What if our rural communities are given the flexibility to design and provide the safety net (human services) system for our most vulnerable residents in community-based partnerships? These services should be integrated into the community infrastructure through family/community resource centers. These centers can become our community hubs to support community livelihood, sustainability and cohesion.
What if former USDA housing were a right? What if we invested in slow, especially difficult activities we know [illegible]? What if there were a child poverty think tank? What if there were an overlapping set of structures and communication systems that allowed rural and urban advocates to call on each other for support for their mutual benefit? What if people who wanted to unite the country had the same capacity to talk to rural America as people who want to divide it?
What if we change the narrative of persistent poverty, regions as places with opportunity, hope and ripe for investment?
In 68, King called for a campaign for a Radical Redistribution of economic and political power. 50 years later – we need a Poor People’s Campaign.
