RuralNOTES - RuralRISE

Mar 30 2021

3 Crucial Areas of Focus for Rural Small Business

This guest post comes from David Ponraj, founder and CEO of Startup Space (startupspace.us), a social enterprise working with economic and community development organizations across the country to create digital connections to entrepreneurship resources while also providing data and systems for resource management.

Why focus on small businesses? Is the impact worth the effort? What’s in it for economic development organizations?

According to Brooking Institute, “rural small businesses have been found to generate wealth that stays in the community, build local leadership, and even contribute to population health” (read more).

Investing in rural small businesses is good for the entire community, state, and nation.

However, rural small businesses lack the tools and resources needed to build and grow. And the pandemic has not made it easy on our rural communities. 61% of rural small businesses felt unsupported by federal government policies, according to the “Principal Financial Well-Being Index” survey of business owners.

If we want to bring back rural America, we need to focus on supporting rural small businesses. Some of the key areas of focus:

Access to Capital
Access to Broadband Internet
Access to entrepreneurship resources

Let’s take a closer look at each of those three areas of focus.

Access to Capital

Small businesses everywhere struggle to find capital that can fit their needs in terms of speed, cost, and total amount of capital.

A marble building facade reads The Union Banking & Trust Co.

Red tape, high interest rates, and lack of microloans force small businesses to turn to loan sharks and online lenders who engage in predatory lending.

According to the Federal Reserve, 40% of rural counties lost community bank branches between 2012 and 2017. This sets the small businesses back even before they start. If entrepreneurship is about wealth creation, then access to right-sized capital is essential to creating value for the small business owner and enabling them to earn a living.

Access to Broadband Internet

An example of support, one Southern Virginia town is leveraging creative partnerships united by its fiber network to boost the creation and development of its small businesses.

In partnership with Microsoft TechSpark Virginia and with state support, Mid-Atlantic Broadband founded the SOVA Innovation Hub in 2020. This 15,000 square-foot nonprofit center for innovation and entrepreneurship features coworking and meeting space, entrepreneurship and digital skills training, and access to technology experts and experiences.

Three women in masks are seen sitting inside the newly opened SOVA Innovation Hub space.

The partnership envisions the community hub will spark economic transformation in the small Virginia town of 8,142 that was once reliant on tobacco. The hub is the first new building to open in downtown South Boston, VA, in 40 years.

The strategy for the South Boston ecosystem outlines six key goals:

Connect entrepreneurship resources
Support existing business growth and innovation
Develop entrepreneurship training programs to nurture aspiring entrepreneurs
Expedite access to capital
Expedite broadband expansion
Fund and facilitate implementation to ensure flexibility and sustainability

In addition to training programs, grant funds are being used to create a virtual hub with digital infrastructure through Startup Space. SOVA’s digital hub on the Startup Space platform enhances access to the nonprofit’s programs and resources, including a “resource compass” to help entrepreneurs navigate all of the resources available through regional support organizations.

The digital hub makes entrepreneurship and business support services and resources available on-demand through the SOVA website or through an application that can be downloaded on any mobile device.

It is the community’s “one-stop shop” for entrepreneurship and helps SOVA behind the scenes to organize the local ecosystem.

To drive long-term development of the rural entrepreneurship ecosystem, the GO Virginia state board awarded the nonprofit partnership a major grant to support entrepreneurship training, youth entrepreneurship, and increasing access to capital.

Access to broadband is fueling this innovation; creative partnerships are helping to realize its full potential to achieve economic growth. It’s a compelling point of reference for rural economies to develop strong entrepreneurial ecosystems (more on local strategies from Main Street America and the Brookings Institution).

Access to Entrepreneurship Resources

Small businesses everywhere need access to the resource community to start and grow their businesses. We launched Startup Space in 2018 with the singular focus of better connecting small businesses to resources in the community.

A graphic courtesy of Startup Space shows a man with white hair standing in a garage, with text reading "Unlock Opportunities. Create equitable access."

In rural communities, this problem is exacerbated by the fact that resources are often distant and the density of business services (for example, lawyers, accountants, and web developers) is sparse or located hundreds of miles over in an urban community.

This creates a unique challenge for rural entrepreneurs who need the same support network as their urban counterparts to build a thriving business.

