Opinion: Rural communities need younger residents to become leaders, but some changes may have to come first

Calendars and contact information
can be shared multiple ways.

Older Americans often dominate positions in local government and social circles that influence a rural area's civic activism. While it benefits the "Old Guard" to remain active, their resistance to inviting a younger, more "techy" cohort of residents into their ranks has led to a decline in community engagement and volunteerism, writes Donna Kallner in her opinion piece for The Daily Yonder. 

"Rural communities need younger people to step up into leadership roles in local government, volunteer organizations, churches, schools, and families," Kallner explains. "But too often those younger people run up against ways of doing things. . . .The Old Guard in the other group shuts down any idea or strategy that isn’t a legacy from the 20th century. . . . And then people moan about how you can’t get anyone to volunteer, or run for office, or call to engage."

Kallner encourages more senior members of rural communities to develop relationships with younger residents that welcome, respect, and promote their voices and contributions -- even if that means changing the way things "have always been done" and using some technology to lighten everyone's loads. A few of her lightly edited suggestions are shared below.

Respect everyone's time. Show up on time, knowing what needs to be accomplished and get to it. That’s baseline respect for people who, in order to be there, have made child care arrangements, rushed from work with maybe a bun-and-run for supper, and still have to clear snow from their driveways when they get home. 

Be open to using technology. Today’s cell phones put remarkable tools in our pockets. Tools like calendar apps with a handy, customizable feature called Notifications that can give a heads up the evening before and/or day of an event or when a task needs to be done. Trying to be respectful of other people’s time? Set repeating alarms for monthly meetings to sound early enough to get there on time. 

Share contact information, courtesy and grace. A text group can alert a dozen people before they even leave home when a power outage or plumbing issue closes the coffee shop where you expected to meet. . . . Especially if you’re an event organizer, be sure to share and re-post your cell number. Remember to check your messages and voice mail so you can relay information to those unable to attend. 

Local journalists who cover community planning can use EPA's 'Walkability Index' to help with stories

Visitors to wine and water tourist-haven Door County, Wis., might be surprised that the county has few sidewalks, which leaves the area with below-average walkability scores (in yellow and orange). Click to enlarge.

When local officials include walkability in their community plans, it benefits the environment, local businesses and residents. It's also an important factor for journalists to understand and explore.

To help measure walkability, the Environmental Protection Agency offers a National Walkability Index for "zoning boards, planners and public works departments [and] the reporters who cover them," reports Joseph A. Davis for the Society of Environmental Journalists. Access the index here.

The EPA's tool uses high-quality data, and "It’s mapped," Davis adds. "There’s an intuitive, searchable, zoomable online map product with an easy-to-use, fast interface."

Walkability ratings include things such as "sidewalks, crossings, transit stops, etc. Ultimately, these things are drawn from the EPA’s Smart Location Mapping database," Davis writes. "The EPA sorts places into rural, suburban, urban and downtown."

This database can help journalists report on what planners refer to as the "built environment," Davis reports. "Walkability requires good local government decisions and adequate local resources. That means money. . . . A lot of local government decisions and resources go into walkability."

Uncovering your community's walkability data is just the beginning of a story. "You still have to talk to people on the street, … er, sidewalk," Davis adds. "As always, check and groundtruth everything you can."

E.V. charging stations help fuel mega gas station growth. Not every town wants one.

Sheetz location in Romulus, Mich. 
(Sheetz photo via WXTZ News in Detroit, Mich.)

Despite controversies over their impact, big gas station chains such as Buc-ees and Sheetz are adding locations in small communities and residential spaces across the U.S. The need for more E.V. charging stations, with their longer "fill" times, is part of the reason.

"As battery-powered cars become more common on roadways, more gas stations are installing chargers alongside old-fashioned pumps," reports Kevin Williams of The New York Times. "E.V. charging takes time, so gas station operators are turning their stores into shopping centers where people can spend time — and money — while they wait for cars to charge."

Area residents have a range of reactions when they hear their community is being considered as a mega gas station location. "The sheer size of the businesses has turned off some communities that don’t want the heavy traffic, bright lights and 24/7 activity," Williams explains. "When communities object to Sheetz’s moving in, the company isn’t fazed. . . . It knows there are communities that want its business."

Restaurants in small to mid-sized cities have pushed against mega gas stations because they offer extensive food menus and may even include a drive-thru. Williams reports, "Craig Dunaway, the chief operating officer of Penn Station East Coast Subs, said his restaurant chain was fending off gas station businesses like Sheetz."

The city of Farmington Hills, Mich., which has roughly 86,000 residents, "rejected Sheetz’s proposal this year to take over a space once occupied by Ginopolis, a restaurant that called Elizabeth Taylor and Bob and Delores Hope its customers, after several contentious meetings," Williams writes. But the smaller town of Romulus, Mich., welcomed the development.

Jeremy Taylor, a long-time Romulus resident, enjoys what Sheetz offers. He told Williams, "It’s been a long time since we’ve had something this good in Romulus. There’s nothing out here.”

Save the date: On Sept. 17, Rural Assembly Everywhere will focus on abundance during scarcity.

Ready to rumble for rural communities?

Grab a pen or your electronic calendar and save Wednesday, Sept. 17, for attending the virtual Rural Assembly Everywhere. Formal registration is in June.

The day will be a time for rural residents, advocates and friends to learn how to stop asking ourselves, "What now?" and, instead, ask, "What if?" The event will show participants how to promote mutual flourishing and abundance — even during days marked by scarcity.

"Training ourselves to think in this way is challenging when we are surrounded by cultural messages to the contrary. For people in rural communities, scarcity mindset is a common way of life, because resources are often limited," writes Rural Assembly Executive Director Madeline Matson. "Scarcity is real, but how can abundant thinking lead to other gains?"

