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This document, “STRENGTHENING RURAL FAMILIES: A COMMUNITY ACTION IDEABOOK,” introduces the Rural Family Economic Success (RuFES) model, sponsored by the Annie E. Casey Foundation and compiled by the Aspen Institute Community Strategies Group. What is RuFES? RuFES is a family-focused, place-based, and connection-building model that examines the conditions necessary for low-income working families in rural communities to meet their basic needs and improve their economic future. It is built on three core beliefs:
- Families matter: The approach is centered on improving the lives and economic prospects of children and their parents, starting by identifying and removing barriers to their progress.
- Place matters: RuFES is tailored to the unique economic, organizational, governmental, cultural, and civic makeup of specific communities.
- Connections count: It brings together diverse community stakeholders (e.g., economic development, childcare, business, banking, education) to work collaboratively towards shared goals.
How is RuFES different?Unlike traditional programs that jump from a perceived problem to a specific solution without consulting families, RuFES starts with the family, focusing on their daily lives and measuring success by whether families are doing better, not just by program implementation. It aims to identify and fill gaps in services by connecting existing resources or inventing new ones, emphasizing cross-silo collaboration. Why is RuFES important and what difference will it make? RuFES helps communities pull together various players to focus on family outcomes, addressing fragmented services and fostering innovation. Benefits include:
- More stable families, better able to meet basic needs and withstand crises.
- Children growing up in improved environments, with a better chance to become productive adults.
- Workers increasing incomes, confidence, and aspirations.
- Businesses gaining a better prepared, more reliable, and stable workforce, leading to increased revenue.
- Governments seeing increased tax collections and lower demands for social services.
- Communities prospering as citizens contribute more to the local economy and quality of life.
The Basic RuFES Framework: Earn It, Keep It, Grow It. The model is organized around three basic outcomes for families:
- Earn It: Working families earn a living that allows them to survive and thrive. This includes qualifying for jobs, finding and securing employment, keeping jobs, earning a family-sustaining wage, and advancing in careers. Section 2 details goals related to qualifying for a job (high school diploma/GED, basic soft skills, communication, and workplace skills).
- Qualifying for a job: Focuses on foundational skills like attitudes, behaviors, life skills, communication, and general workplace skills. The document highlights the importance of a high school diploma or GED as almost mandatory for good jobs today. It also discusses the difficulty employers face in finding workers with basic soft skills, communication skills, and workplace skills.
- Action Idea: Basic skills classes: Encourages or requires low-income families to participate in training for soft skills, communication skills, and basic workplace skills. These are often offered through federally funded workforce development programs (WIA One-Stop Centers) and non-profits. While widely available, effectiveness can be questioned, especially for mandatory participation, and traditional classroom settings may not suit all learners.
- Keep It: Working families have access to financial services and resources to protect income and lower living costs. This involves mainstream banking relationships, good credit, and utilizing tax benefits and resources to safeguard income and obtain goods/services at fair prices. Section 2 outlines goals for establishing financial health, such as using reasonably priced savings/checking accounts (Goal K-1), avoiding predatory lenders (Goal K-2), and reducing debt burdens/improving credit ratings (Goal K-3).
- Grow It: Working families and their communities accumulate and maintain assets that gain value over time. This includes saving money, advancing education, purchasing and maintaining homes and other assets, and building retirement-restricted financial assets. Section 2 details goals related to accumulating family assets, such as regularly saving money (Goal G-1), purchasing quality homes at competitive rates (Goal G-2), building retirement-restricted financial assets (Goal G-3), and entrepreneurial families starting successful businesses (Goal G-4).
The Tupelo Story: The document frequently references “The Tupelo Story” (also found on pages 6-7 and 27-28) as a key example. Over 50 years ago, leaders in impoverished Tupelo, Mississippi, started by understanding why rural farm families remained poor despite hard work. They discovered seasonal crop farming limited income. By researching agricultural trends, they helped farmers convert to year-round dairy and poultry farming, pooling community resources to modernize the industry. This led to significant new income and overall community prosperity, demonstrating the power of starting with families to identify and remove barriers to economic success.The document emphasizes that while basic skills are fundamental, job-specific skills are addressed later under Workforce Development Strategies. It recognizes that basic skills, though often developed early in life, can be learned and reinforced in adulthood through various programs.
