SaveYour.Town
Learning platform
We believe small towns can be saved by their own people using their own resources.
Location: Webster City, Iowa & Hopeton, Oklahoma, USA
SaveYour.Town was founded by Deb Brown and Becky McCray.
Deb grew up on a farm outside of Geneva, Iowa, population 141. Her first entrepreneurial venture was raising a hog. You’d find her either with her nose in a history book or out exploring abandoned houses and buildings. Funny, things haven’t changed much, she’s still working on filling empty buildings in small towns.
A wealth of experience includes leading a small town chamber of commerce, foreign casualty insurance underwriting, bartending, retail management, selling knives, and working with small towns. Deb has lived in tiny towns, small towns, small cities and a major metro city. Yet, she’s come home to a small town, Webster City, Iowa, and travels to many others to help. Deb is a relentless optimist and knows how to build possibility in your small town. Better yet, she inspires you to take small steps towards a brighter future for your community.
Becky believes small towns have a future. She watches the global trends in the economy, technology and society, then she delivers practical steps rural people can implement right now to shape the future of their town. Her advice is based on her real world experience as a lifelong entrepreneur and cattle rancher.
Becky’s career in small towns includes work as owner of retail stores, as city administrator for a municipality of 990 people, as an executive with rural nonprofits and as a teacher of computer and business classes. In 2004, she ran for state legislature, losing by just one vote per precinct. She believes we learn from both our successes and our failures, even when those failures are printed in the local newspaper. She makes her home in Hopeton, Oklahoma, a town of 30 people. She doesn’t just talk about rural issues; she lives them.
“We picked the name SaveYour.Town because that is what you are going to do, save your town. No one is coming to do it for you.”
No factory or big business is going to save you. No outside expert has the one right answer. It’s you.
You are going to shift a few key behaviors away from bureaucracy and officials and toward the people. You’ll let go of old formal rules and organizations in order to empower everyone to play a small but meaningful role. You’ll focus more on tiny experiments by lots of people rather than a few big bets made by only a handful of official leaders. You’ll welcome all ideas, from all the people in your town.
That’s who’s coming to save your town: all of you.
Together, we’re teaching you specific ways to make your small town a better place. We’re creating the videos, courses and toolkits that help you learn, grow and take action.”
Meet SaveYour.Town here:
