Rural Opportunity Initiative

A Polk County-wide initiative, we will be providing support to local businesses through resource fairs, mentorship, and an online research toolkit. Our efforts also aim to strengthen the local food industry network and cultivate further community support for all local businesses. We have 4 main goals with this ROI project:

• Assessing our communities’ areas of opportunity

• Supporting local businesses and connecting them with resources to help them succeed; this includes 1:1 business health assessments, resource fairs, and an online resource toolkit

• Strengthening our local food industry network to encourage growth and business-to-business interactions; including a B2B food showcase fair, mentorship opportunities, pop-up markets, meetups, etc.

• Initiating a ‘locally-made’ brand and creating storytelling content about our local businesses through podcasts and social media to encourage shopping and supporting local

ROI is an effort led and funded through Business Oregon.