Vital Connections On Air

Vital Connection On Air, is a podcast from University of Minnesota's Extension Center for Community Vitality that explores the trends and topics important to communities and its leaders.

Vital Connections On Air: Wakeup Minnesota with Ms. Victoria McWane-Creek on Emotional Intelligence in Leadership 03/30/2023

Vital Connections On Air: Wakeup Minnesota with Dr. Gloria Gonzalez-Morales on Oppressive Civility 03/03/2023

Advancing women’s leadership in rural Minnesota 08/25/2022

Tourism and its impact on communities 08/18/2022

Special Episode 07: Festivals and events during a pandemic 10/29/2020

Special Episode 06: Minnesota tourism during the pandemic 10/22/2020

Special Episode 05: Exploring emotions during a pandemic 07/15/2020

Special Episode 04: Focusing on what you can choose 07/10/2020

Special Episode 03: Impacts on Retail 06/17/2020

Special Episode 02: Navigating Change 06/12/2020

Special Episode 01: Economists on the Economy 06/04/2020

Episode 25: Rural-Urban Workforce Opportunities 03/26/2020

Episode 24: Rural-Urban Economic Interdependencies 11/21/2019

Episode 23: REM for REV 09/26/2019

Episode 22: REVing for Entrepreneurship 07/11/2019

Episode 21: Conversations Change Campbell 04/04/2019

Episode 20: Community Conversations 11/15/2018

Episode 19: Engaged in Nature 10/18/2018

Episode 18: Civic Engagement 101 10/04/2018

Episode 17: Key Workforce Issues 09/19/2018

Episode 16: Workforce Wrap Up - It's the people 08/24/2018

Episode 15: Making Business Succession Planning Successful 04/26/2018

Episode 14: Understanding Rural Business Succession 04/19/2018

Episode 13: The Minnesota Chamber of Commerce 03/22/2018

Episode 12: Minnesota's Changing Workforce 02/28/2018

Episode 11: Glenwood Studies Housing 01/30/2018

Episode 10: Working to Address the Childcare Shortage 01/04/2018

Episode 9: Minnesota's Childcare Crisis 12/14/2017

Episode 9: Minnesota's Childcare Crisis Minnesota is experiencing a childcare crisis and it directly impacts our workforce. Marnie Werner, Director of Research for the Center for Rural Policy and Development, joins us for this episode to better understand the issue and how it varies across the state. She shares insights from research she led on the topic for the Center. “There is a shortage of childcare providers in all parts of the state. The solutions to it are going to be different because of demographics, economics, and population density.” “[In the last 30 years] we found that the number of people providing in home childcare has been on the downslide and in the last 10 years it has been going down quite a bit.” “In the Twin Cities the issue is really getting affordable daycare. Outside the Twin Cities the issues is getting any kind of daycare.” “This isn’t just a personal family issue you know where the parents are just going to have to figures this out. Communities are really starting to come together and thinking about how can we work at this at a larger scale to figure out solutions to this. “ People will “interview for a job and if there isn’t childcare in that community they will move on and the employer is stuck looking for someone else.” “A lot of providers are getting out of the business because they can’t make money at it.” “Childcare has always been a family issue. A personal issue. So I think it remained largely invisible and under the radar because families were trying to figure it out themselves and it is only now where it is really interfering with business and employers and communities that it is really starting to be talked about.” “A thing that may have kept childcare under the radar is that I think a lot of parents think ‘okay we only have to figure this out for five years and then our kids will be in kindergarten so once the kids enter kindergarten then they don’t really have to worry about it as much anymore and it's not as much of an issue and so it's more of a temporary thing.” Links from this episode: is your go to place for information to help you in your community work. provides articles, recordings, and research on a variety of topics important to understanding issues in greater Minnesota. Read the report as well as the to their report to learn more about this issue. See if you live in a from the Center for American Progress. Other research on the issue of childcare: /episode/index/show/vitalconnectionsonair/id/5933311

Episode 8: Manufacturing in Minnesota 11/22/2017

Episode 7: Make It Litchfield Update 11/09/2017

Vital Connections On Air

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