We countered this by mapping the local ecosystem and broadening the radius to help rural small businesses easily find the resources they need. We also focus on giving select resources within the community a clear designation so the intended underserved entrepreneur can easily find dedicated resources and support.

Technical assistance can also be hard to come by for rural entrepreneurs. By providing a virtual platform, we can bridge the divide and bring some of these resources right into the home of the small business owner.

When technical assistance is combined with access to capital, small business success rates go up dramatically.

Investing in What Rural Businesses Need

So what’s next for rural America? And what can your organization do to help support local businesses in these three key areas?

We are doing our rural small businesses and our nation a disservice by not recognizing the unique challenges and opportunities that exist in rural America and allocating appropriate resources to quickly address these challenges.

Rural small businesses are the backbone of our rural economy and if we want a strong and vibrant economy, we need to invest in building out the infrastructure that rural communities need. (Read more about why rural America isn’t fully connected yet.)

This April, join us at the first RuralRISE Technology Summit, a virtual event including expert panels, real-world success cases, and networking — all focused on the critical development of broadband and its utilization in rural economic ecosystem strategies.

Register for the Summit (April 15, 2-5 p.m. EST), followed by a social hour hosted by our team at Startup Space.

About Startup Space
Startup Space is a leading community platform that helps connect entrepreneurs to resources in their communities while also providing data analytics and management systems for community builders. For more information, visit https://www.startupspace.us or contact us at media@startupspace.app. The podcast, “Breaking Down Barriers,” featuring entrepreneurial ecosystem builders, is available at: https://startupspace.captivate.fm

Feb 23 2021

RCAP and Smithsonian Launch Coming Home: Stories from Main Street

The Rural Community Assistance Partnership (RCAP) and the Smithsonian Institution recently launched “Coming Home: Stories from Main Street.”

The partnership between RCAP and the Smithsonian Institution provides new opportunities for youth in rural America to tell their community’s story and to become leaders in its future.

Coming Home is a project that invites young people to learn about their rural communities, document local history, and foster meaningful discussions about their community’s future. The result is a vast array of dynamic multi-media projects that connect youth voices to local discourse.

This partnership between RCAP’s Rural Homecoming and the Smithsonian’s Museum on Mainstreet (MoMS) celebrates rural America’s voices.

The collaboration encourages youth connection and storytelling to celebrate the history (and future) of rural America.

The Origins of Rural Homecoming

RCAP recognizes the value in rural voices and the deep connection individuals feel towards their hometowns.

Rural Homecoming: Join in a national celebration of rural communities

RCAP started Rural Homecoming to reconnect young people who have moved away from rural communities with the innovation and opportunity in their hometown.

Rural Homecoming celebrates rural communities’ uniqueness and amplifies rural voices on a national level.

Both RCAP and the Smithsonian focus on uplifting these voices by giving youth the tools, resources, and guidance to learn about their community’s past and shape their future. This unifying goal of celebrating rural supports the partnership between RCAP and MoMS.

How to Get Involved

Communities can participate in Coming Home in two ways.

1. Sign up through the Smithsonian’s Museum on Main Street website

Communities participate by composing storytelling videos of their town’s rich history through tools and resources provided through Coming Home.

This program allows for rural youth to connect with their communities, expand technology skills, and form relationships with older community members. To apply, submit a proposal.

2. Download RCAP’s Rural Homecoming Toolkit

To celebrate RCAP’s Rural Homecoming, communities can utilize RCAP’s free toolkit to help plan a virtual or in-person event or tell their community’s story in creative ways.

The toolkit provides ideas and resources to adapt an annual celebration like a fall festival or create an entirely new event that connects individuals with their communities. Any community member or organization can plan Rural Homecoming events.

A small downtown area at sunset, with 3-story buildings on either side of a tree-lined 2-lane road lined with parked cars.

When Are You Coming Home?

Rural Homecoming and Coming Home both provide an opportunity to tell local stories through national platforms.

RCAP and MoMS see the deep connection individuals feel towards their rural communities. “Coming Home: Stories from Main Street” provides communities with the tools and support to amplify this connection.

This partnership helps rural communities celebrate and share what makes their hometowns unique. By uplifting these stories, Coming Home honors rural America’s history and helps to shape the future.

Did you grow up in a rural community? Are you living in one now? RCAP and the Smithsonian want to hear from you! Let’s build the future of rural, one story at a time.

