Rural Community Alliance














ACRE’s efforts to organize low-wealth communities, develop leadership, and help them address issues is provided by general support from:                   Southern Echo http://southernecho.org/s/
Southern Partners Fund http://www.spfund.org

Strategic Plan

Vision

Members of Rural Community Alliance share a common vision for improving the communities of rural Arkansas that includes the following:

  1. Excellent schools, which focus on the individual student and which are nurtured by close collaboration by school leadership/staff and community.
  2. Strong communities, which through visioning, planning, and working together make the most of their resources in an environmentally and culturally responsible manner, preserve their rural heritage, and offer the best possible lifestyle to their residents as well as a prosperous future for their children.
  3. Committed citizens, who band together across geographic, socioeconomic, and racial barriers to affect state-wide policy that impacts their families, schools, and communities.

Mission

Rural Community Alliance is a state-wide organization of community-based chapters.  Its mission is to help rural schools and communities survive and thrive by

  1. Preserving and improving rural and community schools and, by improving opportunities, create a more prosperous future for rural students and communities.
  2. Educating the community members and the public about the role and value of rural schools and communities and sharing their successes.
  3. Organizing community members to support and improve their schools and communities by engaging youth, families, and community members in action-oriented school and community improvement activities.

Priorities (not in prioritized order)

  1. Membership. Increase the impact of Rural Community Alliance by increasing the number of chapters and members.

ACTION:  Increase the staff and number of organizers to better serve the membership and to take advantage of the opportunity for growth.  We are serving only 34  of about 180 rural communities with schools in Arkansas.

  1. Education. Assist members and chapters in addressing local and state-wide education issues, providing resources and opportunities to network with others of similar interests and giving them a voice in state policy.

ACTION:  Continue to produce newsletters, e-mail updates, brochures, and organizing materials, hold regional and state-wide training meetings and conferences, and provide a collaborative process for advocating state policy.

  1. Community Revitalization.  Develop models for revitalizing declining rural communities to make them prosperous examples of vibrant culture and economic growth where families can live and work.

ACTION:  Create a Community Revitalization Process which provides facilitators to lead community members in visioning, planning, and implementation of community improvement along with helping them access resources provided by state agencies and organizations which can assist with the revitalization plan.

Goals

The goals of Rural Community Alliance are to engage students, parents, and community members in efforts to improve opportunity for residents of rural communities by improving rural schools and revitalizing rural communities as well as creating a policy climate favorable to rural families, schools, and communities.

  1. Increase Opportunities in Rural Schools (Mission POSSIBLE Campaign for Equitable Education):
    1. Identify and address quality of life, school climate issues for students in consolidated schools.
    1. Improve quality of education for all students, both quality of instruction and quality of curriculum.
    2. Identify and provide interventions for at-risk students.

 

  1. Revitalizing Rural Communities
    1. Provide facilitators for leading rural communities in an improvement process that moves community members from visioning to assessment, planning, and implementation of plans to bring about economic opportunity and renewed appreciation of cultural and environmental heritage.
    1. Facilitate the accessing of expert assistance and resources available from organizations and state and local agencies.
    2. Identify the local school as a key agent for change by engaging students in active roles in the entire community revitalization process.
  1. Creating a Favorable Policy Climate
    1. Engage parents, students, educators, and community members in a collaborative process to identify state policies that would favorably impact rural schools and communities.
    1. Educate members in the policy-making process and in accessing their elected representatives.
    2. Supply materials that effectively convey members’ beliefs and priorities for state policies that affect rural communities and schools.

 

Actions Needed to Support Strategic Plan

I.  Achieving Goals

  1. Mission POSSIBLE Campaign for Equitable Education to increase opportunity for students in rural and community schools.
    1. Produce an organizing packet with information about the three Mission POSSIBLE issues. (Completed fall 2007)
    2. Hold Community Conversations about three issues. (Winter/spring 2007-08)
    3. Convene state-wide conference on three issues to identify best practices and make state and local policy recommendations. (Summer 2008)
    4. Work with local schools to implement best practices and begin advocating for policies. (Fall 2008)

 

  1. Revitalizing rural communities

a.   Find coalition partners and secure funding. (Winter-Spring 2008) 

    1. Identify model communities who are interested in participating in the visioning, assessment, planning, and improvement process. (Winter-Spring 2008)
    2. Develop an ACRE leadership team which will facilitate the process. (Winter 2008)
    3. Identify a community leadership team which will guide the process. (Spring 2008)
    4. Develop a schedule for visioning, assessment, planning, and implementation. (Summer 2008)
    5. Begin the process. (Summer 2008)
  1. Creating a favorable policy climate
    1. At Mission POSSIBLE conference and Policy Council, identify policies favorable to rural schools and communities. (Summer and fall 2008)
    2. Produce advocacy packet articulating policies. (Fall 2008)
    3. Educate membership on issues and policies, distribute advocacy packets. (Fall 2008)
    4. Activate partnership with Arkansas Rural Education Association and Arkansas African American Administrators Association to advocate for policies. (On-going)

Actions Needed to Support Strategic Plan

II. Internal Resources

 

  1. Shared expertise
    1. Conducting issue campaigns:  Bismarck, Carlisle, Delight chapters
    2. Conducting school board campaigns:  Rural Special, Marianna chapters
  1. Financial and data analysis – Renee Carr, ACRE treasurer and certified public accountant

 

  1. Organizing – Dorothy Singleton, lead organizer
  1. Publications – Lavina Grandon, newsletter editor, brochures, policy materials, organizing packets

 

  1. Strategic planning – Ron Crawford, CEO Southland Metals
  1. Education law and policy –
    1. Sen. Jack Crumbly, president, Arkansas African American Administrators Association, superintendent of Earle School District
    2. Kathy Cole, K-12 principal, Delight School District
    3. Kerry Cunningham, curriculum coordinator, Two Rivers School District
    4. Officers of the Arkansas Rural Education Association

 

  1. Youth advisor – Candace Williams, college student at UCA and ACRE board member
Internal Resources to Be Developed 
  1. Paid Executive Director
  1. Paid Community Development Director and part-time Policy Director
  1. Lead Organizer
  1. Four part-time Regional Organizers

 

Actions Needed to Support Strategic Plan

III. External Resources

  1. Community organizing – ACRE’s 34 established chapters and 8 emerging chapters as well as future chapters

2. Education

    1. Arkansas Rural Education Association
    2. Arkansas African American Administrators Association
    3. Education service providers who work in partnership with ACRE
    4. The Rural School and Community Trust
    5. Southern Echo
    6. Mara Tieken, Harvard University School of Education
    7. Arkansas Single Parents College Fund

3.Community Resource Assessment and Community Development – University of
   Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service

4. Economic Development – Arkansas Economic Development Commission and
    local and regional EDC’s and CDC’s, Arkansas Department of Rural Services,
    USDA Department of Rural Services

5. Environment and Natural Resources

    1. Audubon Arkansas
    2. Department of Arkansas Heritage
  1. Heritage
    1. Department of Arkansas Heritage
    2. Arkansas Arts Council