Opportunity Link

Coordinated regional planning:opportunity Link strives to support local and regional approaches to build prosperity. Ol works to bring residents together to develop a shared vision for sustaining local livability while preserving natural assets and cultural identity of the region. We work to encourage, and support coordinated local-to-regional-to-statewide decision-making and investment to expand economic opportunities, improve transportation, infrastructure, and communications systems, and improve the quality of life through scale-up or enhancement of existing programs, and development of new programs.ol served as the designated lead agency for the hud sustainable communities grant (2012-2015) which culminated in a 20-year plan for the region to support regional prosperity, community vitality, physical systems, social systems, and natural assets. The northcentral Montana regional plan sets forth a list of actionable goals and strategies developed through a consortium of regional representatives known as the vibrant futures project. Ol continues to provide assistance in conducting updates of the plan to reflect relevant changes for the communities in our region. Along with assistance to identify and access the resources and support needed to implement the goals and complete the action items contained in the plan that they have adopted into their growth policies and deemed essential to meet community development needs. Ol continues to support effort to identify the relationships between affordable housing, transportation, access to local foods, employment, and business development that strengthen communities and the region. Ol continually strives to create new partnerships throughout the region that leads to the advancement of programming outcomes. Through leadership training, networking, and the dissemination of information, we work to keep all regional stakeholders connected, informed, and engaged in learning and advocacy that will result in increased investment in business and job creation.through the facilitation of community engagement events, data collection, and information sharing we have built collaborative partnerships with a variety of resources providers. Ol and partners provide training and support in building the capacity of our decision makers, conducting research to identify best practices, and mapping community assets to diversify and strengthen the local and regional economies through a variety of placed-based efforts that utilize existing assets to promote enterprise and job development prosperity building initiatives.regional public transportation:opportunity Link invests in regional transit services by offering coordination, assessment, and financial support to mobilize low-income residents of north central Montana. Transportation partners include blackfeet transit, fort belknap transit, glacier county transit, north central Montana transit, northern transit interlocal, rocky boy's transit, and toole county transit. Ol manages north central Montana transit, which offers daily, deviated-fixed route bus service between havre, fort belknap, and box elder, and between havre and great falls with support from the Montana department of transportation (mdt). Estimated annual mileage is over 180,000 miles. Since the service was launched in 2009, our ridership has grown to an average of nearly 2,000 rides per month. We continually work to identify resources, including donations, to support the system, to help cover the rising costs of operations and maintenance.rural residents have embraced regional intercity bus service as an alternative to isolation and unaffordable vehicle costs. The transit services provide the elderly, youth, disabled, and non-drivers with access to employment, education, and health care services.building assets:opportunity Link is committed to helping low-income rural residents build wealth assets. We collaborate with community partners to increase access to training to build the financial capabilities of individuals that will lead to greater financial stability. Ol and partners work to identify the resources available to assist in achieving family goals for education, homeownership, and savings for the future.ol works to provide support for local place-making initiatives through asset mapping, delivery of collaborative business training, and advocacy for the adoption of policies to support local purchasing that will mobilize entrepreneur and private businesses in the region.growing resources:ol continues to increase capacities and identify effective approaches to increase the current production levels of fresh foods in the region. Assisting communities identify economic opportunities in the production of fresh foods and increasing the access to fresh foods to meet the nutritional needs of the regional residents.ol works to encourage individuals, communities, and business stakeholders to be fully engaged and investing in collaborative projects that will create new businesses and jobs. Creating more opportunities for employment, microbusiness ownership, and value-added development projects to strengthen the economy of the region, provide economic growth, and attract new investments.ol strives to convene residents, policymakers, and partner agencies to articulate strategies utilizing rural economic development models that employ sector and value chain approaches to build regional economies. Ol works to assist communities in effectively mapping and assessing their current knowledge bases, assets, capitals, and potential investment opportunities.for more information about our projects, please visit www.opportunitylinkmt.org.