Unlocking Investment in Rural America

“Persistent Rural Poverty” refers to regions in the United States where 20 percent of the population has lived below the poverty line for more than 30 years. The United States Department of Education has developed a new funding initiative, Uplift America, to channel hundreds of millions of dollars into these regions. The fund is designed to support Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) to develop desperately needed infrastructure and services.

Watch the full short film below.

GroundSpark was commissioned by the Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED) to create this short film. Our assignment was to capture the pervasiveness of entrenched rural poverty, explain the work that CDFIs do, and make the case for expanded public and private partnerships to channel desperately needed funding into these long-neglected regions of the United States.

USDA is using the film to to help CDFIs access these new Uplift America funds and inspire other government agencies, investors, and philanthropies to find creative ways to work in persistently poor rural areas.

Running Time: 10 minutes.