Rural communities contain almost 20 percent of the country’s population, and many are struggling now due to job loss, limited access to financial services, substandard housing stock, and a lack of infrastructure investment, including investments needed to expand rural access to broadband. These factors hinder the growth of rural places and contribute to population loss, higher poverty rates, and basic capacity needs. The challenges are greatest in our nation’s most rural and isolated areas, many of which are persistent poverty counties.
We need a national commitment to support rural America’s people and communities. Rural places are increasingly diverse and differ from one community to the next, although all offer a wealth of opportunities. These include less expensive land, high rates of homeownership, and a strong sense of community. LISC, through our Rural LISC program, has made a Rural Promise to achieve 20 percent of our community development impact in rural communities. This impact will be achieved through Rural LISC’s focus pillars, which include access to capital, broadband and infrastructure, workforce development, disaster recovery and resilience, and placemaking.
We cannot fulfill this goal without strong alignment with federal policies and programs that support our investments in housing, economic development, family income and wealth building, health, and the capacity building needs of nonprofit organizations. LISC released a comprehensive set of policy priorities that we intend to promote with members of Congress and the Administration in the coming months and years. We highlight below several of those policies and programs that we believe will be critical to supporting our work in rural America.