Stories from the Field

These excerpts from the Rural Strategies production "A Place in the Country" illustrate the benefits of reinvesting assets in rural communities. The home buyers and small business owners in the video pieces represent the work done cooperatively by financial institutions and community development corporations. These stories are indicative of the benefits of the Community Reinvestment Act.

 

Like the rest of America, rural communities face complex and interrelated problems. In the Coachella Valley of California great wealth resides next to grinding poverty. Farm workers can’t afford to live where they work. Hear from some first-time home owners...

 

The vast expanse of south central Texas rangeland stretches along the Mexican border. Here people struggle to create business strategies that build on the strengths of the community. Hear from one of those small business owners...

 

The Southern Mutual Help Association is a community development organization working in nine Louisiana Parishes. Southern Mutual works with banks and CRA capital to blend loans and grants into a package that a low-income resident can afford. It is joyous work...