Everywhere 2025 will highlight stories, tools and resources designed to help rural people counter fears and scarcity mindsets, so they continue to grow their families, farms, vocations, jobs and businesses with renewed and resilient spirits.

Some Everywhere 2025 content is still under construction, and they'd like to hear more rural voices chime in with thoughts, advice, challenges and successes. Matson asks, "Have you encountered zero-sum thinking in your community? How does it show up?" Email Matson at: assembly@ruralstrategies.org and describe what's happening in your rural space, ask questions or submit a discussion topic.

Quick hits: Growing local rye for bourbon; winter's delights; farm radio plays on; a new way to support local journalism

Rye from thousands of miles away is used in many KY 
bourbons. (Graphic by Adam Dixon, Ambrook Research)

Bourbon's ingredients are relatively simple and most can be locally grown. But as history tells it, grain farmers in Kentucky, where 95% of the world's bourbon is produced, quit growing rye, reports Daniel Walton of Ambrook Research. "While its water is drawn from limestone-filtered springs, and its corn from nearby farms, the ingredient that gives good bourbon its distinctive pepper and herbal notes is shipped in from thousands of miles away. . . . In the interests of sustainability, supply chain resilience, and good old-fashioned local pride, the bourbon industry now wants to bring rye back to Kentucky."

Squirrels can provide winter
entertainment. (Unsplash photo)

Is it too soon to start planning springtime projects? For people who would like to build a chicken coop, heading into winter is a great time to learn what's required and start gathering supplies. If you're lucky enough to have any indoor building space, getting started now is ideal. Lisa Foust Prater of Successful Farming provides a step-by-step primer on building an idyllic home for your spring chicken flock.

The days of winter darkness are coming. Some call it dreary, others get ready to hibernate, and still, others continue to wear shorts in what appears to be a total denial of summer's end. "It’s not all dark mornings and bulky coats," writes Jancee Dunn of The New York Times. From making lists of books you want to read to exploring "slow hobbies" experts shared with Dunn how to "open yourself up to the delights of the season. . . .Take note of the birds and squirrels as you take a walk, or look at the moon or the changing sky outside your window."

Farmers love to "tune in from their tractors" to their ever-reliable and ever-useful farm radio station, reports Sarah Murphy of Ambrook Research. In fact, "83% of farmers with at least $100,000 of gross farm income listened to farm radio five days per week or more in 2023, according to a National Association of Farm Broadcasters survey. But even as the medium faces changes from podcasts to streaming services, farm radio's "staying power is impressive."

Journalism comes in many forms, but reporting on music may be one of the most challenging. Enter in NPR's "From the Top," which lets music do the reporting and highlights young musical talent from around the country, including students from rural America. In this episode, a 15-year-old violinist from the small coastal community of Damariscotta, Maine, and a talented young banjo player from the foothills of Leicester, North Carolina, are shared.

Photo by Max Kabat via The Daily Yonder

To help sustain local journalism, the small town of Marfa, Texas, created a place for community residents, tourists and local news to come together in a shared space, which they named "The Sentinel." The Sentinel's renovated, adobe-style building houses The Big Bend Sentinel and the Presidio International, which provide independent news to area counties, reports Kim Kobersmith of The Daily Yonder. The Sentinel's kitchen serves local food favorites, specialty coffee drinks and regional cocktails. All in all, the space supports independent journalism, while providing a friendly, reliable and delicious restaurant for the community to share.

A small town in Texas addresses domestic violence with combined efforts from police, courts and local businesses

The End Domestic Violence Task Force was recognized by the
Rural Justice Collaborative in 2023. (Photo via RHIhub)

The rural community of Kingsville, Texas, developed a task force of combined support from law enforcement, courts and local businesses to help domestic violence victims safely ask for and receive help. The initiative began when "pastors in the Kingsville Ministerial Alliance realized that there were gaps in services and a lack of support for agencies working with victims of abuse," reports Gretel Kaufman for Rural Health Information Hub. "The nearest shelter, operated by regional domestic violence organization The Purple Door, was 50 miles from Kingsville — a distance that proved prohibitive for people without transportation, or whose jobs or school-aged children required them to stay closer to home."

Although domestic violence isn't necessarily an urban or rural problem, rural victims face more challenges in accessing immediate help and ongoing support. "Rates of emergency department visits due to abuse tend to be higher in rural areas — perhaps, experts suggest, because rural survivors tend to have fewer resources available to them to prevent or escape an abusive situation," Kaufman explains. "In some cases, violence escalates beyond hospitalization: homicide due to intimate partner violence is also more prevalent in rural areas, studies have shown."

Once the Kingsville Ministerial Alliance identified the town's resource gaps, it contacted community partners for additional support, "local agencies including The Purple Door, law enforcement, and the county attorney's office came together to form the End Domestic Violence Task Force," Kaufman reports. "A community-wide initiative that provides enhanced support for domestic violence survivors and spreads public awareness of the issue." Kathy Kimball, who serves as President of the task force, told Kaufman, "We are not immune [from domestic violence] being in a small Texas town."

The Task Force also has small business partners, which provide a place for victims to ask for help. "An estimated 15 to 20 businesses and organizations in the community have been designated as 'Trusted Locations' — places where a person experiencing domestic violence can go to confide in someone and learn about their options," Kaufman writes. "To signal that they are a Trusted Location, businesses will typically display a small sticker on their door or in a more discreet location inside."

Additional supportive measures the community's task force has developed include hotel vouchers and court accompaniment options. The task force "asks that anybody who utilizes the hotel voucher program then gets in touch with an advocate at the Purple Door for an explanation of available services," Kaufman reports. "Any person who opts into the court accompaniment program can have a group of task force members sit behind them, on their side of the courtroom, during protective order hearings."

A prescription for rural isolation: Coffee and community that can build human connections and improve health

Coffee and community can be part of a healthy lifestyle.
(Mercantile photo via RHIH)

Part of rural living's appeal can be its wide open spaces with big skies and swaths of uninhabited land. While people may relish country living, it can be socially isolating and lonely, which isn't a healthy state for most people. In Madison, Minnesota, pop. 1,518, Dr. Hannah Fields, the town's family physician, is experimenting with a new prescription for some of her patients: "Visit the local coffee shop," reports Brendan Stermer for Rural Health Information Hub. Fields told Stermer, “It's as simple as pulling out a piece of scrap paper and writing a prescription for coffee, then texting Kris [the owner of the shop] like, ‘Hey, if someone shows up with this, put it on my tab."

Field's prescription isn't just for coffee -- it's for the community bonds the location offers alongside warm sips. "These interactions, Fields believes, amount to an intangible elixir that is healthier and more invigorating than even the Mercantile's strongest brew: authentic human connection," Stermer explains. "It's a basic — though often unacknowledged — necessity for health."

The U.S. Surgeon General's Advisory on the Health Effects of Social Connection and Community was published in May 2023, and it listed human connection “as essential to survival as food, water, and shelter." But hanging out together and connecting has become harder for many Americans.

The 2023 advisory described the problem: “Recent surveys have found that approximately half of U.S. adults report experiencing loneliness, with some of the highest rates among young adults. These estimates and multiple other studies indicate that loneliness and social isolation are more widespread than many of the other major health issues of our day, including smoking (12.5% of U.S. adults), diabetes (14.7%), and obesity (41.9%), and with comparable levels of risk to health and premature death.”

With that kind of health risk on the table, a cup of coffee or tea with other humans might be the cheapest and most effective antidote. "Fields hopes the 2023 Surgeon General's Advisory has opened the door for individuals and providers to reckon with the presence of these issues in their own lives, and in their communities," Stermer reports. "Her referrals to the Mercantile are inspired by a practice, more common in Europe, known as social prescribing. While she has heard promising patient feedback, she emphasized that formal program implementation and evaluation would be needed to draw any firm conclusions."

Rural Journalism Collective hosts election-year reporting webinar: Thursday, June 20, 2 p.m., E.T.

The Rural Journalism Collective is hosting a free webinar with tips on how journalists can tell more accurate stories about rural voters. The webinar will be held on Thursday, June 20, at 2 p.m., E.T. You can register here.

Session panelists include Dee Davis, president of the Center for Rural Strategies; Pauly Denetclaw, political correspondent for ICT; and Cathy Darling Allen, registrar of voters and Shasta County clerk in rural California.

As Americans head into the final months before November elections, rural journalists can help their communities fine-tune their political voices while supporting poll workers and election officials throughout the election cycle.

The discussion will touch on voter polling conducted by the Center for Rural Strategies, Native and Indigenous voters, and how journalists can use their reporting to lead their communities through the democratic process.

Health advocates use produce 'prescriptions' to treat diet-related problems; funding can be a barrier

Nutritionist Shelby Ballinger teaches cooking classes
for Delta Produce RX participants. (RHIhub photo)

Community health advocates in pockets across the U.S. are helping rural community members access fresh produce with healthy food "prescriptions," which treat diet-related health problems.

In Leland, Mississippi, a program called Delta Produce RX serves more than "100 patients of Leland Medical Clinic who receive a monthly $80 credit reserved for the purchase of fresh produce at the Leland Stop N Shop," reports Brendan Stermer of Rural Health Information Hub. "The program is reserved for low-income individuals who suffer from diet-related chronic health conditions. Participants also attend cooking classes, meet with a nutritionist, and receive a membership to the local wellness center."

Leland's program began in 2020 and is run by Delta Health Alliance, a nonprofit healthcare and social service organization, and administered through grant dollars. Shelby Ballinger, a Delta Produce RX program manager and a nutritionist, told Stermer, "It kind of exploded. Word of mouth has gotten around our community, so I get a lot of calls from patients and community members who are interested in the program."

While some might say giving food to address diet-related problems is common sense, it has not been the norm. But the idea is gaining momentum. "According to a 2021 report commissioned by the nonprofit Wholesome Wave, 108 new 'produce prescription' programs launched in the U.S. between 2010 and 2020," Stermer writes. The Wholesome Wave report also "noted an 'unequal distribution of programs,' with the model experiencing 'strong growth on the coasts and within Midwestern urban cities.' Produce prescription programs are still uncommon in rural areas like the Mississippi Delta, where rates of food insecurity and diet-related disease are the highest."

As more programs have opened, more studies show the health benefits and cost savings they offer. Stermer reports, "New research from Tufts University supports the model's effectiveness at improving food security and various health metrics associated with diet-related disease. According to another recent Tufts University study, widespread implementation could facilitate long-term healthcare cost savings of $39.6 billion over 25 years."

Despite the concept's success, funding remains uncertain. Melissa Akers, manager of the Food Policy, Health, and Hunger Research Program at the University of California San Francisco Center for Vulnerable Populations, told Stermer, "Sustainable funding is still tricky." Stermer adds, "Akers [has] interviewed over a dozen 'key informants' working with rural produce prescription programs across the country. Funding came up frequently as the most significant barrier to program growth."

For more on starting a produce RX, Akers co-authored the Rural Produce Prescription Toolkit, which offers nuts and bolts for funding, launching and sustaining a rural produce-for-health program in your town.

Rural Tennessee communities want agreements to ensure that they will benefit from Ford's big electric vehicle complex

Ford and SK's mega EV complex in Tennessee is nearly six square miles.
(BlueOval City photo)

Named after Ford's iconic logo, Blue Oval City is a burgeoning electric vehicle development in Stanton, Tennessee, a rural town of 615 residents, many of whom are working to ensure the massive operation provides regional community advantages.

