by Matt Dunne Rural recovery can happen. That’s the message I’m taking away from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. We’ve yet to emerge from this pandemic, and there remains all too much hardship. But we now have more than just glimmers of hope. We have real, actionable measures that will help rural America get back on its feet, and stand even stronger in the future.
There are billions of dollars in broadband funding to address the digital divide and bring 21st-century connectivity to rural America. There’s direct support to small businesses and workers, many in small towns battered by COVID before they’d even recovered from the Great Recession. The government is finally providing aid to Black farmers who have struggled to receive support from the USDA. And the Economic Development Administration is getting an infusion of funding, which we hope will support the expansion of programs like the Venture Challenge, that has the power to catalyze innovation in rural regions.
The American Rescue Plan Act has transformative potential for rural places.
However, while funding is necessary, it is not sufficient. The rural communities poised to benefit the most are the same ones dealing with the loss of Main Street businesses, overwhelmed hospitals, and a rise in deaths of despair as was highlighted in our joint effort with the American Communities Project. These small towns have also struggled to navigate the programs intended to support them. Given that backdrop, imagine how overwhelming it could be to apply for a complex federal grant to fuel next-generation jobs, ensure the money they receive for broadband goes to future-proof infrastructure, and make sure unprecedented state-level resources reach their rural communities. That’s why we at CORI and RISI are doing everything we can to guarantee this opportunity doesn’t miss rural places.
We are currently working with six communities for the EDA’s next Build to Scale Venture Challenge competition, and through our cooperative agreement with the EDA we produced this webinar to help all rural communities explore applying for Build to Scale funding. We have a growing cohort of new communities to kick off digital economy assessments in May, the first step toward building a comprehensive digital economy strategy and securing state and federal dollars to execute on that plan. And we welcome more to join us.
Our growing broadband team is doing the predevelopment planning to ensure rural parts of Nevada, Tennessee, and northern New England are ready to build fiber to the home as the federal broadband funding becomes available. And we are assembling a strategy to do the same for particularly diverse rural communities that have notoriously struggled to receive competitive federal grants or philanthropic support.
At the same time, we are not letting up on our efforts to accelerate the journey of our network communities to build resilient economies of the future. We’re growing our digital job training efforts, partnering with Generation USA to train and place students from our Rural Innovation Network in high-demand tech careers, and expanding our partnership with Udacity, which helped train more than 700 people in digital skills over the last nine months. We were thrilled to invest in Wilson, North Carolina-based ShyftAuto, an end-to-end SAAS platform for automotive service centers with an exciting founding team that bridges technology expertise with deep experience in the automotive sector.
With all of this exciting engagement, I also want to flag the good work being done behind the scenes to make sure our organization is ready for growth. Our communications team has been hard at work reimagining our website and in just a few days, you’ll see the finished product. And our AmeriCorps VISTA members continue helping us hone our digital skilling efforts; they deserve to be recognized both during national VISTA week and beyond!
Perhaps more than any point in recent memory, winter has indeed given way to a spring of renewed hope. Possibility is in the air. Transformation is on the way. We’re here to make sure rural America is ready.
With optimism, Matt Dunne, CORI Founder and Executive Director
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Webinar: Preparing for EDA's Build to Scale Venture Challenge |
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This year, the Economic Development Administration’s Build to Scale Venture Challenge will award approximately $32 million in funding to rural communities, regions, or combinations of regions to support the advancement of local entrepreneurship and innovation. In this webinar, the Center on Rural Innovation (CORI) and Rural Innovation Strategies, Inc. (RISI) share best practices to help rural communities develop compelling applications for the Build to Scale Venture Challenge. |
Rural Reading List |
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We’ve assembled a handful of local and national stories about rural America that should be on your reading list. Some feature the work we’re doing at CORI, while others focus on rural trends and topics making headlines.
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Our Rural Innovation Network is a nationwide community of committed change agents working to advance the economic future of small-town America. They were invited to join the Network after demonstrating ongoing commitment to the development of their digital economy ecosystems through the Rural Innovation Initiative Here's what some of our Network communities have been up to lately:
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Scalable tech entrepreneur support and incubationWhat does it take for a rural place to build a thriving digital economy ecosystem? We've put together a five-part series that looks at the direct drivers that enable communities to successfully compete in the tech economy. First up: Entrepreneurship support and incubation. Read more. |
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Connecting underserved, remote communitiesWhile the COVID-19 pandemic has drastically increased telehealth usage, broadband service continues to be an obstacle for long-term telehealth adoption. To effectively provide telehealth services where they are needed most, broadband deployment must remain a priority. Read more. |
Source: Center on Rural Innovation, Hartland, VT. https://ruralinnovation.us/ Rural Innovation Strategies, Inc,