WeCAN Solutions Roundtables
After several months of Peer Learning Network (PLN) gatherings, we noticed a number of issues came up over and over. Housing access and quality, post-pandemic workforce shortages and a lack of mental health services are three of those issues. Our PLN participants suggested we host a series of virtual summits on these and other issues going forward, "but," they said, "we don't want to just talk about the problems and why we have them. We want to hear about communities that are having success in addressing these challenges." Thus, the Solutions Roundtable program featuring rural community leaders talking about how they solved some of these problems was launched in 2022.
.jpg)
May 6, 2026
Outdoor Recreation & Rural Tourism Solutions Roundtable
The upcoming WeCAN Solutions Roundtable on Outdoor Recreation and Rural Tourism will explore how rural communities across the West are using outdoor recreation as a tourism strategy in thoughtful, community-centered ways. You’ll hear — and have the chance to share — what’s working, what communities are learning along the way, and how local leaders are shaping tourism that supports businesses, respects residents, and fits the places they call home.
We’ll look at how rural places are making decisions that reflect local priorities, set expectations early, and respond to challenges and unintended consequences as they arise.
​
You’ll leave the roundtable with new ideas you can adapt in your own community, clearer insight into the tradeoffs recreation-based tourism can bring, and new connections and inspiration to shape visitor economies that are sustainable, right-sized, and rooted in what makes your place unique.
November 2025
Accessible Rural Communities Solutions Roundtable
The fifth Rural Solutions Roundtable focused on how we can make our communities more livable for everyone. From housing and transportation to outdoor recreation and community decision-making, accessibility is essential for building welcoming, resilient places. The Accessible Rural Communities Solutions Roundtable explored how rural communities across the West are advancing accessibility—addressing the needs of people with physical disabilities, older adults aging in place, neurodiverse residents, and others who benefit from access assistance.
​
January 2022
Housing Solutions Roundtable
This roundtable featured solutions such as owner-built workforce housing in Red Lodge, workforce housing incentives for developers in McCall, an old building repurposed into apartments in Livingston, community-driven code-audit programs in Wyoming, and tiny home policies that can be adopted anywhere.
​
October 2022
Workforce Solutions Roundtable
This roundtable featured Deb Brown from SaveYour.Town who made the case for thinking differently about workers going forward as well as solutions such as training youth in conservation skills in southwest Montana, a skilled trades summer camp in Wyoming, the possibilities for cooperatives across industries and a retail operation that employs only people who are differently abled.
February 2024
Mental Health Solutions Roundtable
Find out how very small communities and rural regions are bootstrapping solutions to the crisis in mental health and suicide.
​
Learn more here.
November 2024
Artisan Grains Marketing Solutions Roundtable
WeCan partnered with the Northwest and Rocky Mountain Regional Food Business Center to provide a forum for participants from a six-state region (Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming) to exchange ideas, learn together and cultivate new connections for creating, expanding and diversifying markets for these climate-resilient crops. Six speakers shared stories and insights to get the conversation rolling. Learn more, see the recorded sessions and download the resource guide here.