"The joint venture, between Ford and Korean company SK Innovation, promises 6,000 good-paying jobs for residents of the small, rural communities. . . . Development on such a large scale will, [residents] fear, change the community, suck up water and electricity, and prompt an influx of newcomers and development," reports Katie Myers of Grist. "The towns orbiting Stanton are sitting down with Ford and SK to negotiate a binding agreement that will ensure they benefit from Blue Oval City as much as the companies do."

Community advocates wanted residents to have a say in what benefits the companies provided, including youth facilities and support for road maintenance, alongside binding assurances for responsible plant waste disposal. To empower regional voices, they formed a coalition, which "drafted a list of stipulations, called a community benefits agreement, that it wants Ford/Blue Oval SK to abide by," Myers explains. "CBAs are a contract between a corporation and a coalition of local organizations that gives the community, through binding arbitration, leverage to ensure the commitments are kept."

In Los Angeles, the entertainment industry used CBAs to negotiate for a large sports arena, but a CBA's purpose and power can be broadly applied. Vonda McDaniel, the president of the Central Labor Council of Nashville and Middle Tennessee, "is helping to formulate Blue Oval agreement and plan town halls," Myers reports. "The process has been lively." McDaniel told her: "We haven't had a whole lot of wilting flowers that have shown up at our meetings. . . . The community is feeling a bit squeezed; there's heavy equipment up and down the road every day."

The "squeeze" is understandable. Blue Oval City is a 3,600-acre campus covering nearly six square miles. The complex is slated to open in 2025 and will employ at least 5,700 people. The surrounding towns of Covington, Brownsville and Stanton have an estimated population of 19,015.

Kathleen Mulltigan, who leads the National Labor Leadership Initiative at Cornell University, told Myers: "What we're really trying to do is bring real democracy into the economic realm, because a lot of the work of shaping the economy happens without workers having any voice in it."

The coalition will need Ford and SK to come to the negotiation table. The group plans to "take a complete draft of the agreement in hand early in the new year," Myers reports. "Even if the effort is not immediately successful, community members say, the relationships they've built with one another will only get stronger, leaving possibilities for further organizing open down the road."

A story of hope: Rosalynn Carter's mental health advocacy 'changed journalism — and journalists'

Carter's advocacy created a framework for much of the
progress on mental illness in America. (Photo by Ric Feld, AP)

One reporter's journey to understanding the role journalism could play in improving Americans' lives began with Roslyn Carter's mental health advocacy. A condensed version of Aaron Glantz's NPR story is shared below.

"So much of who I am today is the result of receiving a Rosalynn Carter Mental Health Journalism Fellowship from The Carter Center 15 years ago.

"When I met former first lady Rosalynn Carter in Atlanta in 2008, I was accomplished — having written one book and under contract for a second — but I was also broken after three years reporting in Iraq and an equal amount of time chronicling challenges veterans faced back home. I wrote without purpose, drifting from story to story and full of rage at what I saw as the U.S. government's failure to take seriously the human consequences of the war it began.

"Mrs. Carter was the first person to ever ask me how my journalism would make an impact. It was such an obvious question that it changed my life.

"These days, the question of impact is regularly discussed in newsrooms, especially on investigative desks. But at the time, considering the purpose of one's journalism was often considered taboo. . . .Her challenge, laid out softly in her gentle Southern drawl, gave me a way to channel my trauma. I could deploy it, and the entire journalism toolbox, into making people's lives better.

"All my work since and the change it has made — the fact the VA now tracks veteran suicides in an effort to prevent them, that 500,000 fewer veterans are waiting for disability benefits, that 100,000 fewer are on government-prescribed opioids, and more — can all be traced back to Mrs. Carter and her vision that journalism should have a greater purpose, to fight stigma and make change.

"As she did with her other fellows, she watched my work closely, sending congratulatory letters when my reporting won major journalism awards. She took me seriously, which made me take myself seriously. . . . Since Carter's death, I've been crying — as I share memories with some of the more than 200 other journalists who have held the fellowship that bears her name. Even those who held the fellowship after Mrs. Carter's health began to slip when she could no longer attend in person and provide notes spoke of the impact she had on them.

"Carter was a visionary. When she established the Rosalynn Carter Mental Health Journalism Fellowship in 1996, the entire conception of mental health as a journalism beat was not well established. Screaming headlines in newspapers and chyrons on the nightly news proclaimed people to be 'crazy' or 'insane.' The idea of reporting with the expressed purpose of fighting stigma and improving conditions for people with mental illness was foreign to most editors and publishers. . . . Through deliberate work over more than two decades with hundreds of reporters; Carter changed that." 

Opinion: Millions of Americans have stopped going to church, but what they've lost is more than religion

Paul Wesslund
(Photo via USA Today)

As Americans leave church behind, many fail to see it's more than religion they're giving up. "Record numbers of Americans have quit going to church. Studies and personal stories describe people either leaving churches or just drifting away for reasons like being too busy or disagreeing on social issues," writes Paul Wesslund in his opinion for the Courier Journal in Louisville, Kentucky. "The odd thing is that these former churchgoers seem to be searching for some kind of community. . . . And those pulling away from religion don't take into account what a church can offer that addresses what people say they're searching for: Friends, and being part of something larger than themselves.

"I attended the Kentucky United Methodist Annual Conference this year, where disaffiliations were approved for the last wave of the more than 300 churches that left our conference. At the meeting, I sensed the hundreds of remaining delegates going through the classic stages of grief, including depression and acceptance. It's a denomination figuring out how to navigate a new world, working hard at keeping hope alive.

