{"id":557009,"date":"2018-04-05T06:07:25","date_gmt":"2018-04-05T12:07:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=557009"},"modified":"2018-04-18T21:09:13","modified_gmt":"2018-04-19T03:09:13","slug":"in-rural-new-mexico-a-way-to-make-remote-work-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2018\/04\/in-rural-new-mexico-a-way-to-make-remote-work-work\/","title":{"rendered":"In rural New Mexico, a way to make remote work, work"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ozLzuRg_28E\" width=\"771\" height=\"433\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>GRANTS, NM \u2013 Dilapidated motels line the entrance to Grants, signs of the boom that came and went in this town of 9,000 people.<\/p>\n<p>Reclamation work continues at the mines that once earned Grants the nickname \u201cUranium capital of the world,\u201d but federal figures show the mining industry employs a fraction of what it once did in the historic U.S. Route 66 town.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe uranium mines were good to us,\u201d said Sarah Pena, 71, a lifelong Grants resident. \u201cThey brought the economy up, and there are a lot of people who are still here, who stayed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Today, finding consistent work is a challenge for Pena and scores of others in Cibola County, where the unemployment rate is higher than the state average and precious little besides a few private prisons powers the local economy. To Pena, an 80-mile drive to an office job in Albuquerque started to sound like the best option.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"module align-left half type-aside\">\n<h3>About this article<\/h3>\n<p>This article\u00a0is part of the State of Change project, a multi-newsroom examination of\u00a0the challenge of building resilient rural communities \u2014 and what some\u00a0in New Mexico are doing right.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/series\/state-of-change\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Read more.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>It\u2019s a predicament many rural workers face. Far from urban economic engines, rural communities don\u2019t offer enough career advancement locally, forcing young people who might otherwise want to stay in their home community to seek jobs elsewhere. In New Mexico, traditional economic development efforts often lure big industries, favoring urban centers with high concentrations of workers, but leaving rural communities without a share of the benefits.<\/p>\n<p>A fledgling state program is trying to change that, starting with Grants.<\/p>\n<p>Pena is one of about two dozen workers participating in SoloWorks, a kind of \u201cmicro\u201d economic development program that trains and connects New Mexico workers via the internet to remote out-of-state jobs, one person at a time. The vision is to create a new economic base for rural communities, using an internet connection to bring new money into towns thirsty for a broader tax base. In its first year, the program showed mixed results: a pilot program in Grants trained about 25 workers and placed 10 of them into online jobs. Of those, two are still working. The program is faring better so far in 2018, after tweaking the program to focus more on retention: Of 21 people trained, 12 found remote jobs so far. Two have started work, and the rest are awaiting more on-the-job training.<\/p>\n<p>SoloWorks faces major hurdles amid its planned expansion to several other New Mexico communities. Chief among them are internet connectivity and a battle for funding that could threaten the program\u2019s future. Many workers don\u2019t have the broadband connection their employers require. And while the program\u2019s champions hope this can create a new generation of remote entrepreneurs and knowledge-based workers, until now, the jobs created have been mostly low-wage customer service and transcription roles. That has made it a hard sell to the New Mexico Legislature, which funded the program at a fraction of what the group asked for earlier this year.<\/p>\n<p>Though advocates\u2019 promises come with caveats, a program like SoloWorks could be another route to reversing population declines in rural communities across the West, where once-lucrative work in mines and other natural resource industries is harder to come by than a generation ago.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_557020\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-557020 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/SJ_Rural-Workers.00_05_56_17.Still015-771x434.jpg\" alt=\"Solo Works center\" width=\"771\" height=\"434\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/SJ_Rural-Workers.00_05_56_17.Still015-771x434.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/SJ_Rural-Workers.00_05_56_17.Still015-336x189.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/SJ_Rural-Workers.00_05_56_17.Still015-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/SJ_Rural-Workers.00_05_56_17.Still015-1170x658.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/SJ_Rural-Workers.00_05_56_17.Still015.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">New Mexico PBS<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Solo Works center is located on the New Mexico State University campus in Grants.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>\u201cIf it works, it\u2019d be one of the few programs that actually work in rural places, or places where there are people but not jobs,\u201d said Mark Lautman, the SoloWorks program creator and founder of the non-profit Community Economics Lab in Albuquerque. \u201cIf this works, it\u2019s going to stabilize a lot of rural communities that would otherwise disappear.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pena, for one, is optimistic about her prospects.