Casey Foundation and Partners Support Federal Effort to Reduce Poverty in Rural Communities

Last fall, the U.S. depart­ments of Agri­cul­ture and Health and Human Ser­vices launched a nation­al demon­stra­tion project that takes a two-gen­er­a­tion approach to com­bat­ing pover­ty in rur­al areas.

As part of this project, 10 rur­al and trib­al com­mu­ni­ties from around the coun­try will explore ways for fed­er­al agen­cies to work togeth­er in address­ing the needs of par­ents and their chil­dren, coor­di­nat­ing health, employ­ment and train­ing and oth­er pro­grams and ser­vices. This approach rec­og­nizes the impor­tance of bring­ing togeth­er such pro­grams to take the whole fam­i­ly into account so that par­ents and chil­dren can suc­ceed together.

About 1.5 mil­lion chil­dren in rur­al areas — which tend to be more iso­lat­ed from key resources — live in pover­ty. The rur­al child pover­ty rate con­sis­tent­ly exceeds the rate for urban kids and has been on the rise since 2008. In addi­tion, about 80% of the nation’s coun­ties with per­sis­tent child pover­ty — that is, with rates of at least 20% over the past three decades — are rural.

Sev­er­al foun­da­tions, includ­ing Casey, are sup­port­ing this project, pro­vid­ing tech­ni­cal assis­tance and guid­ance to the sites on issues rang­ing from res­i­dent engage­ment to income sup­port pro­grams to ear­ly child­hood edu­ca­tion, as well as mak­ing the case for effec­tive strate­gies. The Foun­da­tion plans to pro­vide sup­port through peer learn­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties for the sites and in help­ing them build evi­dence on how this approach helps kids and fam­i­lies thrive. 

Learn more about this new project.

Addi­tion­al Resources

Rur­al Pover­ty Demographics
About the Launch of Rur­al Impact
Oppor­tu­ni­ty for All: Fight­ing Rur­al Child Poverty