Rural Wealth Creation

Rural Wealth Creation as an underlying framework

Rural Wealth Creation is an approach to rural development that combines best practices of economic and community development. The approach focuses on increasing local capacity and coordinating regional efforts to better meet market demand through a value chain. Success is measured by the ability of a region to increase eight forms of assets or wealth.

Eight Capitals That Together Create Rural Wealth

By focusing on improving not only financial and individual capital but also natural, built, intellectual, social, political, and cultural capital the approach views a region as a complex system. Within this system development cannot sacrifice one capital at the expense of another. Assets are interconnected resources that need strategic reinvestment.

Find out more about the research behind the idea of Rural Wealth Creation.

New Video Series: WealthWorks in Practice

WealthWorks is an approach to community driven economic development that aligns assets around a shared set of values and goals and seeks new business opportunities in response to changing markets. The approach intentionally builds multiple forms of wealth, local ownership, and inclusion. A four-part WealthWorks in Practice video series is designed to support practitioners as they implement this approach. The four videos include:

  • Introduction to WealthWorks
  • Selecting a Sector & Defining a Market Opportunity
  • Mapping & Analyzing a Value Chain
  • Analyzing Market Demand

These videos were produced through a collaboration of Rural Development Initiatives and Oregon State University Extension Service by Amy Hause and Mallory Rahe. The production of this video series was funded by USDA through a National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) grant (grant #2015-68006-22840) to the University of Idaho in partnership with OSU and RDI.