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI like to work,\u201d Pena said. \u201cBut I also want to stay here. Because my family\u2019s here.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Why Grants?<\/h3>\n<p>The uranium boom hit the town fast. Population in Grants quadrupled between 1950 and 1960, and peaked around 1980 at 11,500 people.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was all family and friends here,\u201d Pena said. \u201cThe mines opened up, and all these new people came in.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the 1980s, the uranium market busted. By 1990, one in four people had left Grants. Population has crept upward since then, but not to its boom-time size. The economic need, plus an enthusiastic local economic development director, made Grants a logical first stop for SoloWorks to test its ideas.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe wanted to choose a place where no one would accuse us of cherry picking,\u201d Lautman said. \u201cIf we test this, let\u2019s go to a place where no one would think we could do it. So, we went to Grants.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On a recent Tuesday morning in March, Pena and a fellow SoloWorks participant, a former restaurant worker named Samuel Jack, finished job applications at desktop computers in the SoloWorks center, tucked in a former exercise studio at New Mexico State University&#8217;s Grants campus. Motivational signs lined the walls around them. \u201cI am self-driven and ambitious,\u201d the signs said. \u201cNot everyone is cut out to work remotely.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_557022\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-557022\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/SJ_Rural-Workers.00_01_28_16.Still007-771x434.jpg\" alt=\"Samuel Jack\" width=\"771\" height=\"434\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/SJ_Rural-Workers.00_01_28_16.Still007-771x434.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/SJ_Rural-Workers.00_01_28_16.Still007-336x189.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/SJ_Rural-Workers.00_01_28_16.Still007-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/SJ_Rural-Workers.00_01_28_16.Still007-1170x658.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/SJ_Rural-Workers.00_01_28_16.Still007.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">New Mexico PBS<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Samuel Jack, a former restaurant worker, participated in a SoloWorks training in Grants.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>SoloWorks is billed as a job creation program. It targets several kinds of workers: entrepreneurs with no central workplace, individuals who could work for remote employers, and the chronically hard-to-employ. The program recruits local residents, trains them in online skills like how to tailor a resume to an online job, and helps them apply for jobs with one of about 70 employers affiliated with SoloWorks. The program offers a co-working space and internet connection at a fraction of what it would cost workers on their own.<\/p>\n<p>The holy grail is what Lautman calls economic base jobs \u2013 jobs that are paid for by someone out of state.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s really hard to recruit companies to small towns, especially if they\u2019re shrinking,\u201d Lautman said. It\u2019s also tough to find work nearby in a shrinking rural economy. \u201cIf you think of everyone who walks into a local business development office, the local office has to find them something within about 20 minutes of where they live.\u201d<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Not so with remote work, which research suggests is a growing sector of the U.S. economy. In 2016, 43 percent of employed Americans spent at least some time working remotely, up from 39 percent in 2012, <a href=\"http:\/\/news.gallup.com\/reports\/199961\/7.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">according to Gallup polling data<\/a>. A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.upwork.com\/i\/freelancing-in-america\/2017\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">2017 survey of independent workers<\/a> found that a third of the U.S. workforce spent at least some portion of last year freelancing. If a program like SoloWorks can create 50 jobs in a rural community, that\u2019s like recruiting a medium-sized company.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow do you make yourself attractive to people who work alone?\u201d Lautman said. And, how to do it at a scale that actually makes a difference?<\/p>\n<p>Rich Pearson, a senior vice president of marketing for a freelancing website called Upwork, said while there\u2019s increasing demand for remote workers, there are also barriers to being an independent worker.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt can be relatively lonely work,\u201d Pearson said. \u201cThe confidence needed to succeed requires a community, requires specific skills for marketing yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, most of the workers who dropped out of jobs they found through SoloWorks did so either because of a wage cliff, as they started earning too much and lost state or federal assistance, Lautman said, or because they realized they didn\u2019t want to do customer service work. In the past, SoloWorks had no other line of work to offer.<\/p>\n<p>Pearson also said aggregating freelancers for call center jobs is not a new idea. But that\u2019s only part of SoloWorks\u2019 model. Where SoloWorks breaks the economic development mold is in how it\u2019s funded: The program only gets state money if it creates jobs.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_557019\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-557019\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/SJ_Rural-Workers.00_04_40_05.Still014-771x434.jpg\" alt=\"Solo Works center\" width=\"771\" height=\"434\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/SJ_Rural-Workers.00_04_40_05.Still014-771x434.