Economic Mobility for Rural Workers Resource Guide

Dive into this comprehensive resource guide designed to support initiatives aimed at fostering economic growth and opportunity in rural communities. This toolkit brings together a wide array of tools, strategies and resources that can be leveraged by chambers to support sustainable pathways for economic advancement.

Gathering Data

Chambers and their partners need to understand the current state of their communities. Gathering data to assess the landscape is a critical first step. In rural areas, it can sometimes be challenging to aggregate data or identify which data sources accurately reflect your community. Chambers that don’t have in-house resources to do this can work with local economic development organizations or higher education institutions. They may have access to additional data sources and/or expertise in analyzing this data.

Workforce Data

K-12 Data

Postsecondary Data

Other Data

Changing Systems

With a snapshot of the current state, chambers and their partners can now start considering what might need to change within their communities to provide greater opportunities for economic mobility. While specific programs or projects might offer some small-scale progress, it is helpful to understand the larger, more structural changes that might be necessary to address the community’s challenges at scale. The tools and resources in this section provide an overview of systems change and the mindset needed to address complex problems. They also offer some practical tools for identifying stakeholders within a specific ecosystem.

Systems Change and Thinking

Mapping Local Ecosystems

Understanding Other Systems Related to Workforce

Piloting Approaches

Through the ACCE Foundation, 11 communities piloted different approaches for supporting economic mobility for rural workers. Click on each approach below to learn about the work in these communities and access tools and resources to replicate these efforts

Telling Your Story

Storytelling is an important component for successfully launching economic mobility work. As you may have heard before, data makes you credible, but stories make you memorable. Chambers need to be able to tell stories to:

  • Get buy-in for the work
  • Secure funding for the work
  • Encourage residents to take advantage of existing and new resources

The resources below explain what makes a good story and include templates chambers can use for their own storytelling efforts.

Other Tools and Resources

When it comes to economic mobility, each community’s needs are unique. This was evident in the Economic Mobility for Rural Workers cohort. The specifics of improving opportunities for students in a resort mountain town are different than in a rust belt region in the Northeast. This is true even for communities that chose the same models to pilot. The approach one chamber takes may need to be adapted and revised based on the context of a different community. The most important tool a chamber can bring to this work is an adaptive and innovative mindset.

The resources below provide additional information on approaches that may be helpful when designing or executing economic mobility pilots in rural areas.

General Rural Resources

Partnerships

Economic Prosperity for All

Design, Funding and Operations

Our Partners