15. 2023 Rural Impact Extra - Final Episode
Michelle Rathman: Hello, and welcome to the very last episode in our first season of The Rural Impact. I'm Michelle Rathman. I have to say, and I mean this, it is hard for me to find the words, and that is not easy to let you know how grateful I am for all the support that you've given us, and your nice notes and letters, and the conversations I've had as I travel.
You know, this inaugural year has been very special for us here, especially coming off of three years of hosting a different podcast and taking a break and coming back here with you has been quite special. And I'm really excited about what's to come. But first, I just want to remind you that in 2023, we tackled many subjects from rural health, including our nation's struggling rural hospitals. We talked about our maternal and infant mortality challenges in this country, especially when it comes, of course, to rural communities. We talked about Medicaid unwinding and the implications of that for rural populations. Many millions of them being children.
We talked about food security. Thankfully, we talked about solutions where that is concerned talking about an alternative to rural grocery stores where there are no longer. We talked about rural schools and educators, and we celebrated them, especially in the face of all the challenges that they have before them.
We also focused a very special episode on the rural response to, I think all of us can agree, what seems to be a never-ending opioid epidemic. We still have so much work to go on that. So I know we're going to be sharing some more about what's up to come for 2024, where that is concerned. And you've heard me say it often and I'll, it bears repeating, these are not light subjects, but in all that we do here on The Rural Impact, our goal is to engage in conversations that enlighten, inform you and hopefully inspire you to increase your curiosity about the ways in which all of these matters are connected to policy, policy. And with that, to those who hold or seek to represent you us in public office, because, you know, we all know this in 2024 it is a year where we will all be called to participate in electing leaders to federal, state, county, and even city governments, and I'm just going to go out there and say this while many in the media and millions on social media have their their minds dialed into culture and politically divisive issues.
We here at The Rural Impact, that's not us. We're going to continue keeping our focus on the policies that impact the quality of life for over 60 million people living in our rural and frontier areas. They deserve representation and quite frankly, we hope this is a platform where people can find factual information and really make informed decisions about who they're voting for, not because of a party that they like, but rather their policies that they embrace.
So, in this extra episode, I'm just going to share a sneak preview of what you can expect for 2024. And that includes the addition of rural impact partners and underwriters that support our work through investment. So, I just have a little cheat sheet here. I'm going to tell you what you can expect. So in our kickoff series for 2024, we are going to be focused on a series, a 3-part series we're calling, "Arriving at Thriving."
And in this series, you're going to hear from experts who are going to talk to us about how our local and state leaders can ensure that every member of your community, no matter your zip code has the five services they need to survive and the five services that are required for us to really thrive as a community.
And I think you're going to find that to be a really interesting conversation. We also have got our next episode series is going to be called, "Stalled Solutions to Rural Immobility." Transportation continues to be a recurring theme of challenge for rural communities across this country. It is sometimes a matter for whether or not you can make it to a chemotherapy treatment, or to provide transportation to a local schools where busing is no longer available to get to your place of employment. Of course, we don't really have an uptick of, shared rides like Uber and Lyft in rural communities. So we're going to be focusing on that, talking to some really compelling individuals, and those who are really making a difference with philanthropic efforts in that area.
We also have a really interesting episode series coming up called, "At the Intersection of Philanthropy and Policy." You know, I see it so often in my work. We're not for philanthropy in this country, so many of the communities I work in, would really struggle to have the resources they need.
And there's some amazing work going on out there to help support rural thriving through philanthropy work, and sometimes there is an intersection between policies. So we'll talk about that as well. We've got another episode called, "Breaking Structural Barriers to Post Secondary Education for Adult Learners."
One thing I'm really excited to talk about is how we increase access to adult education for formerly incarcerated adults, as one example. Another series that we're doing is called, "Coming to Terms with Housing and Homelessness and Rural Areas." And, it's interesting, because I did have a conversation not too long ago in a rural community that I was in, and I asked the question.
What is the situation with your homelessness population in your community? And depending on who you ask, some people said we don't have an issue and some people said we do have an issue, but I'm here to tell you in case you didn't know homelessness and housing insecurity looks very different in rural than it does in urban area. So, we're going to dive into that.
We're also going to have a series that's focused on "Aging in Place and Addressing America's Long Term Care Dilemma." There is a lot of talk out there about how many rural nursing homes and long-term care centers are closing because they just don't have the funding and there's no pathway for reimbursement. So, we're going to talk about that and we're going to talk about potential solutions and the policy solutions that are attached to that.
And then, of course, we're going to talk about the impacts of research on work workforce. We know we have significant challenges with filling pipelines in rural communities, whether it's education, health care, agriculture, all of these industry sectors are struggling to make sure that they can fill their pipelines with talent.
And then we are going to wrap up, at the end of next year which is hard to believe, we are going to wrap up with "Courageous Conversations About the 2024 Election and the Rural Issues Impacting Real Lives." So, with that said, I just again, want to thank you for taking the time to listen to our program. We're excited to have you. We ask for you to talk about us with your friends, your families, your neighbors, your coworkers, make sure you follow us on social, you know, we're trying to be everywhere that we can possibly be. Of course, we're on LinkedIn. We're on Facebook. We are an X formerly Twitter.
We're also on Threads and we're going to keep expanding that. And I also want to mention one more thing. If the work you're doing is making an impact in rural, we want to hear from you. We actually have a special series that we'll be producing this year and you're going to start to see a few of them roll out in the first quarter where we are calling it, "What's Your Impact?"
And so if you're interested to learn more about that, you just go to our show website, which is theruralimpact. com and you can learn how to reach out to us and share some of your story with us and maybe we'll be able to cover it on the podcast throughout the year. Okay, with that said, I am willing you all a very healthy, happy, safe holiday season.
I appreciate you and cheers to a very insightful, informative Rural Impact New Year. Take good care.
