Several communities across the state, including many in the western Upper Peninsula, have received grants through Michigan’s Rural Readiness Program. The competitive, reimbursement grants can total as much as $50,000. With reimbursement grants, recipients receive the funds after they have incurred the costs for which the grant was awarded.

According to the state Office of Rural Development, rural communities and tax-exempt organizations serving rural communities are eligible to apply for grant funds designed to support collaborative planning and capacity building initiatives that advance efforts to address local needs including, but not limited to, housing, broadband, place-making, energy, transportation, health, infrastructure, economic development, and workforce.

On Oct. 6, 2023, the Western Upper Peninsula Planning and Development Region (WUPPDR) was awarded a RRG for $50,000 to assist in establishing and activating a nonprofit community development corporation in the L’Anse, Mich. area, and to work with L’Anse Township and the Village of L’Anse to prepare a township-owned tract of land for housing development. Of more than 90 applicants, WUPPDR is one of 21 recipients in the State of Michigan for round 1 of the Rural Readiness program, including three in the Upper Peninsula. More recently, the city of Hancock received an RRG award to study potential redevelopment opportunities for former Finlandia University properties. Earlier this month, Keweenaw County was awarded an RRG for $50,000 to move forward with an emergency services facility.

The Rural Readiness Grant Program is through the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity’s Office of Rural Prosperity, which was established two years ago.

On Jan. 4, 2022, Governor Gretchen Whitmer announced an executive order establishing the Office of Rural Development within the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development. According to the release, the Office of Rural Development will focus on all rural matters, provide guidance on pressing issues in rural Michigan, and offer insight on how her administration can invest in rural communities. Whitmer later transferred the office to the Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity and changed the name of the Office of Rural Development to the Office of Rural Prosperity (ORP).

On Jan. 19, the ORP released a report titled Michigan’s Roadmap to Rural Prosperity. The 73-page report, it states, was created in response to concerns from rural community leaders that existing policies, programs and resources must account for the unique realities of Michigan’s rural areas.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture lists three rural definitions in Michigan based on Census Places. Under these definitions, rural locations are those outside census populations with a population:

1. greater than or equal to 2,500

2. greater than or equal to 10,000

3. greater than or equal to 50,000.

Under this definition, 37 counties in the northern half of the Lower Peninsula, and 16 counties in the southern half of the Lower Peninsula are defined as non-metro, rural counties, while in the Upper Peninsula, all 15 counties are defined as rural.

Under the above definitions, 68 of 83 Michigan counties are rural, or statistically, 81.927% of the state of Michigan is defined as Rural Non-metro, by the USDA.

The Michigan Roadmap to Rural Prosperity states: “Rural Michigan encompasses Michigan’s 12 federally recognized tribes, more than 1,400 local governments, and 70 counties considered rural or mostly rural. More than 155,000 firms call rural Michigan home.”

[This is the first in a series that looks at what Rural Readiness Grants are, where they originate, along with their funding sources.]