Dec 08 2020

Rural Roundup: Entrepreneurial Challenges & Opportunities

Over the past 4 months, RuralRISE has interviewed a series of ecosystem builders about 2020 and the changes COVID-19 has wreaked on the entrepreneurial ecosystem. The stories and advice they shared are worth their weight in gold for these tumultuous times.

But what about the entrepreneurs? Without talking to them, our interview series would be missing half of the story.

Along with the challenges of 2020 have come new opportunities. And every entrepreneur knows that when the status quo breaks, someone needs to be there to help people transition to what’s next.

That’s why we reached out to a few rural entrepreneurs to get their take on what’s going on in their area of the United States.

We asked them three questions:

What is the biggest opportunity or challenge you see as an entrepreneur, at this particular moment in time?
What have you done to either a) take advantage of this opportunity, or b) thrive despite the challenge?
What entrepreneurial support or resources have been (or would be) most helpful to you during these times?

Let’s hear their stories!

Reggie & Lori Cole: Owners of Natural Bliss Health & Wellness Store

White Hall, Arkansas

There’s an old adage, “necessity is the mother of invention” so during this time of Covid-19 so many people have been negatively impacted with layoffs and business closings.

This season of distress has resuscitated old dreams and brought to light new ideas, especially in the area of entrepreneurship.

It’s important to use that passion to fuel those ideas and take advantage of different loans, grants and programs geared to small business owners.

We absolutely realized that changes had come. We knew that initially many people were not able to come out as much as before. We knew we had to find a way to increase our online sales so we revamped our website, added more products and even offered pre-shopping by having customers call in their orders pay by credit or debit card and have it ready when they or an appointee arrived (curbside service).

We increased our social media posts to help advertise weekly specials and sale prices. We also took advantage of a new opportunity to upgrade our loyalty program for repeat customers and provide more much needed and appreciated discounts. We love to give back.

One of the most important resources we found was staying connected to our local branch of the Small Business Administration.

They kept us up to date on available resources to help bridge the gap during that initial crunch. We were told what to expect during the wait for federal funds and how to apply when the loans were made available as well. We also were alerted to different grant opportunities, local Business to Business Networking seminars and self help courses via Zoom.

The Generator has been a vital link to us being connected to business-minded entrepreneurs and also helped us stay connected to small businesses who have a desire to not only just survive but to thrive.

There is power in numbers! The Bible even says, “In the multitude of counsel there is safety.”

Visit their website to learn more about Natural Bliss and support their entrepreneurial efforts.

Jennifer Litteral: President of Coffee Hound Coffee Co.

Brewer, Maine

Major opportunities or trends normally happen over long periods of time and are difficult for small businesses to get into because larger corporations are poised having planned and speculated long in advance for those changes.

However, the pandemic has shaken loose so many new trends and opportunities that are ideal for small enterprises because small businesses are nimble and can shift faster than larger corporations or companies.

Like steering a huge tanker on the ocean they have to plan long in advance for their movements — where smaller boats can steer quickly around or to something in a split second. Small businesses are like the small boats and they are winning the race to these opportunities today.

Having the ability to be open and listen to real-time statistics about your industry is crucial at this moment in time to be able shift or pivot with purpose and direction.

For the coffee industry the pandemic changed our customers to at-home baristas;
The at-home coffee market is expected to grow to $15 billion in 2020;
40% of people working from home say they will continue to work from home even after COVID and 39% of those are willing to pay more for premium coffee.

So, we were able to shift the focus of our company to meet the needs of our customers for their new normal with national at-home delivery through a new e-commerce platform as well as having our products available in grocery stores throughout Maine through a distributor as well as servicing Hannaford’s local program.

As entrepreneurs and small business owners, we are already courageous, smart and highly adaptable – but COVID has taken this to a level that has left many of us reeling. A normal day for a small business owner is to wear about 100 hats and we often don’t have time to look up and research what resources are out there.

Even with my diverse background, I didn’t find the time to seek out the resource organizations in Maine – luckily one found me. To be included in the 2020 Maine Center for Entrepreneurs TopGun cohort was beyond valuable for our company to be in during a pandemic and while we were pivoting.

I think the resources are out there and in multiple formats across many organizations. The questions are — can they more broadly get on the radars of small businesses when we might not travel in the same circles or online communities?

