Innovation Center Marks One Year

USDA's assistant to the Secretary for Rural Development, Anne Hazlett praises the innovation center that was created a year ago.

"Its primary goals have really been to ensure that our agency is prepared to help rural leaders deal with many of the new and complex challenges and opportunities in small towns that they face, with creative and fresh solutions."

"We have an important goal of being able to maximize the impact of our program in building world prosperity,” Hazlett added.

She noted there has already been success.

“We've been able to bring stake-holders together around a number of key issues in rural communities, whether it's opportunity in natural gas development, or the need for assistance in helping communities recover from hurricanes and get them many of the resources they need to recover and to be resilient into the future,” Hazlett said.

Her office has also helped local communities respond to the opioid crisis.

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