At a press conference on Tuesday, October 1, Steve Wild, president of the Charles E. Lakin Foundation, and Donna Dostal, president and CEO of the Community Foundation for Western Iowa (givewesterniowa.org), announced a $165 million initiative to “Revitalize Southwest Iowa.” Nearly 200 guests, comprised of business leaders, community members, nonprofit organizations and philanthropic supporters, attended the private event, held at the Blue Bird Hill event venue in Atlantic, IA.
The “Revitalize Southwest Iowa” initiative is the Lakin Foundation’s answer to the region’s population decline over the past 120 years and the investment will primarily focus on housing, childcare and community resilience to create a lasting legacy of positive socio-economic transformation across the region. The historic donation will create 23 Field of Interest Funds at the Community Foundation for Western Iowa designed to support 51 communities throughout six counties in southwest Iowa.
“We know that we have challenges – we have an issue with affordable and workforce housing,” said Dostal. “In fact, we have a challenge with housing overall. We know that we don’t have a workforce issue, we have a housing issue, and we have an access-to childcare issue. So, we want to continue to invite people to come back and live in southwest Iowa and help make those communities strong. Because we are not in the middle of nowhere, we’re in the middle of everywhere.”
To learn more about the Revitalize Southwest Iowa initiative, visit: givewesterniowa.org/RevitalizeSouthwestIowa.