Is there a way to combine and channel options in a simple to find and easy to digest format that is distributed or found where small businesses will take notice and utilize?

Visit their website to learn more about Coffee Hound and support their entrepreneurial efforts.

E. James White: CEO of LivestockCity, Inc.

Mount Solon, Virginia

When the pandemic first came, people were stocking up on food, with supermarkets running out of food including meats.

One of the features we wanted to offer even before the pandemic was to provide a way for livestock farmers to sell their meats and animal products through our platform — sort of like “Etsy for farmers.” We call it “Farm Stores.”

Unfortunately, we couldn’t complete this section in time during that food shortage, but as we are seeing an uptick in Covid-19 cases again, it’s possible we will get another chance to offer this service to farmers when there’s a real need. If not, we still think it is a good service to offer, especially for those that are looking for grass-fed or organic food products.

During this challenging time, we have been able to recruit talented interns and volunteers, as many internships were canceled this summer due to the pandemic.

Since we are a remote team, we were able to easily take on remote interns that were a higher caliber than what we’ve seen in the past — and over the summer they really helped us advance our mobile app and web app development.

Our biggest challenge has always been financial, in order to pay for the help we need to develop our platform and products.

We’ve had to be creative in bootstrapping in order to progress LivestockCity, but with funding we could significantly speed up the process and get our services in the hands of livestock farmers quicker. Without funding it will take longer, but we will continue to work towards completion for 2021.

Visit their website to learn more about LivestockCity and support their entrepreneurial efforts.

Kanesha Adams: CEO and Founder, EduScape

Pine Bluff, Arkansas

My biggest challenge at this time has been gaining access to capital.

As a startup company, with an alternative learning platform, the market can be very competitive and in the absence of capital, it makes the struggle to grow and scale more challenging.

On the flip side of it, as a minority-female founder, I have a unique lens for investors.

I have been afforded the opportunity to work from home and build my small business, which has been a major turning point for my company. I have a small team, which also makes the work difficult, but I have a mission-oriented team who believe in the work we do, which allows us to combat our challenge.

I have been really intentional about overcoming the areas of opportunities that I have been presented by building a network of advisors, and a support team who value me as an entrepreneur and my work.

I have applied to pitch in a pitch contest and spend time daily seeking out additional knowledge opportunities by way of accelerators or incubators. I spend 2-3 hours a day on LinkedIn connecting with people who may be willing to support my business in any way.

Having a mentor in this space with me has been the most helpful resource for me during this time. My mentor has been in the edtech space for about 20 years, and has shared some amazing resources, advice, and tips as I develop my plan to move forward.

I have also connected to incubator advisors such as The Venture Center and Communities Unlimited (which is a CDFI that supports small business owners). Building a network is a resource that you can’t put a price tag on, and I have been really intentional on using my network.

Visit their website to learn more about EduScape and support their entrepreneurial efforts.

What Will 2021 Bring for Entrepreneurs?

As you can see from these four stories (and those of entrepreneurs and small businesses across the US and around the world), 2020 has brought its share of challenges.

But these stories also demonstrate how resilient entrepreneurs can be. In a world where pivots were the norm prior to a worldwide pandemic, this kind of quick thinking and innovation is just what we all need.

As 2021 quickly approaches, these entrepreneurs serve both as a beacon of hope and a reminder of the importance of the work we all do. Together, we can make the most of any challenges the next year (and beyond) may bring our way!

This is the fourth in a series of interviews — stay tuned for the next installment! You can also catch up on the first, second, and third interviews.

Oct 27 2020

Rural Roundup: How Can Ecosystems Help Small Business Survive?

By this point in 2020, I think we can all agree that times are tough.

Across the United States and around the world, small businesses have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic — with even greater impacts on Black, Latinx, immigrant, and female business owners.

But even in the midst of crisis, there is opportunity. A chance for us to come together as communities, to innovate, and to collaborate on finding solutions to the most challenging problems facing our world.

That’s why we reached out to some of our favorite rural ecosystem builders and get their take on what’s going on across rural areas in the United States. Today’s wisdom comes to us from our friends at First Southwest Community Fund.

We asked two questions:

What is the biggest opportunity or challenge your organization sees, in this particular moment in time?
What advice would you give to our communities to help them either take advantage of this opportunity or thrive despite the challenge?

So without further ado, take it away Cass!

