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By Robert P. Britts, P.E.

Many rural communities, especially those in distressed areas, have suffered greatly for the past two decades. The closing of factories and local businesses have devastated some communities. Besides the loss of jobs, the service businesses that supported the industrial workers have closed as well. The residents, over time, have become discouraged about the prospects for permanent, well-paying jobs ever coming back. The youth have also gotten discouraged. Many of them leave home after graduating and move far away to seek employment. Those who stay may turn to alcohol, drugs or crime to deal with the apparent hopeless situation.

This is a sad state of affairs in many isolated rural communities. In the Southeast region of the United States, the closing of many textile mills was responsible for the loss of 60,000 jobs by 2009.

Many of these rural communities are in unincorporated areas of their counties. They do not have a town hall, a mayor and council or commissioners to assist the residents. The local elected officials, whether on the town, city, or county level, have tough choices to make. They may need to decide to raise taxes or fees on the individual residents or reduce services. To make matters worse, the existing water and sewer infrastructure may be more than 50 years old and need to be replaced. Recent environmental regulations may require expensive upgrades to the utility systems.

Here are five things or “tools” that can be used to empower rural communities that do not appear to have the will, resources or leaders to address their needs and make their lives better.

Tool 1: Identify the needs and resources necessary to satisfy the needs.

One community that had a need for safe drinking water is the New Prospect Community in northern Spartanburg County, S.C. Because this all-residential community is unincorporated, it does not have any local officials who represent only the community. The residents’ county council member represents many communities in the far-flung part of the county.

The community has many low-income residents who have old, shallow wells and failing septic tanks. On the other hand, half the residents are middle-income people who work in Spartanburg or other large cities. These more prosperous residents can afford to drill a new well that costs about $12,000 or pay for a septic tank pump-out. They are generally not interested in connecting to a public water system as their deep, private residential wells work fine. Some have stated that they have recently paid to have a new well drilled and therefore do not need to be hooked up to the public water supply.

Southeast Rural Community Assistance Project, the Southeast RCAP, began working with New Prospect, and over the next few years assisted the community with private well water samples, door-to-door interest surveys, and applications for funding to Spartanburg County.

The local water district was willing to run a water line to the community if 45 percent of the project’s cost would be paid by the residents. Only ten or so homes could commit to connecting to the public water supply at a cost of $4,500 per house.

Meanwhile, due to the extended drought of 2007 to 2009, the local public utility, a water district, needed a new water supply, so it ran a water line from 20 miles away to its existing line nearby. A small church in the middle of the community paid $40,000 to run a branch line two miles to its building. This new branch line was the beginning of several branch lines in the New Prospect Community.

This problem was solved with various entities coming together: Southeast RCAP, the resources of the small local church and the Spartanburg County Planning Department. These were the best resources for New Prospect Community to use to get public water in to the community.

Once a community’s resources are known, leaders should document and capture them for future use. Town, city, township, county and state resources with addresses and phone numbers should be on publicly displayed lists at the town hall, libraries, and fire and police stations or on a website. These resources include schools, planning districts or council of governments, rural transportation companies, aging centers, early childhood centers, providers of mental health care, health departments, recreation departments, tourism offices, historical societies, and chamber of commerce or business groups.

Tool 2: Create a mission statement, strategic plan and work groups to implement the mission.

In northern Charleston County, S.C., is the Sewee to Santee Community, a predominantly low-income community with no industry. The residences are far apart, and the population is scattered over a 100-square-mile area. The nearest large employers are 35 miles south or 25 miles north. A nonprofit agency, Sewee to Santee Community Development Corporation (CDC), had been in existence for about eight years. The CDC had a director, an office assistant and a board of directors. The local Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester Council of Governments (BCD COG) carried out a study to examine why Sewee to Santee CDC was not accomplishing much in the last few years.

Through a chain of contacts, Southeast RCAP became involved with the community. Southeast RCAP facilitated the drafting of a mission statement and strategic plan. Six work groups were established to implement the strategic plan on these subjects: safe drinking water; recreation; housing repairs; preservation of historical heritage; tourism; and economic development.

A concerns or needs list should be prioritized according to the most critical items. Those other than the first ten, for example, can be addressed after some of the most critical items are addressed. This prioritization needs to be explained so residents know why their particular needs are not being addressed as quickly as they would like.

Tool 3: Have regular meetings, fundraisers, apply for grants, and publicize efforts.

The CDC held two highly publicized and successful fundraisers. Within a year, Sewee to Santee CDC had received two private foundation grants. The large public water system, Mt. Pleasant Water Works, drilled two community wells.

A community’s leaders and/or elected officials should hold regular meetings. They should be at least once a quarter and be announced in advance to identify concerns and discuss steps taken by the local leaders or officials.

Depending on their skills, experience and motivation, residents need to be asked and appointed to work groups so they will have involvement, input and ownership in solutions. Work groups should have meetings on a regular basis.

Sewee to Santee CDC publicized its successes and shared information about its efforts and results. Local partners like the Town of McClellanville and rural churches were made aware of what was going on with the CDC.

Status updates and newsletters need to be posted at the community meeting hall or equivalent once a quarter. These should also be sent to those with e-mail.

Tool 4: Build on successes.

After the mission statement and strategic plan have been written and resources have been tapped, the community is in a position to build on its achievements. The community has successes that its members can now be proud of: mission statement, strategic plan, work groups, regular meetings, regular reports, resources identified and used, fundraisers, grants applied for and awards received, volunteer labor received, monetary contributions, materials and supplies donated, etc.

When small grants were awarded and received, that was an incentive to apply for larger grants for different types of funds for other needs. Success breeds success and encouragement to apply for more grants and solicit donations from local businesses and possibly loans from local banks. The community leaders need to look at other areas of their strategic plan. In their first year or two, they can point to receiving grants for environmental needs such as safe drinking water, septic tank maintenance and repairs, and clean waste water. Now they can tap resources for housing repairs, recreation, children’s health, such as lead-based paint remediation, cultural preservation, recruiting small businesses, and community facilities like meeting halls and senior centers.

When word of funding successes gets out, more people will be interested in participating in the process and being a part of the work groups. Local citizens who were standing on the sidelines will want to get involved. With additional people involved, membership in the work groups can be expanded, or the number and kind of work groups can be increased.

Tool 5: Continue with the strategic plan, or revise it for long-term success.

The community organization has accomplished a lot in a short time. The community leaders will need to revisit their strategic plan, probably every year. For a truly empowered community, the organization needs to have achievements, be sustainable and continue every year and grow its assets over time. If it has not done so already, the community organization can incorporate to become a 501(c)(3). This will make it eligible for county and state funding as well as private foundation grants.

Based on its successes and current needs, the community can revise its strategic plan. As in this entire community-empowerment process, the public needs to feel ownership and thus be invited to all meetings. These meetings need to be in a public place and convenient time and be publicized in advance. When the strategic plan is revised, the mission statement may also need to be revised to reflect the current mission. All of the funders and resources that were used need to know that this revision of the strategic plan is a natural and expected part of the empowerment process.

There may be some residents who have legitimate concerns about changes to the mission statement and strategic plan. The community leaders need to have answers for any complaints or concerns. The new mission statement and strategic plan should be published in the normal channels as a draft. A second meeting will be needed to finalize the changes.

Britts is the Director of Regional Programs for Southeast Rural Community Assistance Project, the Southeast RCAP.