Negative effects of the economic recession permeates the rural United States. Populations are declining. Wages are stagnant. Increasing workforce automation is jeopardizing rural industries. Yet rural areas offer surprising assets for social and economic development.
Addressing the information gap is fundamental for unlocking sustainable community development. We partnered with the Center on Rural Innovation (CORI) to create the Rural Opportunity Map (ROM). Competing projects need teams of fifty people. We completed and launched ROM in less than three months.
ROM is a suite of data visualization and mapping tools to see the potential in rural America. The tool contains hundreds of curated datasets to give development insights and strategies.
One ROM dataset identifies underdeveloped towns primed for digital economy. Due to our data, in less than a year, over USD $5.5 million poured into new investments into three of these communities.
ROM has proven comprehensive and extendable since our development. A breadth of use cases consult and leverage ROM. Determine national public health policy and investments in rural hospitals across America. Understand impact for grants by major foundations. Narrate stories in leading publications like the Wall Street Journal.