About
The Rural Partners Network
The Rural Partners Network, a new USDA-led initiative, is an all-of-government program that will help rural communities access government resources and funding to create jobs, build infrastructure and support long-term economic stability.
A first-of-its-kind collaboration between federal agencies and local leaders and residents, this network will focus on improving social and economic well-being by building upon existing local partnerships and assets. What sets this program apart from previous initiatives is the hiring of full-time federal staff dedicated to helping the identified community networks.
Staff will be hired specifically for this initiative to help rural communities through providing one-on-one support that will shepherd resources and help communities compete for federal resources from agencies such as the USDA, Small Business Administration, the Economic Development Administration, the Department of Energy, the Department of Education, Housing and Urban Development, and Health and Human Services. This individualized support will provide expertise to navigate federal programs, build relationships and identify additional resources to promote community-driven solutions.
Kentucky is one of five states in the first cohort to receive a new designation that transforms the way federal agencies collaborate with rural communities to create economic opportunity through a community-driven effort in conjunction with local partners.
The Kentucky Highlands Rural Partner Community Network includes the 2014-2024 Promise Zone counties of Bell, Clay, Harlan, Knox, Leslie, Letcher, Perry, and Whitley. Kentucky Highlands Investment Corporation serves as the lead entity of the network and builds upon its place-based history of Promise Zone, Empowerment Zone, Strike Force and Stronger Economies Together.
More information about the Rural Partners Network is available online at Rural.gov.
Frequently Asked Questions
Rural communities sometimes need help to get financial or technical assistance from highly competitive programs based on individual federal government agencies. Federal agencies participating in RPN have designated key points of contact who focus specifically on rural strategies, improving visibility and attention to rural issues. RPN also puts federal staff on the ground to support designated, economically challenged communities, called “community liaison.” These federal employees provide local leaders with the expertise to navigate federal programs, build relationships and identify additional resources to get the job done. The community liaisons are tasked with feeding critical information to federal agencies regarding community needs and barriers to accessing federal resources. This information will allow agencies to drive policy changes to address the unique challenges faced by rural communities.
- Department of Agriculture (USDA)
- Department of Commerce
- Department of Education
- Department of Energy
- Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
- Department of Health and Human Services
- Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
- Department of the Interior
- Department of Labor
- Small Business Administration
- Department of Transportation
- Department of the Treasury
- Department of Veterans Affairs
- Appalachian Regional Commission
- Delta Regional Authority
- Denali Commission
- Northern Border Regional Commission
- Inter Working Group on Coal and Power Plant Communities and Economic Revitalization
The Kentucky Highlands Rural Partner Community Network is a partnership of eight local governments and over 100 nonprofit organizations designed to take full advantage of this federal designation to create jobs and improve the quality-of-life for the residents of Southeastern Kentucky. The lead entity is Kentucky Highlands Investment Corporation, a fifty-plus-year-old economic development and community development financial institution serving 22 southern and southeastern Kentucky counties.
Accessing the community liaisons assigned to the Kentucky Highlands network is possible through various methods. First, one may contact Kentucky Highlands using this website’s contact us tab. Two, one may contact USDA Rural Development through www.rural.gov, or three, one may list a project directly in the master project inquiry form at https://forms.office.com/g/rdtD23nA5h.