When Dr. Mallory Rahe embedded herself in small towns across Iowa to study what made local projects succeed, she expected to find answers in data and budgets. Instead, she found relationships, not resources, were most often the determining factor in whether communities could thrive. She shared those lessons during the Connecting Entrepreneurial Communities Conference in Excelsior Springs.Rahe, an associate extension professor at the University of Missouri, emphasized social capital – the web of relationships and trust within a community – is one of the strongest predictors of rural prosperity.“Social capital is a very messy, squishy topic,” said Rahe. “But I really do believe it’s one of the key components of launching and sustaining community projects.”Her session, titled Building Social Capital to Strengthen Rural Communities, explored the ways bonds between people – both those who are alike and those who are different – shap...