On March 12, 2024, USDA Rural Development’s Rural Partners Network (RPN) in partnership with Southern Community Network hosts, Arrowhead Center, Inc, and Southwest New Mexico Council of Governments, sponsored its first conference at the New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The forum planning committee brought various partners together to plan and execute the content and coordinate resource information. The southern, New Mexico event welcomed community-organizations, local, state, and federal partners and approximately 180 people were in attendance.
During the conference, Voices of the Community-Voces de la Comunidad panel groups shared challenges, thoughts, and solutions on childcare, transportation, infrastructure, and capacity building. White House, Senior Advisor, Will McIntee, Special Assistant to the President, Kelliann Blazek and RPN’s Executive Director, Lee Jones opened the sessions with a presentation on Closing the Gap and Building Bridges. During the luncheon a Fireside Chat moderated by our Rural Development’s Under Secretary, Dr. Basil Gooden, and Chief Operating Officer, Roger Glendenning.
The afternoon sessions began with a Five for Five that allowed local, state, and federal partners the opportunity to present available resources and information ranging from broadband to grant and loan programs. Advancing Equity through Partnerships to Serve Rural and Underserved Communities was presented by Dr. Lisa Ramirez of USDA’s Office of Partnerships and Public Engagement (OPPE) followed by United: Progress You Can See-Unidos: Progreso que Se Ve presented by New Mexico, Arizona, California, and Puerto Rico RD State Directors. The final presentation by White House Senior Advisor to the President, Stephen K. Benjamin on Investing in Rural America was a roundtable discussion made up of a panel of local partners. To end the conference, recap and closing remarks were provided by New Mexico’s RD State Director, Patricia Dominguez.
Over a month later, there is still a buzz among RPN constituents who attended the successful event. Five key takeaways that were expressed from participants include 1.) “The vastness and depth of the community resources that when brought together, show the true strength of the resources in our RPN network.” 2.) “I was happy to network with others in our communities and field of work and thrilled to hear about some of the new business happenings as well as collaborations with so many agencies and entities.” 3.)” the engagement by the agencies involved in RPN really made me feel like a difference is/will being/be made in these communities.” 4.) “Collaborative spaces such as the RPN Forum allow us all to come together to highlight incredible work being done across our region and New Mexico. I’m so proud to be from this incredible state and honored to work alongside such amazing community advocates”. 5.) “One of the best conferences I have been to in a long time. It was great to see representation from Washington.”
RPN’s Doña Ana County and Southwest New Mexico Community Network liaisons value its partners input and will ensure to continue building on collaborative relationships to empower our communities in their challenges, opportunities, and goals. We look forward to celebrating our network community’s achievements and feature their strengths, potential and success stories.