Purpose

The Annie E. Casey Foundation has developed Rural Family Economic Success to help rural families increase their income, stabilize their financial lives, and acquire assets and build wealth.

Description

The Annie E. Casey Foundation (AECF) has designed the Rural Family Economic Success (RuFES) framework that offers strategies to help families in rural America increase their income (EARN IT), stabilize their financial lives (KEEP IT), and acquire assets and build wealth (GROW IT).  The Casey Foundation’s mission is to foster public policies, human-service reforms, and community supports that more effectively meet today’s needs of vulnerable children and families. 

Extensive data to track the status of children in the U.S. is available through the Foundation’s annual KIDS COUNT Project that serves as a national and state-by-state effort providing policymakers and citizens with benchmarks of child well-being.  A Rural KIDS COUNT Pocket Guide provides a summary of measures of child well-being in rural areas based on data from the 2000 U.S. Census.

The basic premise of RuFES is that “children do well when their families do well” and “families do better when they live in supportive communities.”  RuFES is part of the Casey Foundation’s Family Economic Success (FES) approach that helps low-income working families build strong financial futures in strong neighborhoods by integrating three key components – Workforce Development, Family Economic Support, and Community Investment. 

An Overview of RuFES outlines specific key approaches for each goal as they are addressed simultaneously in a way that is sustained over time:

• EARN IT strategies to increase family income address three areas – readiness to earn, opportunities to earn, and supports that help close the gap between earnings and expenses.
• KEEP IT strategies aim to help families get ahead through access to affordable goods and services and fair and affordable financial services.
• GROW IT strategies help families parlay their hard work and prudent financial management into long-term economic success when their communities are economically thriving places, with access to opportunity for all.

A series of Family Focused Goals has been developed for use by communities according to their own particular circumstances and needs.  RuFES teams comprised of key community partners are encouraged to look at "low hanging fruit" (goals that can be easily and quickly accomplished) plus "tough nuts to crack" (more long-range and intensive).

Strengthening Rural Families: A Community Process can be used as a blueprint of how organizations can work better, both individually and together, to organize and deploy resources and expertise to advance the economic success of low-income families.  What can be done to level the playing field for low-income families is addressed in the High Cost of Being Poor as well as articles in the Foundation’s newsletter AdvoCasey – Winter 2005.  A case study – Building a Community Coalition to Advance Rural Family Economic Success – illustrates how rural communities can develop the knowledge on how other communities are working to change people’s lives. 
 

HERE ARE SOME GREAT RESOURCES TO HELP YOU
 DEVELOP YOUR EARN IT! KEEP IT! GROW IT! STRATEGIES 

• Guide to CAA Initiatives and Related Resources provides extensive information for each RuFES goal
• Region 3 CAA Action-Learning Conference – review all the topics and access material featured at this conference involving teams from 24 CAAs.

Helping families build and keep assets is a fundamental element of RuFES.  Avoiding the Money Trap is a 25-minute documentary, on DVD, that tells the stories of real-life rural families who have struggled with money traps such as payday loans, low-interest car loans, poor credit, low savings and more.  The full-length documentary is in English and Spanish, with a shorter version also included, in English.  The documentary provides practical ideas for avoiding or overcoming these traps and moving toward financial stability.  Each DVD includes a printed discussion guide for various audiences and background papers and other resources that can be downloaded from the DVD.  The video is designed for use with consumers for EITC and financial education outreach or in waiting areas at tax preparation sites. 

Examples of RuFES success stories include:

• West Central Initiative uses good data collection and analysis to drive decision-making involving both planning and evaluation - By the Numbers: Using Data to Drive Action on Behalf of Children and Families.
• Connectinc. uses call-center technology and trained counselors to connect rural families to a network of support services - Connectinc. website - Connectinc. site visit (order CD-ROM).
• Mortar and Muscle: Building Community and Assets Through Self-Help Housing looks at the experiences of families working to build their own homes through self-help housing projects across the United States.
• Southern Bancorp and Southern Good Faith Fund: Tailoring Financial Services to Help Families Get Ahead illustrates how drawing low-income families into an ongoing banking relationship requires persistence, flexibility, and the willingness to create products that meet their needs - SGFF website.

Outcomes

Establishing a strategic framework to promote rural family economic success is the essence of ROMA National Goal #1: Low-Income People Become More Self-Sufficient.

A RuFES - ROMA Matrix reflects the interrelationship between the national ROMA goals and various RuFES goals under Earn It - Keep It - Grow It.  The Matrix does not address all of the ROMA National Performance Indicators that may also be relevant to strategies that are initiated as part RuFES.