Rural climate corps considerations

Guest Perspective: Brent Kossick, Service Year Alliance

Economics, geography, and infrastructure mean that many rural communities face unique challenges in obtaining the types of social services that national service often seeks to supplement and enhance. Rural communities face barriers in demand and capacity to meet these social needs with national service. AmeriCorps has long recognized that “severely under-resourced communities may have limited capacity to successfully apply for and implement an AmeriCorps program, due to the size and organizational capacity of eligible applicant/host site organizations or the lack of available matching funds in these communities.” In response to these barriers, AmeriCorps has sought to offer additional resources and flexibility in grant making for rural communities. When it comes to combating climate change, this dynamic is further complicated by the confluence of aforementioned economic and demographic factors as well as environmental threats and current political dynamics.

Poll of Voters on Importance of US taking action on climate change Source: Duke University

The 2018 National Climate Assessment summarized the combined rural climate challenges saying, “Residents in rural communities often have limited capacity to respond to climate change impacts, due to poverty and limitations in community resources. Communication, transportation, water, and sanitary infrastructure are vulnerable to disruption from climate stressors. Achieving social resilience to these challenges would require increases in local capacity to make adaptive improvements in shared community resources.” Another important goal for rural communities that have limited capacity is attracting and retaining young people in the workforce to address short and longterm capacity constraints.

Specific environmental vulnerabilities are complicated by perceptions and attitudes about climate change in rural communities. A 2020 Duke University study found that climate change attitudes are polarized across the urban/rural divide. The study showed that rural voters were less supportive of government oversight of the environment. Despite voicing concerns about climate change and its disproportionate impact on rural communities, many rural voters were reluctant to talk with friends and neighbors about these concerns given the polarization and controversy surrounding climate change as a political issue.

Despite the general perception that a significant portion of the US population is opposed to supporting climate action initiatives, studies have shown that the belief may be more nuanced. Review this exceptional interactive tool to learn more about climate options in your region. Additionally, national service — through its place-based and “boots-on-the-ground” approach — may be particularly well-suited to meet the unique conditions and needs in rural communities. With care and attention to local conditions, AmeriCorps programming can be designed to specifically assist states and communities to become more resilient in ways that are most important and relevant to their unique needs, without having to address the politics of climate change head on. For example, many rural areas are clearly observing how extreme weather (i.e., flooding, fires, extreme heat, water conservation, etc.) are directly impacting the vitality of their community. While not explicitly climate focused, AmeriCorps has a long history of providing robust disaster preparedness and response support. Furthermore, many existing conservation corps programs already operate in rural communities and don’t have explicit climate change framings, despite their clear response to risks due to a changing climate in those communities.

Finally, as industries change and evolve, many of these same communities are seeking to strengthen their economic resilience by capitalizing on growing industries, such as renewable energy and reskilling workers to enter into associated career fields. This may allow service programming to focus their impact measures and messaging on economic mobility versus climate change.