ABSTRACT
As rural communities adapt to 21st-century shifts in the national and global economy, demographics, and climate, the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic and heightened attention to racial injustice add new urgency to their situation. These trends are also ushering in a shift in mindset in rural development thinking and practice. Local leaders seeking to strengthen the economic and social resilience of their communities are pursuing public and private investment that helps their rural communities leverage their own assets (both natural and human), fuel their innovation, strengthen their civic infrastructure and collaboration, and connect to regional, national, and global markets.
What will it take for U.S. federal policy to strengthen the capacity of rural communities to pursue these strategies and effectively support the promise of these local visions? This chapter follows the shifts in policy proposals that are emerging to ensure that federal investments reflect and respond to the diversity of rural America; build essential capacity in rural communities; and modernize federal policy to generate the maximum return on investments to advance rural prosperity.