Cass Walker, Executive Director at First Southwest Community Fund

Listening to your stakeholders has always been the most important thing any organization can do, but in these unprecedented times listening to what small businesses need is crucial for their survival.

Needs are changing daily, and the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting our communities and businesses in ways we did not foresee.

Understanding the challenges – and then acting to help mitigate the effects – is vital for organizations like ours to have an impact in these difficult times.

Challenges are everywhere at the moment – helping businesses survive shutdowns, building online platforms for communications, remote teams, keeping employees healthy and well in this new “normal”…

However, at First Southwest Community Fund we’ve also seen a number of opportunities during this unique moment in history. Together with our partner, First Southwest Bank (a CDFI), we’ve worked tirelessly to get assistance to rural Colorado businesses.

In times of crisis, people can be incredibly resourceful and innovative, and re-focusing on who and what is important for our economies to thrive is paramount. We’ve chosen to focus on supporting innovation, creativity, and supporting those who keep our economy alive.

Solving New Problems: Innovation and Creativity

Many people have ideas about how to pivot or change their business models to survive COVID – however, most of these innovations need capital to implement.

A woman sits at a desk looking at multiple computer screens.

Hearing the needs in our community to create new online platforms, find ways to deliver educational and health content safely, and change business models to provide new needed services, we created the Innovation Assistance Awards Program.

Through partnerships with The Colorado Trust’s COVID-19 Response Fund, Startup Colorado, and the San Luis Valley and Southwest Colorado SBDCs, we have been able to provide small grants up to $2000 alongside technical assistance to bring these ideas to reality.

To help make technology ideas easier to implement, we partnered with local media companies to provide discounted and tailored services.

We partnered awards with workshops to increase knowledge and skills. To date, we’ve awarded 30+ Innovation Awards to small businesses and nonprofits in rural Colorado, and are scaling our program to serve more areas.

We’ve helped a rural bookshop create an online marketplace for their products, a theatre take their educational programming virtual, and a restaurant launch a grocery delivery service for at-risk residents.

This initiative has brought hope and optimism, as our rural small businesses continue to show their resilience to thrive during this crisis.

Keeping Our Rural Economies Alive: Early Childhood Care & Education

As an industry, early childhood care and education has historically been underfunded and underappreciated.

A young girl in a highchair peeks through the top of a toy camera.

In our rural areas, there was already a lack of access to early care and education, with nowhere near enough capacity to deal with the demand.

In times of COVID-19, we have seen a huge impact on this ecosystem and a deeper understanding of how access to early childhood care and education is an economic development issue

Through support from The Colorado Trust’s COVID-19 Response Fund and working with the Early Childhood Council of the San Luis Valley, we were able to create a program to assist 14 women-owned licensed family child care providers across the San Luis Valley in Colorado with operating capital who collectively serve 141 children.

It is vital to the economic recovery of our rural region that these providers stay operational. We do not traditionally do many grants as an organization, as we are typically focused on small business loans.

However, in these times, new tools such as these micro-grants are needed to support the key organizations which enable our communities to keep their business alive – especially women-led businesses, BIPOC-led businesses, and for entities who were not eligible or able to receive PPP or EIDL.

Shifting Our Focus: Rethinking Entrepreneurship

In today’s ever-shifting economy it is vital for small businesses and nonprofits to rethink and redefine what entrepreneurship means to them.

A laptop and a journal are set up on a kitchen table, looking out over a living room with a cast iron wood stove.

Whether that means simply working from home, shifting product delivery options, shifting products or services offered, or completely restructuring a business model, anyone can be an entrepreneur and can make a difference in their local economy and for their family during these times.

Many of our programs at FSWCF have been developed to help businesses and nonprofits make these shifts, including our Rapid Response & Recovery Fund, Technology Innovation Awards, Food Truck Loan Program, Rural Women-Led Business Fund, and Creative Arts Loan Fund.

Getting creative, working together, and finding ways to maintain your business and livelihood in your rural community is what will propel small businesses and organizations through this pandemic and make our rural communities stronger on the other side.

What’s Next for Rural Small Business?

It’s easy to feel like 2020 has us stuck in between a rock and a hard place. But as Cass and her colleagues at FSWCF show us, there’s a lot we can do to support our communities, small businesses, and entrepreneurs right now.