"Much of the current commentary on church attendance refers to the new book, The Great Dechurching, by Jim Davis and Michael Graham. It takes a deep dive into surveys about why so many have stopped going to church. The studies found plenty of reasons, from wanting to sleep in after being kept awake by a new baby to attending brunch with friends. . . . Other widely reported reasons cut even deeper – the widespread child abuse in the Catholic church, the use of the Bible to score political points and the too-frequent requests for money.

"The U.S. Surgeon General issued a report this year on loneliness and isolation, comparing its health effects to smoking 15 cigarettes a day. He created the report, he says, after Americans repeatedly told him they felt invisible and insignificant. That's a condition every church seeks to address, however imperfectly. . . . We overlook defects in other parts of our lives. Who hasn't had a less-than-perfect experience at what is still their favorite restaurant? Or stayed loyal to their team despite a series of boneheaded plays?

"My disagreement with one of the church's policies didn't drive me away – I helped organize a group of church members to hold forums on the [LGBTQ+] issues, to let people know that at next year's United Methodist General Conference, there could be a vote to change those policies. . . . I choose to stay because no person – or institution – is perfect. Because leaving a more diverse group of thinkers and believers for people who are closer to being exactly like me seems sad – and even wrong – because it would just contribute to today's tendency to listen only to ourselves.

"A church's hold on people doesn't come with the drama of watching a sport or offer a dinner menu. It's bigger than that. I can't help but feel that both the church and its former members are wandering around looking for each other. . . . Maybe they'll meet again."

Providing everyone with equal broadband access might not be possible

A housing development in Winnebago, Neb.
(Photo by Rebecca S. Gratz, The Wall Street Journal)

When it comes to getting all Americans equal broadband access, does “all” mean “everybody?” That depends on where a person lives.

“Nebraska’s Winnebago Tribe has long been stuck with sluggish internet service. The federal government plans to fix that by crisscrossing the reservation with fiber-optic cable—at an average cost of $53,000 for each household and workplace connected,” reports Ryan Tracy of The Wall Street Journal. The investment is more than the assessed value of some homes getting cable. “While most connections will cost far less, the expense to reach some remote communities has triggered concerns over the ultimate price tag for ensuring every rural home, business, school and workplace in America has the same internet that city dwellers enjoy.”

The Biden administration launched the "Internet for All" program with more than $60 billion earmarked for providing high-speed internet to rural places. But, funding is finite, and some states may have to decide how much is too much to pay for broadband access. "In Montana, laying fiber-optic cable to some remote locations could cost more than $300,000 per connection, said Misty Ann Giles, director of Montana’s Department of Administration," Tracy reports. "Building to those places would empty the state’s coffers, she said." Giles told him: “That’s when we might not reach everyone.”

States such as Kentucky are moving forward with broadband build-outs partially financed by federal dollars: "The broadband awards are the result of a 2021 agreement between lawmakers and the governor to use $300 million of federal pandemic relief funds to extend broadband service," reports Bruce Schreiner of The Associated Press. Gov. Andy Beshear said, "there are even 'bigger days to come' in the state’s broadband expansion work, pointing to a nearly $1.1 billion federal grant that the state secured this year." Beshear told AP: “We’re talking about access everywhere. It doesn’t mean universal access except where it’s difficult, or except where the terrain is tough. Our goal is high-speed internet to everyone. No exceptions.”

Nationally, at least "four active federal programs are funding fiber broadband projects, each with distinct rules," Tracy reports. "The Wall Street Journal reviewed these programs and found not only high-cost projects but also wide differences in how much taxpayers are paying for each new connection. . . . Some of the differences can be explained by the distinct geographic areas the programs are targeting. While the Federal Communications Commission program included some suburbs and excluded remote locations such as Alaska, the Commerce and Department of Agriculture programs targeted far-flung regions with difficult construction conditions. . . . Andy Berke, the USDA’s Rural Utilities Service administrator, "Cited one project in Alaska that involves a 793-mile undersea fiber cable to reach remote villages." Berke told him: "These are some of the most challenging locations that there are to reach in America."

Some rural Iowa communities continue to lose population, but by 'shrinking smart' that doesn't have to be all bad news

Grand Mound Hometown Pride Committee member
Sarah Beuthien. (Photo by Savannah Blake, The Gazette)

As many rural towns in Iowa face decreasing populations, some opt to use "shrink smart" planning to improve citizens' quality of life while maintaining services, reports Tom Baron of The Gazette in Cedar Rapid, Iowa. The approach began as a project. "Iowa State's rural smart shrinkage project received a three-year, $1.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation to build upon a 2017 pilot study examining whether there were towns in Iowa that have lost population but perception of quality of life has remained stable or improved."

The project focused on "learning from six rural Iowa towns (Elma, Sac City, Bancroft, Corning, Mt. Ayr and Everly) where active, dedicated residents — called 'local champions' — are collaborating to maintain and boost quality of life" Barton writes. "The team found that, among other factors, social infrastructure plays a major role in whether residents report greater quality of life." Kimberly Zarecor, a professor of architecture who is leading an Iowa State University research project, advised towns to expend resources on community building vs. trying to "lure more families and employers to sparsely populated rural areas." Studied communities who adopted the shrink smart approach built on "quality-of-life initiatives-- such as trails, community events, fitness options and child care — [that] are typically low-cost and in local control, Zarecor said."

David Peters, a rural sociologist with ISU Extension and coordinator of the Iowa Small Towns Project, used Grand Mound, "a town of a little more than 600 people in Clinton County near the eastern edge of the state," as an example, Barton reports. "Grand Mound has experienced setbacks. The local school closed along with the local grocery store, restaurants and bars. Yet, the town has managed to maintain a relatively high quality of life, Peters said. Grand Mound has seen slower population loss than other small towns in the state but has higher social capital. Residents surveyed. . . . said they felt much more involved in decisions and feel the town is supportive and trusting of new projects and ideas. Peter told Barton, "In short, (Grand Mound) is a moderately shrinking place with a high and growing quality of life."

