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Infrastructure
Every community deserves to be connected to clean water, affordable transportation options, high-speed internet, and the essentials they need to succeed.
There’s a long history of significant investments in rural infrastructure, but they have occurred decades or multiple decades apart. We’re currently in another wave of rural investment. With the passage of major legislation like the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, billions of dollars from the federal government are going to create jobs in new industries, rebuild roads and bridges, upgrade water systems, and connect communities to the Internet. We need to ensure that funding goes to help local communities that need it most — particularly rural communities of color and low-wealth places.
Rural communities face barriers related to scale and remoteness that require specialized solutions, including prioritization and support from non-rural agencies, organizations, and leaders. Across the country, rural communities and Native nations are working to build systems that work for their specific needs.
Infrastructure Research & Resources
Taking Stock
Housing Assistance Council
First published in 1984, Taking Stock is HAC’s decennial research publication. The 2023 edition of Taking Stock continues this legacy of presenting social, economic, and housing trends for rural places and people.
Will EDA’s Recompete Pilot Program reach rural America?
Brookings Institution
Brookings Institute authors offer recommendations on how rural areas can maximize the opportunity to compete for Distressed Area Recompete Pilot Program funding.
Rural Environmental Justice: Community Flooding Case Study
This short case study has insights and tips on addressing the causes and conditions contributing to flooding in rural places, as well as to envision and build thriving futures of equitable rural prosperity.
Maximizing New Federal Investments in Broadband for Rural America
Brookings Institution
Congress has appropriated billions of dollars to close the digital divide, but rural areas most likely to encounter challenges to access and adoption. How can smart policy help end the digital divide once and for all?
Through Natural Disaster to Prosperity: A Call to Action
Need actionable steps in your equitable disaster preparedness or recovery work? This report highlights best practices from the field.
Analyzing the opportunities for rural America in IIJA, CHIPS, and IRA
Brookings Institution
Brookings Institute authors estimate >$464 billion, or 45% of the combined appropriations in these three laws, present a significant opportunity for rural America and offer recommendations on how to maximize the benefits.
The Equity of Economic Opportunity in Rural America
The Center on Rural Innovation (CORI)
Research on rural America’s economic opportunity from CORI highlights growing disparities due to the knowledge economy’s focus on urban areas. It emphasizes the need for equitable policy and investment in rural regions to address systemic inequities and enable rural participation in the knowledge economy.
Regional Clusters and Rural Development
Brookings Institution
Implementation of the Build Back Better Regional Challenge offers an enormous opportunity to advance how regional approaches can benefit — or disadvantage — rural places.
Reimagining Rural policy: Organizing Federal Assistance to Maximize Rural Prosperity
Brookings Institution
The federal programs available today to promote rural economic and community development serve as a reminder of active federal involvement in the 20th century, but they are outdated, fragmented, and incoherent. How can federal policy more effectively support development in rural America?
Defining distress: Lessons from the Federally Chartered Regional Commissions
Brookings Institution
Brookings Institute authors propose three considerations to help refine the meaning and use of “distress” and improve the effectiveness of rural policy.
Safe Drinking Water: Rural Economic Justice Case Study
This short case study has insights on what will it take for rural communities to drive their own clean water solutions and breaks down the structural challenges that keep rural communities from accessing clean water solutions.
Mapping a New Terrain: Call to Action
As new rural outdoor recreation economies take root, we can meet this moment by improving how we do outdoor recreation development to better support rural families, businesses, and workers, create more sustainable and equitable economic systems, and improve local health and wellbeing.
INFRASTRUCTURE IN ACTION
How Poor Water Access Dilutes Quality of Life in Rural Areas
ChangeLab Solutions
Rural communities struggle with water access due to an array of factors such as poor infrastructure and high costs. To ensure equitable access and improve health outcomes, explore solutions ranging from better legislation and targeted funding to community engagement in water board elections.
