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The Regional Revitalization Cooperators
地域おこし協力隊 is a national program, launched by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications in 2009. Municipalities in depopulated or rural areas recruit people who live in cities; the recruits move their registered residence to the town and spend, as a rule, one to three years on local revitalization — tourism, farming, crafts, support for elderly residents, promoting the town to new residents. The town sets the job, and the national government funds much of the cost. Several thousand people take part each year, and official surveys report that more than half settle in or near the town where they served once the term ends. The program's promise and its difficulty are the same thing: a newcomer is needed precisely because the town is shrinking, and the work is to be done with people who did not ask for change. Job ads for the program are written in formal 書き言葉, and this lesson's grammar comes from that register: をきっかけに, に応じて, をはじめとする, を対象に, and the instruction form 〜こと.