Sign-up is open for Brushy Fork Institute's Leadership Summit for rural communities at Berea College Nov. 2-3

Building up your rural community's civic ecosystem begins with wise leadership training, including infrastructure planning. To help smaller communities gain that expertise, the Brushy Fork Institute is offering a Leadership Summit at Berea College in Kentucky this November 2-3.

This year's summit is titled "Leading Through Resilience: Imagining the Future." Brushy Fork says it will provide attendees with high-quality workshops designed to create new connections between participants while facilitating active knowledge on leading robust development. The goal is to help rural areas go beyond resilience in the face of difficulty to designing a practical plan that includes anticipated future obstacles and ways to deal with those problems before they happen.

Brushy Fork's website gives a detailed agenda, costs, parking, accommodations, and other important logistical information. The keynote address from Invest Appalachia CEO Andrew Crosson and workshop tracts are highlighted with details. The site includes a button that links to their official 2023 Summit registration form on Eventbrite. If you have questions, call 859-985-3858 or email brushyfork@berea.edu.

Without print journalism, communities will be fragmented and uninformed, award-winning Minnesota editor says

Reed Anfinson holds a freshly printed copy of the Swift County Monitor-News. (Associated Press photo by David Goldman)

By Reed Anfinson
Swift County Monitor-News, Benson, Minn.

This column is based on the speech given on acceptance of the Eugene Cervi Award at the annual meeting of the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors in Reno, Nevada, June 24.

There is no doubt that if print journalism disappears, so will a citizen’s focus on and knowledge of local civic news. Left to self-motivation to seek out news on the internet, many will put it aside for later, never to return to it.

Their news consumption will become infrequent, scattered to those times when they may be directly affected by the action of a council, county board, zoning committee, or school district. But then putting it aside won’t matter because it won’t exist – no one will be left covering local news.

In America, 76% of the communities are under 5,000 population – more than 14,600. These communities most likely cannot sustain a news operation based on digital revenue alone. We don’t have the views or advertising to generate anywhere near the income needed.

Despite the loss of nearly 2,500 newspapers in America, despite the loss of tens of thousands of reporters, and despite the inability of many quality internet news sites to make a profit leading them to cut staff or close, we still hear and read the overly optimistic promises of a rich journalistic internet world.

The lies are exposed in the reality of steadily declining coverage of public bodies and life in our communities. 

We’ve been told that it can be folly to “romanticize print as somehow superior to digital-only” news. We subscribe more to a famous quote often attributed to Albert Einstein: “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”

For two decades, we’ve been promised a revolution of civic participation built on the broad, deep knowledge citizens will gain from online reporting, that it will be a participatory process where we educate one another. The reality of the past two decades has exposed the faults in this thinking.

What we have experienced is an internet world that has fractured society into warring social and political groups no longer willing agree to disagree, but viciously attacking one another. Death threats, shunning, misinformation, and ridicule are more common than harmony, compromise, and enlightenment.

Lies gain power, and the truth is harder to find. With the coming explosion of artificial intelligence software that allows anyone to craft eye-catching and reasonably sounding internet stories and videos that are entirely false or misleading, our ability to sort truth from lie will become increasingly challenging.

Print’s loss matters; the impact of its absence visible. Rather than a representative democracy strengthened by more knowledge on the internet, we find wherever a newspaper has disappeared the opposite is happening. Where a newspaper closes fewer people vote, fewer people run for office, more incumbents are re-elected, people become more rigid in their voting, sticking to one party or the other, and malfeasance in office increases.

It is visible in the empty reporter desks in newsrooms where the print product has declined as newspapers transition to digital only. What isn’t visible, at first, is the impact of the lost reporting.

Five underlying qualities of journalism give community newspapers equal standing with the government, business, and social powers that make up a community:

• Survey after survey shows that the local community newspaper is the most trusted news source. We are trusted because people know us and feel they can give us direct feedback if they think we are unfair or slanted in the news we write.
• Our financial strength, now significantly weakened, gave us the resources to challenge power when it would frustrate the public’s right to know. Individuals lack the interest and finances to challenge government officials and attorneys.
• We show up – day after day, month after month, year after year. The public officials know that we will write stories about their actions or inaction at every meeting. We will follow up, reminding citizens of past successes and misdeeds.
• Our knowledge of the laws that govern public officials, such as the Minnesota Open Meeting law, ensures transparency and accountability. Citizens lack this knowledge allowing them to be deceived in their efforts to attend meetings or gather public information.
• Perhaps our most powerful attribute today is our physical presence.  Newspapers have a deep reach among citizens in their communities. Elected leaders know that a story printed in the newspaper will circulate throughout the towns and rural areas. It is found on the store counter, around the house, in the library, and in the café every day of the week – its headlines, advertising, and photos catch your eye. Headlines in print reach out to everyone who passes by. People who don’t subscribe still see what is happening in their community at no charge. Without the print newspaper, many would never see those headlines or stories.

Nothing replaces the community newspaper’s ability to hold those in power accountable. But as our financial strength, staff with knowledge of laws protecting citizen rights, persistent coverage, and physical presence erode, American representative democracy is weakened.

As they have lost print subscribers and advertising dollars, some newspapers increasingly focus on their digital products. They put up paywalls and, in the process, exclude most of their local residents from the news of their community.

If the news that binds us together in common purpose is gone, if the stories we share about our fellow citizens disappear, our sense of community weakens. When we don’t feel shared responsibility, the vital work that improves our schools, healthcare, public safety, recreational facilities, and cultural experiences fades. These aren’t exaggerations; they are realities based on what happens in communities that lost their newspaper.

At 95% of the public meetings we cover, we are the only person in the room who isn’t an elected official or staff. Though there is an online link to the meeting, no one tunes in. Without a community journalist in the room, the stories of your local government won’t be told.

