​Rural Community Alliance to Serve as Arkansas Hub for Rural Schools Collaborative

The Rural Community Alliance (RCA) and the Rural Schools Collaborative are pleased to announce the establishment of an operational hub for the State of Arkansas. RCA empowers rural communities to effect change by creating opportunities in education, economic development, and youth empowerment to improve quality of life and place. RCA has 64 community-based chapters and more than 2,500 individual members.

An event celebrating the new Hub will take place on Thursday, April 6th, 11:00 a.m. in Marshall, Arkansas.

The Rural Schools Collaborative (RSC) hub will serve Arkansas communities in the following ways:

• The hub will be a vehicle for organizing and sharing the “transformational” work being done in Arkansas by RSC and RCA.
• RSC will “connect” the Arkansas hub to other regional hubs through a small and lean national operations office with a strong emphasis on social marketing.
• By and large, the work of RSC will occur within the context of the Arkansas hub and other regional partners.
• Through the hub, RSC and RCA will work together to create, fund, and share innovative work and activity.

Lavina Grandon (pictured at right), president of the Rural Community Alliance, said, “We at Rural Community Alliance are so pleased to have this national platform to share the great education and community and economic development work done by our members throughout rural Arkansas, and we look forward to learning from others in the collaborative as we work together toward a thriving rural landscape across the country.”

Rural Schools Collaborative director, Gary Funk, echoed Grandon’s sentiments: “We are so pleased to take our partnership with the Rural Community Alliance to another level. RCA has a well-earned reputation in innovative rural leadership, and this new hub will provide real credibility to our new national effort.”

In addition to the Arkansas hub, the Rural Schools Collaborative will be launching hubs in Alabama, northern California, southern Wisconsin, western Illinois and the Missouri Ozarks.

The mission of the Rural Schools Collaborative is to strengthen the bonds between rural schools and communities through place-based engagement, rural philanthropy, and developing teacher-leaders.