Rural Ontario is composed of diverse communities, with varying requirements to support community revitalization. While some places have strong drivers for economic growth and staff resources to support economic development, that is not the case for all communities. If you are one of the latter communities, we invite you to become familiar with welcome Teeny Tiny Places.
The Municipality of Tweed and the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs are proud and excited to present the 2018 Teeny Tiny Summit, Creating our Future: Finding the EXTRAORDINARY in the Ordinary, to be held on June 14 at Trudeau Park in Tweed!
Visit www.teenytinysummit.com for more information and to register.
As evidenced in our daily lives, and highlighted at previous year’s summits, we all HAVE the capacity to create our own futures, and to find the extraordinary in the every day. This year we would like to take that message one step further, and provide you with some stirring examples, relevant tools, awesome success stories from our Teeny Tiny peers, great local food, and most of all, FUN, to inspire you and motivate you in the context of your own community.
Economic development principles and best practices may be similar across varying sized communities, however, some elements must be practiced differently in Teeny Tiny Places.
What is a Teeny Tiny Place?
- Rural location
- Populations < 1000
- Stable or slightly declining populations
- No dominant drivers of economic growth
- No paid staff at lower tier level, dedicated to economic development
- Lack of water and wastewater servicing in village centres
OMAFRA’s Regional Economic Development Branch began examining some opportunities for how Ontario’s Teeny Tiny Places could be brought together to share and celebrate their successes. In 2015, a pilot workshop was held in Eastern Ontario’s Lanark County.
To date, over 600 people from across rural Ontario have attended a Teeny Tiny Summit. Attendees have variety of backgrounds, from municipal councillors and staff to support organizations and volunteers. The strong and energetic response to the Teeny Tiny Summits demonstrates the time invested is well worth the trade off in resources and engagement received!
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