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About Stand Up for Rural America
Forty nine million people live in rural
America. Despite declines in poverty, 340 of the
386 poorest counties are rural, and the rural poverty
nationwide rate of 14.3% exceeds the metropolitan rate by
three percentage points.
Stand Up for
Rural America is dedicated to serving these people and
making sure their voices are heard.
Before Stand Up for
Rural America, no one knew how many community
developers were working to transform distressed
rural towns and counties. Nobody had documented where
these grassroots groups were, the activities they were
undertaking and what they had achieved. One result was that
rural community developers received fewer resources and less
policy support than their urban counterparts.
Stand
Up for Rural America began in 1998. It is
a national coalition initiative dedicated to helping rural
community developers gain the attention, resources and policy
support their work deserves involving 750 Sponsors and a Steering
Committee of 37 members.
The Campaign
has four goals:
-
Securing
funding for the Rural Community Development Initiative (RCDI)
-- the first nonprofit capacity building program for
community developers in the US Department of Agriculture
(USDA).
-
Establishing
a Rural Funders Affinity Group in the Council on
Foundations to serve as a focus for increasing rural
philanthropy.
-
Stimulating
significant private investment in rural community
development.
-
Organizing
an umbrella network to continue educating funders, lenders
and policy makers, and
speaking for these developers' interests over the long
term. Please join the Rural
Community Developers Network.
In addition to
these goals, the Campaign is working with The Congressional
Rural Caucus and others advocating for a new federal rural
development policy, one that recognizes grassroots developers
as key engines for strengthening rural communities across this
country. It has also endorsed passage of a federal home
ownership tax credit for investors available to help low
income buyers in targeted urban areas and all rural areas
eligible for USDA section 502 home loans.
You can join
this campaign and receive a biweekly Network Reporter on
funding, financing and training opportunities as well as
policy issues and other information by becoming a member of
the Rural Community Developers
Network if your organization qualifies or by signing on as a
Friend of the Network. |
