For many years, community leaders’ primary approach to growing their local economy has been through industrial attraction, looking for a large employer that wanted to move to their community. Some cities, towns, counties and regions have started to realize that there are other strategies to grow their economy—helping their existing businesses grow. In some communities, this approach has become known as Economic Gardening, an entrepreneurial approach to economic development.

The Purdue University Land Use Team provides research-based resources and educational programs for Extension professionals, government officials and residents on land use issues impacting their communities. Land Use Team efforts are underpinned by a timely and rigorous professional development system that prepares Purdue Extension professionals to effectively serve on Plan Commissions.

Remote work is any form of work in which you are not required to regularly commute to and work from a centralized location. Since 2005, remote work has grown by 173%. This means that regardless of where you live, there are work opportunities which you can take advantage of today.

As Indiana communities seek to position themselves to achieve long-term vitality, one of the issues that emerges time and time again as a major barrier to economic growth is the limited availability of a diverse stock of decent housing, especially in smaller populated areas of the state. A study of seven rural sites identified primary housing challenges and resulted in the development of a core set of strategies that could help expand housing options in rural Indiana.

The economic recession that occurred in our nation over the course of the 2008-2009 period wreaked havoc in many communities across the United States. Not only did the housing market tumble, but the unemployment rate skyrocketed and job creation stopped dead in its tracks. Adding further pain was the decline in household income and the uptick in poverty levels for increasing numbers of families. Like most states, the Great Recession hit was a painful period for many Hoosier families and communities.

Stronger Economies Together (SET) empowers communities and counties in rural America to work together in developing and implementing an economic development blueprint for their multi-county region that strategically builds on the current and emerging economic strengths of that region. Creating, attracting and retaining jobs as a single rural county in isolation from other nearby counties is becoming increasingly ineffective.

Families planning the transfer of farms to the next generation of operators seek information and resources. The succession planning process includes considerations for financial well-being, farm management and risk assessment. It is crucially important for families to properly develop plans that address the transfer of ownership and management.

Renewable energy, including wind energy, deserves closer examination given its potential for becoming a critical element in Indiana’s economic development and energy portfolio. A team of researchers focused on where wind farm projects have and have not been located and examined socio-economic conditions that have resulted since the wind farms were (or were not) installed and made operational.