How Policy and
Public Funding Alignment Strengthens Rural Communities
SRDI works
to aligning public funds in rural communities with
local priorities through data, facilitation, training,
coaching, and connection to regional peers and national
resources.
SRDI
Federal Funds Databases
We produce data for rural leaders and policy advocates
that show the amount, type, and use of federal funds
in your community, the rural South, and the US.
Community Impact:
SRDI documented the pattern of misaligned US
Department of Agriculture funding to rural
counties of low wealth and counties that predominantly
consist of people of color.
SRDI data identified untapped federal grant opportunities
in Pointe Coupee, LA.
Federal
Funding Community Convenings
Partnering with local conveners, SRDI facilitates
community engagement sessions with diverse local leaders
and organizations to examine the data for their community.
Leaders receive a customized
summary report of key findings of their federal
funding from SRDI
Leaders explore the flow of federal
funding with other key decision makers
Through a facilitated process,
leaders create advocacy strategies for more responsive
federal funding to their community
SRDI offers data and facilitates
a local process around previously unpursued federal
funding grants
Full community sessions
are typically 4 - 6 hours.
Community Impact:
SRDI provided in-depth data and training to three
county coalitions on key findings and ways to advocate
to their congressional representative for greater
alignment of federal funds to their local priorities.
Consultation
for Communities
SRDI can create customized data reports on your community’s
federal funding, skilled analysis of the data, and
strategy suggestions for using the data to increase
equity in your community.
Community Impact:
SRDI data was used to support a TN group working
to make it easier for small, local farmers to be
eligible to sell produce to local school systems,
as current USDA regulations favor large, institutional
food suppliers.
SRDI advised the AR Association of Community Development
Corporations on accessing USDA Rural Development
502 direct and guaranteed loan program funding for
low income home mortgages.
Past
SRDI Policy Initiatives
Reform of USDA policy and Funding for Low
Wealth and Communities of Color in Rural America
In 2007 SRDI released a ground breaking analysis
of USDA funding patterns in rural counties that
broke out the major threads of agricultural, nutrition,
and rural development allocations. This analysis
was used by a range of rural development organizations
and associations in the 2007-8 reauthorization of
the Farm Bill.
Manufactured Housing Policy
SRDI has conducted research on the importance of
state policy in mainstreaming manufactured housing
that maximizes it being a good consumer choice for
homeowners.
Rural-Urban Connections
SRDI, in partnership with the National Community
Development Partnership, researched and wrote a
groundbreaking analysis of the connected fates of
low wealth rural and urban children ad families
Parables to Policy
From 1997 to 2000, SRDI helped pioneer the use of
video on the internet to bring the policy choices
of rural Americans to the world.
