What does it mean to be rural? And is it overdue a change in perspective?  

"We want people to think of rural as an asset," says Elena Kaye-Schiess, program manager, Rural Initiatives. "A lot of rural communities have to be self-sufficient in many ways. As a result of that, there's an opportunity to breed innovation and solutions to challenges." 

If you were taking a country drive toward Vermont's Route 5, a highway that traces the path of the Connecticut River, you'd have to choose your direction. Would you go south toward Bellows Falls? Or drive north instead? 

When I was a kid, the center of my small, rural, Hudson Valley town featured an ice cream shop with a sticky, walk-up service window and a tiny, one-register grocery store where they carried one of practically everything. Today, the grocery is an antique store, and it sits a stone's throw from a new marketplace that peddles organic, farm-sourced products of a certain aesthetic, accordingly priced.

On a hot August Saturday afternoon in southern Oregon, community members trickled into Phoenix High School's auditorium. Some brought their children and stopped to grab a free lunch of enchiladas and watermelon juice from Rogue Food Unites before taking their seats at a cluster of round tables. They talked as they ate, enjoying the sun that filtered through the large windows.

In mid-July, NeighborWorks America released its 2022 Housing and Financial Capability Survey confirming, as it has in previous years, the overwhelming desire of Americans to own their own homes.

In mid-July, NeighborWorks America released its 2022 Housing and Financial Capability Survey confirming, as it has in previous years, the overwhelming desire of Americans to own their own homes.

Stories bring community together. Southwest Minnesota Housing Partnership (SMHP) learned this years ago, and has used storytelling and the arts to educate and share experiences of the wide variety of people who live in Worthington, Marshall, Wilmer and points between.