Imperative Two
Ensure Equity in Rural Places
Support the Advancement of Equity in Rural Places through Leadership Development
Rural America—like all of America—has been a story of inequity. Rural communities are far more diverse and nuanced than the national narrative indicates. They represent an enormously complex set of people, cultures, beliefs, and industries. Far too often, rural communities are overlooked as homogeneous outposts from yesteryear.
“There’s a growing Latinx population across Northeast Pennsylvania. Yet, because leadership is centralized around a few folks who have been in power a long time, those shifts are easy for some to ignore. I’ve frequently heard community leaders reference these ‘hidden communities’ – but nobody’s hiding. They are here, living their lives, just like you or I. Most times you just fail to see them.”
– LaTida Smith, President/CEO, Moses Taylor Foundation
The Opportunity
America’s national reckoning with race and equity has highlighted the desperate need for rural stories and rural models that foster solutions. Deconstructing racism is complex, and every person and community has different starting points in this journey. Further, marginalization in rural America goes beyond race. People in the LGBTQIA+ community, people living with a disability, or those who suffer from mental health challenges, to name a few, are often marginalized, ignored, and/or discriminated against.
In rural communities, where neighbors depend upon each other for safety, care, and support, there is a heightened need to understand the inequities embedded within structures and systems. Leaders must design solutions and strategies that address these inequities and build a sense of community solidarity.
Diverse representation is lacking in leadership (in both rural and urban communities). Rural leadership development efforts must strive to eliminate barriers that prevent the full participation of those who have been marginalized and excluded by the system. Rural communities need methods designed specifically by and for rural.
Leadership development practitioners must adopt equitable approaches, values, and practices. At the national RuraLead Summit, rural and Indigenous practitioners representing a wide range of leadership development efforts reached consensus on the need to integrate a strong equity focus in all leadership development work. The group also recognized that practitioners fall on a continuum of experience with this work. There are a multitude of leadership development organizations and efforts that center on equity; others are new to it, but are eager to learn. More opportunities for cross-disciplinary learning should be created – there is much to learn from one another.
The diversity of backgrounds and experiences is why disaggregated data is so important—it reveals realities that are difficult to see in everyday life, and solutions that can be leveraged equitably. Better data, policies, and practices that ensure equity—at large and small scale—can help everyone live to their potential. Rural unemployment is higher than in urban areas, and rural areas as a whole have declining populations. Of course, there is variation within rural communities. For example, Indigenous people and people of color tend to have higher poverty and lower life expectancy rates. There are also many communities that buck national trends. In Census data prior to the pandemic, some rural areas reported higher income growth. In the rural West, 203 of 278 counties have grown in population since 1980, going against the national trend of shrinking rural populations. In quite a few of those places, all growth has been BIPOC and/or/including immigrant populations. Research shows that rural communities that embrace immigration have had better economic outcomes and other positive impacts, further underscoring the recommendation for all communities to ensure opportunities are accessible to all.
It’s difficult to measure impact because the work takes time/results take time. [It’s] difficult to get data—data necessary to include people who are often left out of leadership roles.
– Dr. Sue Kane, Apple STEM Network, Director
Solutions
Engage and encourage BIPOC leaders. Create programs and efforts that aim to specifically engage rural Black, Indigenous communities and nations, and other people of color (BIPOC) and others who are systemically underserved. Provide safe spaces for peer learning and discussion among BIPOC leaders and leadership development practitioners.
Dispel the fallacy that rural is white. Dispel any false narratives that aim to generalize and to pit people against one another. Solutions need to be informed by data, but equally important, they should be humanized through stories. Highlight the diversity of people in communities and humanize them as neighbors and friends rather than marginalizing them because they are not the dominant culture or only represent a small percentage of the population.
Invest in shifting narratives. Creating new narratives about thriving rural communities helps others see possibilities and opportunities. It offers hope, inspires change, and catalyzes action—and that helps everyone.
Center equity in leadership development. Invest in the development and delivery of equity- and inclusion-oriented leadership skills trainings and programs that support equity within rural communities. There are people and organizations who are highly experienced in this and can train leadership teams on effective ways to do this.
Remove barriers to opportunities. Rural communities have small populations by definition. Make the most of human capital by ensuring that everyone, regardless of race and ethnicity, gender, orientation, or whether someone is living with a disability, can access opportunities and work towards individual and community well-being.
Make disaggregated data available. Help rural leaders measure impacts and changes in their communities with ease. Rural communities need access to better and disaggregated data as a whole. There are large gaps in available data.
Provide data support and resources. For philanthropic reporting, consider using a philanthropy-serving organization to parse the data instead of asking rural leaders—who have many areas of expertise, but are not often trained in data analysis—to do the work. Rural leaders and organizations also need better practices to integrate data, and training or intermediary experts who can help them understand how to use data to attract opportunities in an equitable way.