The Opportunity Project, an innovation program within the U.S. Census Bureau, R Story answers a key challenge that the team heard during product development: how to help small rural communities quickly and effectively integrate more data into their economic development efforts.
R Story gathers and interprets the latest data available from reliable federal sources such as the U.S. Census, EPA, BLS, and more. The team selects demographic and economic data that are most relevant for small rural communities. Statistics are presented visually to be quickly digested and organized by region and audience for ease of use. Built with the advice and expertise of professional planners, community advocates, and academics, R Story provides communities with a tool to quantify their comprehensive economic development strategy (CEDS), support its implementation, and periodically measure performance economic development work. By connecting rural communities with digestible data, R Story aims to support increased use of data in each community's advancement of local sustainable economic development goals.
Next Steps: Pilot Communities
R Story is currently seeking additional communities to serve as pilot communities. Ideal pilot communities would be rural communities with fewer than 50,000 residents. The process will begin with a discussion of the community's goals and challenges in terms of economic development. R Story will perform a deep dive into the federal public data for each community, share the results of the data exploration, and seek feedback as to how the participant might use the data in their economic development work. Additionally, community members will receive access to the R Story prototype for use and feedback in their economic development work.
As a first pilot community, R Story worked with Manistee, Michigan, who continues to use R Story in their economic development work. Marc Miller, Economic Development Director of Manistee, states that “this tool was created to allow leaders in economic development to save time and easily access the data we need to champion our communities.”
Funding & Partnerships
Additionally, R Story is seeking funding to support product development and product launch aimed for summer 2021. R Story is also looking for partnerships from organizations who work with communities that might benefit from the tool.
Contact R Story
Google Form: https://forms.gle/rNqLiPVp4szFWPzv8
Meet the Team
As part of The Opportunity Project Demo Week, Meaghan was asked to kick off the rural economic development session. See her session introduction, hear about Orange Sparkle Ball and learn why Meaghan is passionate about rural economic development.