A newspaper’s physical presence is a constant reminder that there is news you should be paying attention to in your community.

When you sit down with a print newspaper, you are more focused than you are online, where you suddenly find yourself on social media, shopping, or skimming sites for entertainment.

Print is patient. It is present. It is a physical reminder of community. It is community pride and spirit. Online, it loses those unique qualities that unite us with a common identity. Print is local.

Newspapers are a public good that deserves public support. Urge your members of Congress and the Minnesota Legislature to support legislation that helps finance their future.

Rural Assembly sets online gathering Wednesday, June 28

The Daily Yonder

Rural Assembly Everywhere, the virtual gathering of the Rural Assembly, will feature conversations with rural leaders and allies, including Anderson Clayton, the youngest state political party leader in the nation.

Clayton, chair of the North Carolina Democratic party, is one of several rural leaders and allies scheduled to be part of the free, virtual event from 1 to 3 p.m. ET Wednesday, June 28.

This year’s Everywhere is focused on rural people who are working toward safer, more connected communities. It is the fourth virtual event for the Rural Assembly, which has been hosting gatherings across the country since 2007.

Rural Assembly Everywhere will be broadcast via the Crowdcast platform. Attendees will be able to connect with one another before and during the broadcast through the event chat.

“Everywhere is the virtual analog to an in-person Rural Assembly,” said Rural Assembly Director Whitney Kimball Coe. “Even in a virtual space, we feel like we can create an experience that inspires and strengthens our connections to one another across Zip codes and culture.”

“The theme of ‘safer, more connected rural communities’ gives us an opportunity to explore how people and places are taking care of each other and affirming the dignity of one another–through arts and culture, policy advocacy, organizing and gathering, big and small acts of care. The stories from Everywhere remind us that rural people and places are extra and ordinary and essential to the future of our nation.”

The event will spotlight other rural voices through video stories and conversations:

• Appalachian author and Kentucky Poet Laureate Silas House in conversation with his friend the Rt. Rev. Brian Lee Cole, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of East Tennessee. House has written seven novels; his most recent, Lark Ascending, won the 2023 Southern Book Prize and the 2023 Nautilus Book Award. In 2022 he won the Duggins Prize, the nation's largest award for an LGBTQ writer.
• Highlander Center’s Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson and Allyn Maxfield-Steele will talk about the center’s work in the South.
• Sam Schimmel and Jonathan Blair, co-creators of a documentary-media and public-engagement initiative, "American Creed: Citizen Power," a follow-up to the 2018 documentary "American Creed" from Citizen Film – will discuss how they are working to build safer, more connected communities, the barriers they face, and their advice for other young rural community organizers.
• Stories from rural organizations and initiatives, including the Catwalk drag show in Fergus Falls, Minn.; Good Neighbor Missouri, Welcoming America, the Equal Justice Initiative, Main Street America, which helps revitalize older parts of small towns. and StrengthenND, which hekps nonprofits and rural communities in North Dakota.
• Artists Brett Hill, Eliza Blue, Cody & Alex, and Torrey McDowell will share stories and musical performances.

Registration for Everywhere is free. Visit www.ruralassembly.org/everywhere to register.

The Rural Assembly and The Daily Yonder are part of the Center for Rural Strategies.

'Radically Rural' event in Keene, N.H., Sept. 27-28 wil be all in-person, with 7 tracks including journalism, with 3 sessions

"Radically Rural," the six-year-old community-development conference co-sponsored by The Keene Sentinel, will be full in person this year, without an online component.

This year's theme is “Reimaging Rural,” which “doesn’t always mean something that’s never been done, because sometimes progress includes reaching back to what’s been done before,” Julianna Dodson, director of Radically Rural, said in the Sentinel. “It’s sort of a prompt to help us rethink in new ways.”

The summit, set for Sept. 27-28, is a series of programs co-sponsored by Keene’s Hannah Grimes Center for Entrepreneurship. The opening speaker will be Tony Pipa, a senior fellow with the Brookings Institution’s Center for Sustainable Development and leader of the nonprofit’s Reimagining Rural Policy initiative, which launched in 2020. He will discuss rural issues with people who have appeatred on his none-episode podcast. The second day will open with Chris Estes, co-executive director of the Aspen Institute’s Community Strategies Group, who will talk about “a more cohesive strategy” in community development, Dodson said.

Radically Rural has seven tracks: arts and culture, clean energy, community journalism, entrepreneurship, All in for Health, land and community, and Main Street. The journalism track will be have three sessions: “Building Sustainability,” “Generating Audience Revenue” and “How Do They Do That?: Groundbreaking Journalism,” The first session will include Taos News Publisher Chris Baker, Joey Young of Kansas Publishing Ventures and Tristan Scott, managing editor of the Flathead Beacon in Kalispell, Mont., which dropped its print edition in April.

Shay Totten, newsroom-success manager for the American Press Institute, will moderate the audience-development session, with Arik Ligeti, director of audience for Canadian environmental magazine The Narwhal, and Christiaan Mader, founder of The Current in Lafayette, La., “These are organizations that have grown their subscriber base and their donor base over time,” said Terry Williams, the Sentinel’s senior advisor for audience and community engagement and its former president and chef operating officer

The third journalism session will be “a deep dive into how … journalists have reported on powerful stories” affecting their rural communities, Williams said. They are North Carolina freelance journalist Victoria Bouloubasis; Adam Ganucheau, editor-in-chief of Mississippi Today; and Samantha Hogan, investigative reporter for The Maine Monitor.

Tickets for the event are on sale, with prices based on a sliding scale using the honor system. A limited number of free tickets are also available for low-income people interested in attending. MOre information is available at www.radicallyrural.org.