We may not know what the next 12 months will bring, but together we can begin to reimagine a brighter 2021.

This is the third in a series of interviews — stay tuned for the next installment! You can also catch up on the first and second interviews.

Sep 10 2020

COVID-19: Rural America’s Opportunity

Across the board, 2020 has been challenging. Between the health and economic challenges placed on communities around the world by COVID-19, it can sometimes be hard to find a silver lining.

But every time we face a challenge there’s usually an opportunity buried within it — it’s just our job to reframe the situation and figure out how we can use the challenge to benefit our customers and communities.

We asked two questions:

What is the biggest opportunity or challenge your organization sees, in this particular moment in time?
What advice would you give to our communities to help them either take advantage of this opportunity or thrive despite the challenge?

So without further ado, take it away Ines!

Ines Polonius, CEO at Communities Unlimited

Social distancing is Rural America’s competitive advantage. Urban areas make up only 3% of the U.S. land area but are home to more than 80% of the population.

Young people, now more than ever, want to come back home to rural places. Intentional entrepreneurial ecosystems will help.

On July 5, 2020, The Hill concluded that a combination of the coronavirus pandemic, economic uncertainty, and social unrest is prompting waves of Americans from large cities to permanently relocate to more sparsely populated areas.

Coming Home to Rural

While a town deep in the Mississippi Delta may not see an influx of New York City executives any time soon, it may well welcome home young people who grew up there.

COVID has demonstrated that many jobs are mobile. Economic insecurity has people looking for more affordable housing. In 2016, the median monthly housing cost in rural areas was $1,271 lower than in urban areas. This gap has only widened over the past four years.

Social distancing is much easier when your closest neighbors might be cows.

A field of cows, a common sight in rural America.

So how do we in rural communities capitalize on our competitive advantage? Quality of life.

The Rural Community Assistance Partnership (RCAP), a partnership of six organizations including Communities Unlimited, provides technical assistance and training to rural communities across the U.S.

RCAP’s Rural Homecoming Toolkit provides strategies for attracting those with roots in a community back home.

For decades rural leaders have been focusing on attracting corporations, not people. To attract people, rural places require vibrant local economies built on local entrepreneurs, who are often forgotten by state economic development policy.

Corporations vs Entrepreneurial Ecosystems

Through intermediaries like Communities Unlimited (CU), some rural communities are creating vibrant rural entrepreneurial ecosystems that support the growth of existing local businesses as well as budding entrepreneurs.

Three young black girls celebrate with ice cream at Dermott, Arkansas' Entrepreneurship Extravaganza.

In Dermott, Arkansas, a predominantly Black rural community in the heart of the Arkansas Delta, a community leadership team has been working on just this. In this community of 2500, almost 36% of the residents live in poverty and have for more than 30 years.

Leaders know how to navigate hurdles with creativity, but no one was quite prepared for the devastating challenges of COVID19.

Beginning on March 23, 2020, the leadership team gathered virtually via ZOOM with CU’s community facilitator to continue planning its Entrepreneurship Extravaganza.

This call to action inspired the grand opening of three new businesses: a barbershop, a boutique, and a shaved ice stand. All three launched in June by community residents while they and the rest of the country were in the throes of COVID.

On the other side of town, leadership team member, Debra Williams purchased eight vacant buildings to revitalize the downtown and create an entrepreneurship hub.

Through the partnership between Dermott’s leadership team and CU, the ecosystem has access to start-up capital in the form of microloans and intensive technical assistance.

By creating an intentionally inviting and supportive environment for entrepreneurs through quality-of-life businesses, access to capital, an entrepreneurship hub, and technical assistance, Dermott and other rural places can welcome home those with roots there who want to start a business, bring their existing business, or telecommute.

Challenge or Opportunity — It’s Up to Us

During times of chaos, we all have a choice: stick our heads in the sand and hope things go back to “normal” soon… or pivot and do something different. Something better. Something to uplift and benefit the communities where we live.

We may not know what our new normal will be yet, but together we can start to chart a new path forward.

This is the second in a series of interviews — stay tuned for the next installment! You can also read the first set of interviews here.

About Communities Unlimited: As a Rural Development Hub and Community Development Financial Institution, Communities Unlimited takes a holistic approach to ensuring healthy communities, healthy businesses, and healthy families in rural places and underserved neighborhoods in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama. www.CommunitiesU.org