Given the complex challenges that face rural NL, what is the best approach to rural development in 2019? For some, the way forward has to be based in a new regional focus, but for others the regional model risks ignoring our attachment to specific communities, a possible key to sustainability. So what is the best approach to rural development given the complex challenges that rural NL faces? How has the thinking around regional and rural development changed over the last 20 years? How is it the same? What can we learn from strategies of the past? And what potential opportunities and new approaches are emerging to change and revitalize the conversation? In this Memorial Presents public forum Drs. Natalie Slawinski and John Schouten from the Faculty of Business Administration. They will present the PLACE framework, a model for rural development rooted in social enterprise that emerged from their research team’s study of Shorefast on Fogo Island. The presentation will be followed by a panel discussion.

Increasing immigration is often touted as a key to addressing our population challenges, but the retention of newcomers is seen as a big challenge for rural areas. Yet there are many examples of individuals and families choosing to make rural Newfoundland and Labrador home. Award winning journalist Kelly Toughill, in a report commissioned by the Public Policy Forum of Canada, The People Imperative, unpacks the reasons why newcomers choose to move to, and stay in, rural areas. Join us for a presentation and discussion with Kelly on her report and the conversations she had with people who come from away, and stay.

Well before the term “social enterprise” became commonplace in the economic landscape of this province, the Labrador Fisherman’s Union Shrimp Company and the Torngat Fish Producers Cooperative were paving the way for lasting, sustainable social and economic impact in their communities. Forty years later the two entities continue as viable community-owned enterprises, driving economic activity, employment and investment, and have generated extensive social and economic spinoff effects. Join Memorial University’s Harris Centre and Centre for Social Enterprise to hear about how these enterprises came to be, what challenges they have faced along the way, and discuss what other communities and enterprises can learn from their experiences.