Maine’s efforts to help rural towns didn’t work.

Maine is the most rural state in the country, but it doesn’t have an organization devoted solely to helping rural communities. There are various groups focused on particular aspects of rural development but not one to tie all the efforts together, even as rural parts of the state continue to struggle with population and job losses. Maine could look to a neighbor and nearly equally rural state, Vermont, to see what a centralized body dedicated to tackling uniquely rural challenges has done for the state’s communities. Since 1992, the Vermont Council on Rural Development has helped communities identify their goals and create plans to achieve them, and connected them with potential funding sources and expert advice. “We don’t come in with our own agenda. It’s about helping communities become collective teams for action,” said Paul Costello, who has served as the executive director of the Vermont Council on Rural Development since 2000. He will give the keynote address at a summit called Rural Maine’s Next Economy on Friday, Feb. 10, at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor. The Vermont council starts the community-building process with public forums where residents and local leaders can share their general ideas for directions for the town. After organizing the ideas into themes, the larger community comes together, often in a town-meeting style gathering where the council can put the big ideas up on the wall and ask residents about their priorities.