Support for Rural America from the Ground

The White House Rural Council: Support for Rural America from the Ground Up

In 1975, I graduated law school and moved with my wife Christie to her home state of Iowa. We chose Mount Pleasant, a town of about 8,000 people in the southeast part of the State, and it was during this early time in my career, as a private citizen, that I first saw how people in small towns and rural places work together to move their communities forward.

Mount Pleasant had a youth athletic facility that was in desperate need of repair, and time and time again, the City Council refused to pass a bond bill to pay for what was needed. So my neighbors and I took matters into our own hands, holding a radio pledge drive and raising over $200,000 in just a few days. We were still short of the funds we needed, so in true Iowa fashion, others stepped up.

Local businesses donated funds and supplies, while community members volunteered their time on nights and weekends to do the repairs themselves. Soon enough, Mount Pleasant had a beautiful new athletic facility for our children and our children’s children to enjoy. Through this experience, I came to understand that when communities come together around a common goal, the sky is the limit.

President Obama understands this too. The time he spent as an organizer on the South Side of Chicago taught him that more often than not, lasting change starts at the community level, and grows from the ground up. He has advanced a new approach to Federal engagement with local communities, moving away from an outdated, one-size-fits-all approach toward a more tailored model that is directed by the community’s vision, leverages local assets and responds to specific barriers. This approach has driven our work with rural communities. Over the course of this Administration, we’ve collaborated with rural leaders across the country to provide targeted Federal resources that advance their communities’ goals.

To understand the impact we’ve made with this approach, it is important to understand the economic hole we were in at the depths of the Great Recession. Rural counties were shedding 200,000 jobs per year, rural unemployment stood at nearly 10 percent and poverty rates reached heights not seen in decades. Equally concerning as the economic trends were the structural changes; widespread job losses coupled with an increasing shift to a technology-focused economy spurred outward migration and left many rural communities ill-positioned to bounce back quickly.

With all of that in mind, in 2011, the President took a historic step toward making the Federal government a more effective partner to rural communities: He created the first ever White House Rural Council. The Council, whose members include nearly every member of the Cabinet and senior White House staff, has worked across entrenched lines in the Federal government to provide first-of-their-kind comprehensive resources targeted specifically for rural communities as well as serve as the front door of the White House for rural stakeholders to engage and partner with the Administration.

Specifically, the Council coordinates the Administration’s efforts in rural America by performing three core functions:

1.Streamlining and improving the effectiveness of Federal programs serving rural America.

2.Engaging stakeholders, including farmers, ranchers and local citizens, on issues and solutions in rural communities.

3.
Promoting and coordinating private-sector partnerships.

Through the work of the White House Rural Council agencies and our community partners, we’ve been able to develop new programs, rooted in community partnerships and interagency collaboration, which have made a real difference for rural Americans. These programs have helped rural families find good-paying jobs, grow their businesses and regain a sense of economic security by focusing on sustainable economic solutions.