We’re stepping just across the border for this week’s column to talk to an enterprising young lady who was recently named one of the Future 100 Young Social Entrepreneurs for 2009.

Along with her parents, Christine Hope runs a village shop and post office in a small rural community nestled at the foot of the Black Mountains.

Now 31, Christine founded the shop at just 23 after taking graduating with a degree in Rural Estate Management and travelling the world to work with communities in far-flung places from California to Gambia.

She’s just opened a second shop in Peterchurch in Herefordshire’s Golden Valley, has helped to promote local tourism and has created a hub for customers to come and find out what’s going on in the village.

It’s this kind of community mindedness that caught the attention of the BBC when they launched their new Village SOS project in collaboration with The Big Lottery Fund and Enterprise UK.

Christine was shortlisted as a Village Champion in a scheme which could see her placed anywhere in the UK on a year-long project to help develop rural or isolated communities.

“The Big Lottery Fund and BBC have identified that there’s not enough help in terms of skills and training in rural sectors, so they’re very keen to highlight that.

“People often think there are no rural jobs but it’s about getting the structure right and making the right training available – there’s actually a lower drop-out rate for start-up businesses in rural areas in comparison to urban areas.”

The final aim of the scheme is to showcase six community projects in spring 2001, and Christine may well be one of them.

She has been given three potential projects to work with: setting up a training facility and community hub in Kerrara – an island community of just 40 people on the northwest coast of Scotland, re-structuring a community-owned public house in Wiltshire and training young people in a Somerset village that has lost two of its major employers.

“We’ll find out which community we’ve been matched with in December, and in March they’ll announce the final six projects they plan to showcase.”

Christine will hopefully be tweeting about her experiences from the community she’s placed with, and like many people who use Twitter, she believes it’s a valuable tool for those in rural areas.

“I really like @agchat, a group of American farmers from remote areas who chat on Twitter about a chosen topic at a certain time every week – I think that’s a great idea.

“You can feel very isolated at times so it’s a great way to stay connected and find out what’s going on.

“For many people it’s also the most cost effective way of communicating – you can be in your pyjamas in your bed on your laptop, and tweet with people all over the world as well as in your village.”

Follow Christine at www.twitter.com/HopeChatter