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/SJ_Rural-Workers.00_04_40_05.Still014-336x189.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/SJ_Rural-Workers.00_04_40_05.Still014-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/SJ_Rural-Workers.00_04_40_05.Still014-1170x658.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/SJ_Rural-Workers.00_04_40_05.Still014.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">New Mexico PBS<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Inspirational phrases fill a whiteboard in the SoloWorks center in Grants.<\/p><\/div>\n<h3>How does it work?<\/h3>\n<p>Too often, Lautman said, well-intentioned government programs become compliance-driven, more interested in following rules than lifting people and communities out of poverty.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnless you make the funding of the operation based on post-performance placements, it\u2019s too hard to keep staff motivated,\u201d Lautman said. \u201cYou need to go the extra mile to get each one of these candidates to the goal line, because that\u2019s the only way you get paid.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So far, the SoloWorks program has been funded by a mix of local, state and federal funding, about $600,000 in all. The SoloWorks center in Grants receives $3,500 per job after the worker receives their first paycheck. If the program doesn\u2019t hit 30 new jobs by the end of June, the rest of the available funding reverts back to the state.<\/p>\n<p>Over the next few years, other communities hope to adopt the model. Las Vegas launched a similar SoloWorks program in fall 2017, and the state Legislature approved funding for programs in Raton and Mesilla in early 2018. Lautman\u2019s hope is that employers would one day pay for such a service.<\/p>\n<p>But the same internet access that makes remote working possible also presents one of the program\u2019s biggest hurdles, said Eileen Chavez Yarborough, director of the Grants economic development foundation. Without the connection at the SoloWorks center, these jobs wouldn\u2019t be viable, as many participants lack access to reliable internet.<\/p>\n<p>And even the program\u2019s advocates acknowledge SoloWorks won\u2019t be sustainable until they prove they can retain these new jobs over time, fixing the program\u2019s low retention rate \u2013 an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nmlegis.gov\/Sessions\/18%20Regular\/firs\/SB0020.PDF\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">issue raised in a critical report<\/a> to the state Legislature early this year.<\/p>\n<p>Will Yarborough, 23, is one of the handful of SoloWorks graduates from 2017 still working. He\u2019s the son of Eileen Chavez Yarborough, the local economic development director, and works in medical equipment customer support and sales for a California-based call center from inside a large storage closet at the SoloWorks center. It\u2019s quiet, he said, and he has the internet connection his home office does not. He\u2019s working on a computer science associates degree at New Mexico State University and hopes to one day work in remote IT support.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_557021\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-557021\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/SJ_Rural-Workers.00_06_19_01.Still003-771x434.jpg\" alt=\"Will Yarborough\" width=\"771\" height=\"434\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/SJ_Rural-Workers.00_06_19_01.Still003-771x434.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/SJ_Rural-Workers.00_06_19_01.Still003-336x189.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/SJ_Rural-Workers.00_06_19_01.Still003-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/SJ_Rural-Workers.00_06_19_01.Still003-1170x658.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/SJ_Rural-Workers.00_06_19_01.Still003.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">New Mexico PBS<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Will Yarborough is one of a handful of SoloWorks graduates who has retained his job since completing the program.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>By the end of the day on the recent Tuesday, Pena had finished her resume and practiced starting and stopping audio recordings while transcribing using a new foot pedal, under the eye of the program manager.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile Pena\u2019s colleague, Samuel Jack, was ecstatic. Just hours after submitting his application, so carefully vetted by both him and the site manager, he received an email back from the company.<\/p>\n<p>He had landed an interview.<\/p>\n<p><em>Leah Todd is a freelance reporter living in Taos and the Mountain States coordinator for the Solutions Journalism Network. She has covered education for\u00a0<\/em>The Seattle Times<em>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em>Casper Star-Tribune.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A \u2018micro\u2019 economic development program in Grants aims to build a community of telecommuters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":557023,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[118,1180,238],"class_list":["post-557009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-economy","tag-grants","tag-technology","series-state-of-change"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=557009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557009\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/557023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=557009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=557009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=557009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}