Understanding Broadband Resilience and Natural Disaster Risk
Center on Rural Innovation (CORI)
It’s essential to build resilient broadband systems to withstand natural disasters, but resilience varies by region and type of infrastructure. New research and tools from CORI will help in planning/upgrading broadband infrastructure in disaster-prone areas, ensuring continuity in communication and public safety services.
Building on a Legacy of Community Resilience in Sunflower County, Mississippi
Brookings Institution
In a podcast episode, Brookings Senior Fellow Tony Pipa visits two towns in Sunflower County, Mississippi, to hear how local leaders and homecomers—those returning to their rural hometowns—describe their efforts to build communities where people want to live. They highlight the role of beauty and leisure in achieving their visions.
Broadband Connection in Rural Communities
ChangeLab Solutions
Improving rural broadband is key to enhancing health, education, and economic equity. It helps ensure access to health and emergency services and reduces the digital divide that disproportionately affects BIPOC and low-income families. Explore how increasing capital access and flexible policy strategies can advance rural life.
Webinar: Successful Strategies for Small Business Support in Rural Communities
The International Economic Development Council (IEDC)
Mar. 13th, 2023, 2PM
Rural entrepreneurs face significant roadblocks to needed resources, preventing more businesses from forming in rural areas. In an IEDC webinar, experts share strategies and tools that would support rural small businesses.
A Recipe for a Rural Policy Renaissance
Brookings Institution
In a podcast episode, Brookings Senior Fellow Tony Pipa shares lessons from rural residents about how to effectively support rural communities across America.
What Is Possible When High-Speed Broadband Comes To Town
Center on Rural Innovation (CORI)
The impact of high-speed broadband in rural America can be transformative, enabling job attraction, innovation hubs, youth tech education, entrepreneurial growth, and improved health outcomes. Learn what’s possible when high-speed internet comes to town from five innovative communities across the US.
Raising the Roof: Solutions for Rural Homelessness
Rural LISC
Apr. 19th, 2023, 1PM
Everyone deserves a place to call home, yet homelessness is on the rise in many communities across America. In this webinar, experts from the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness share approaches for addressing rural homelessness, and a practitioner shares their work to prevent and end homelessness in rural West Virginia.
Transforming Coal Country in Shamokin, Pennsylvania
Brookings Institution
In a podcast episode, Brookings Senior Fellow Tony Pipa visits a former coal town on its way to becoming an outdoor recreation destination after decades of decline. He learns how mine remediation projects are helping spur community renewal from the local leaders who are helping inspire change.
Building Assets: Strengthening Community in Low-Wealth Rural Areas
NeighborWorks America
Learning Communities offer a meaningful opportunity for practitioners to come together to better understand practices, contexts, and trends related to their work. This report details lessons and recommendations from a six-month Learning Community focused on strengthening community in low-wealth rural areas.
Developing a Resilient Downtown in Globe, Arizona
Brookings Institution
In a podcast episode, Brookings Senior Fellow Tony Pipa speaks with residents who have moved back to the boom-and-bust copper mining town of Globe, Arizona, to revitalize its historic district.
Pathways to Improved Housing Quality in Rural Places
ChangeLab Solutions
Improving housing quality in rural areas where aging homes are common can benefit those communities’ health and economy. Learn how strategies supported by public and private funding, like proactive rental inspections and rehabilitation programs, can address rural challenges.
Rural America’s Tech Employment Landscape
Center on Rural Innovation (CORI)
This research highlights key aspects of rural tech employment and why they are crucial for policymakers and rural leaders alike to leverage for enhancing tech education and job opportunities.
Raising the Roof: Solar on Rural and Tribal Housing
Rural LISC
Despite its many benefits, communities still face numerous challenges to financing and installing solar. Hear from housing solar experts on their experience deploying solar in rural and tribal communities using a nonprofit development model, and from a Rural LISC partner on shared lessons from a recent solar feasibility study.
IRSG Rural Organizing Dialogue Series
Neighborhood Funders Group
In a dialogue series hosted by the Integrated Rural Strategies Group, funders come together to learn from rural leaders — and each other — about recent developments and best practices in equitable rural development.