 A listening session by Minnesota Compass in Brainerd today focused on the issues and strengths in the Brainerd region. Sarah Winkelman has the details from the discussion. Listen, learn, and understand where the motives behind today's discussion and how to best represent the Brainerd region in data form. I was fearful that this would be another entity that comes out and tells rural communities as to what they have and how great they are and how they're growing, but would not seek the knowledge and the experience of local people. I was really grateful to hear that they were valuing those opinions. Community members voiced their opinions on the strengths of the area, including great location and natural resources, but also took time to speak about the issues. Portability and availability of childcare is a huge issue across the state, and then all of the connections that were made here today about how that connects to retaining and attracting workers and workforce issues in terms of ensuring that the right skills are here in the region. A workforce discussion that branched off into workforce housing needs. Virtually everyone who came today is talking about the same challenges. We have lower than usual median household income, which means we're more competitive. When asked what data would be helpful, questions arose like what is the real cost of housing, what is the typical debt load, and what wage do people really need to earn in order to meet those childcare and housing needs. We will be incorporating all of this feedback going through, as we talked about earlier, where there are themes that overlap, where there are maybe regions where there are differences in issues and strengths, and we'll think about how and where we can incorporate the suggestions for data needs. After discussion about what data might be helpful in the future, participants get a chance to explore the Compass website and look at some current data. The online resource is available to the public, where based on today's discussion will continue to grow with more resources. Reporting in Brainerd, Sarah Winkleman, Lakeland News. In 2018, Minnesota Compass will launch a new tool on its website focused on data in rural areas. If you've enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland Public Television.