|
| National Rural Assembly Organizing Committee |
Other people who spoke at the Congressional Rural Summit were Shannon J. Augare, Bill Greener, Peter Carey, Greg Dent, and Mark Lloyd.
Read excerpts of their comments. |
Participants in the first National Rural Assembly took their concerns straight to Capitol Hill last month. The attendees, who had just concluded the National Rural Assembly in Chantilly, Va., filled the Agriculture committee room to capacity during the Rural Summit. The fact-finding meeting was hosted by U.S. Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro (Conn.-3), chairman of the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee.
Presenters included Delia Perez of the Llano Grande Center for Research and Development, a member of the At-Large Network of the Rural People, Rural Policy initiative.
Perez shared her powerful personal story of growing up in the tiny community of Monte Alto in south Texas. The daughter of Mexican migrant farm workers, she recalled how her hardworking parents labor sustained the family.
"We may not have had access to luxuries such as health care, but we had hardworking, loving parents and a community with a deep sense of kinship, where people took care of each other," she said. She credits her success with growing up among family, teachers and community members who raised educational expectations for young people.
"They recognized our abundance of assets and encouraged us to return home after college," Perez said.
Perez earned an undergraduate degree from Yale and returned home to teach high school. She is also program director for the Llano Grande Center, a non- profit organization working on the mission of building a sustainable community by investing in human and social capital investment.
Other speakers addressed the need for a new approach to rural development. Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius said effective rural development must start with leadership development, strategic planning, and communication. She said few government programs address these needs.
"Problems in rural America are not solely economic, they go far deeper," she said. "To solve these problems, we must engage all four corners of what we in Kansas have started to call the 'public square' -- business, government, schools, health providers, churches and community groups."
The governor spoke about her state's efforts to rebuild Greensburg after tornadoes destroyed the rural town earlier this year.
Other Congressional Summit witnesses focused on shifting rural demographics and the social, cultural, and economic conditions affecting rural America. Speakers explored the need for a coherent national rural policy that truly reflects the needs of rural America and the potential for federal efforts to renew rural America.
DeLauro said solving the challenges in rural America is no easy task. She noted that lack of quality infrastructure and more limited access to education, health care, and transportation combined with high levels of poverty unite to reinforce one another.
"We have an obligation to step up and overcome that inertia – to improve the health, well-being, and nutrition of all rural American communities – and to use our federal policy as the valuable tool it is to put middle and working-class rural families center-stage," Rep. DeLauro said.
|
