News & Updates
Legislative Tracker
The Rural Center’s advocacy platform, Rural Counts: 10 Strategies for Rural North Carolina’s Future, presents a framework for creating a stronger rural economy in the context of a rapidly changing state. Within these strategies, the Rural Center will...
Innovative Rural Leadership: Paula Swepson-Avery
This is part five of a five-part series focused on innovative rural leadership in North Carolina. To read the other profiles in this series, go here. “I always thought what I thought was right and that everybody thought the same way as me. I’ve learned we can get to...
Innovative Rural Leadership: Bryan Thompson
This is part three of a five-part series focused on innovative rural leadership in North Carolina. To read the other profiles in this series, go here. There are varying creative or even practical ways to address a thing, whatever that thing is, that issue, that...
Zero Barriers Policy Roundtables
The Rural Center's Advocacy Team completed a series of seven Zero Barriers Policy Roundtables in Robbinsville, Spruce Pine, Columbia, Henderson, Dobson, Troy, and Kenansville in October. These day-long sessions drew 145 rural advocates and featured a deep dive into...
Innovative Rural Leadership: Jesus Padilla
This is part three of a five-part series focused on innovative rural leadership in North Carolina. To read the other profiles go here. I heard ‘rural’ and I knew I had to attend because that’s what I’m all about. -Jesus Padilla Jesus Padilla remembers what...
Innovative Rural Leadership: Kathryn Jenkins and Megan Reyes
REDI was probably the best program I've ever been in. -Kathryn Jenkins Nearly a decade after Kathryn Jenkins moved to Murphy, North Carolina, from Georgia, she began to think of how she could give back to her community, strengthen its economy, and build...
Jones Street Journal
As the Session Turns Remember in October when the North Carolina General Assembly (NCGA) passed a historic appropriation totaling nearly $800 million in response to Hurricane Florence? And remember how legislators designated half of the appropriation then but put the...
Innovative Rural Leadership: Randolph Keaton
What I've gained through REDI are connections. If I need something here in my rural community, I've got someone I can call on. -Randolph Keaton On any given weekday, in an unassuming building on Dream Avenue, men and women face computer screens to fill out...
Impact Stories: Centre for Homeownership & Economic Development Corporation
“We knew that we wanted to expand. We felt like this was an opportunity to do that, and it’s proven itself. Now we’re out of space and are going to have to add an additional building onto this one.” -James Stroud James Stroud has a lot he wants to...
In the News: Weaving a new era of entrepreneurship in North Carolina
NC Rural Center mentioned in the New Bern Sun Journal article “Patrick Woodie: Weaving a new era of entrepreneurship in North Carolina“