CherryRoad Media CEO Jeremy Gulban added to program of rural journalism summit; hotel deadline is next Friday

Speakers are still being added to the program of the third National Summit on Journalism in Rural America, to be held July 7 in Lexington, Ky., and online. Registration is required, but is free, here.

The latest addition is Jeremy Gulban, CEO of CherryRoad Media, which started in 2020 but already owns almost 80 newspapers, most of them bought from Gannett Co., which "had really run them into the ground," so much that it's proving hard to build circulation and reveue, he told us this week. Gulban said he will talk about experiments he is starting next week in some of his markets.

Gulban will join a wide range of news-industry professionals, academic researchers and instructors, journalism funders, and community developers who realize that communities need local journalism. The program includes:

• A discussion of journalism innovation and alternative revenue, by Jack Rooney, managing editor for audience development of The Keene Sentinel, a small daily in New Hampshire, and David Woronoff, publisher of The Pilot, a twice-weekly in Southern Pines, N.C.;
• The latest figures on news deserts and ghost newspapers, with a rural angle, from Zachary Metzger, a researcher at the Medill School at Northwestern University;
• Presentation of research about community engagement and an experiment in new business models for local journalism by Nick Mathews of the University of Missouri;
• A publisher's perspective on that ongoing experiment in engagement and new business models, from Joey Young of Kansas Publishing Ventures in Hillsboro, Kan.;
• A discussion of how to use citizens as news correspondents, including Lynne Campbell of the Community News Brief in Macomb, Ill., and Lindsey Young of KPV, developer of the training program "Earn Your Press Pass;"
• A discussion of philanthropy for rural journalism, led by Duc Luu, journalism officer of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation;
• The latest on advocacy of government policies at the state level to help sustain local journalism, from Anna Brugmann of the Rebuild Local News Coalition;
• A presentation on community building and engagement from the Community Strategies Group of The Aspen Institute;
• Debra Tobin, owner and editor of the Logan-Hocking Times in southeast Ohio, which has a business model that may be unique: an online startup that added a free weekly print edition to serve residents of rural Hocking County who aren't online.
• What it's like to stop printing a newspaper and move it to Facebook, from two award-winning rural publishers who felt they had to do that: Laurie Brown of The Canadian Record in Texas and Ryan Craig of the Todd County Standard in Kentucky;
• A discussion of how university journalism programs can fill gaps in local news coverage, led by Richard Watts of the Center for Community News at the University of Vermont, with Alan Miller of Denison University in Ohio and Chris Drew of Louisiana State University;
• A presentation from Melissa Cassutt of the Solutions Journalism Network and one of its partners, Casper Star-Tribune government reporter Mary Steurer; 
• Reports on rural start-ups, including Jennifer P. Brown of the Hoptown Chronicle in Hopkinsville, Ky., and Nicole DeCriscio Bowe, who has local foundation support for her start-up in Spencer, Ind.;
• A discussion of broader rural news coverage, from The Daily Yonder and Alana Rocha of the Institute for Nonprofit News's Rural News Network;
• A concluding roundtable led by Benjy Hamm, incoming director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, sponsor of the Summit (and publisher of The Rural Blog).

The institute's research question for this year's Summit is the same as last year's, "How do rural communities sustain local journalism that supports democracy?" We expect more answers!

The Summit will be held at The Campbell House Curio hotel on US 68 in Lexington, the same highway that took attendees to the second Summit last June, but this time much closer to Blue Grass Airport. A limited block of rooms is available at $139 per night, through next Friday, June 23. For registration and hotel information, click here.

Rural challenges show repeated concerns and a glimmer of optimism by residents, a new survey indicates

Chart by The Daily Yonder from Save Your Town 2023 survey results

How do you feel about the future of your rural town? "Since 2015, two women, Becky McCray and Deb Brown, have been surveying rural communities on how they view their area's problems and future," reports Kristi Eaton of The Daily Yonder. The pair created Save Your Town, an Oklahoma-Mississippi-based effort that helps towns find affordable ways to address local problems.

Often survey results do not follow preconceived ideas, and 2023 results followed that pattern. Pollster Celinda Lake told Eaton, "Rural people were twice as likely to say they were optimistic about their community's future as were negative about their community's future. I was very happy to see how optimistic people were." Lake said she was "really pleased and surprised" to see events, education, tourism and arts and culture listed as top community assets.

The survey was taken online from Nov. 11 to Jan. 31 and got 315 responses from subscribers and visitors to SaveYour.Town and SmallBizSurvival.com, from news-media coverage and cooperating groups that publicized the survey. "Survey participation is voluntary and self-selected, not based on scientific polling methods, but the online survey does offer a range of responses from people who identify as rural," Eaton points out. "The self-selected participants were more optimistic about the economy than people who participated in the Daily Yonder’s 2022 scientific, randomized poll of rural voters. . . . nearly three-quarters of rural respondents said the economy was not working well for them. Half said they expected their financial situation would get worse in the next year."

Co-founder Becky Brown said the latest survey shows "big disconnects. . . between what rural people want and what services and assistance are commonly offered to them." She "said business owners and leaders said usable buildings are harder to find than loans, and they showed little interest in needing support with business plans or pitch competitions," Eaton reports. "This year’s survey found that in addition to housing and downtowns, other challenges were not enough volunteers, losing young people, and a lack of child care."

In 2019, Save Your Town survey respondents gave these top five concerns: Losing young people; downtown is dead; not enough good housing; need new residents; no one shops in town. In 2021, the top five were identical with the exception of "no one shops downtown" falling off the list and "not enough [residents] volunteer" being added. The latest survey mirrored much of the earlier results but added lack of child care. Although Americans have many divides, repeated concerns on rural responses highlight several issues such as not enough young people (or laborers), a lack of affordable housing and a severe lack of child care options, which are also problematic for urban and suburban areas.