Rural Family Economic Success Action Network
Helping low-income rural families earn more, keep more of what they earn, and grow what they keep into assets.
The Basic Idea: Help children, youth and their families save towards the purchase of an appreciating asset upon reaching adulthood so that economic status will not be a barrier to the young person’s path to success. How it works: Children and youth are provided with a specialized savings account that they can access and use […]
Helping families get ahead takes investment. And not just financial investment, but investment of time, energy, relationships and know-how. In rural communities with limited resources, it can be a challenge to find the financial, intellectual, political and social capital to support hardworking families in their efforts to not only get by but truly get ahead.
Three hours north of Maine’s largest city, Franklin County leaders envisioned a thriving community in which working families could attain higher education levels that improved their family’s economic status [RuFES Grow It Goal 5]. Like their counterparts in many rural places, Franklin County families faced three major barriers to getting the post-secondary education they need […]
In 2011, the hiring manager at Quality Pork Processors contacted Jake Vela, executive director of Austin, Minnesota’s Welcome Center, to let him know that 300 new immigrant workers would soon begin working at their Austin facility. That call was the catalyst for Jake and his staff to learn everything they could about their newest neighbors.
The Basic Idea: Help your community grow and thrive by creating a space and/or resource to connect new residents with culturally competent services, resources and opportunities.
The Basic Idea: Encourage families to have savings taken out of their paychecks – making saving easier and reducing the temptation to spend earnings right away.
Families need to save if they are to get ahead. But it’s hard to get started. Saving just a little regularly is the best way to go. That helps families establish a financial cushion, the first Grow It goal of the RuFES Action Framework. Every year, free tax prep sites look for ideas to encourage low-income families to save […]
With its beaches, forests, farms, and bucolic villages, Orcas Island – a rural island of 5,000 residents off the coast of northwest Washington State – has long drawn honeymooning, whale-watching, kayaking tourists and, increasingly, tech-exec millionaires building luxury homes. But as the “hidden Paradise” reputation of Orcas grew with vacationers and second home-owners, soaring land […]
In today’s uncertain and competitive economy, a college degree is increasingly considered a must-have to get a decent-paying job. Rural residents are less likely than city dwellers to have a college degree. And this is especially true for residents of chronically poor rural communities, a study by the Carsey Institute at the University of New […]
We want our families and communities to thrive, and, in order for rural places to succeed, rural communities need to be places that families want to live. One good sign that rural communities continue to be attractive places to live is that many new families are settling down in rural counties, according to recently released […]
Rural Family Economic Success Action Network 