National Association of Development Organizations Research Foundation Associate Director Carrie Kissel provided a workshop on rural U.S. trends, community economic development practices, and connections to transit at the 2019 National RTAP Conference (Portland, OR).

1. RURALTRANSPORTATION
Rural Trends, Transportation,
and Building Wealth
Carrie Kissel
National Association of Development
Organizations and NADO Research Foundation

2. RURALTRANSPORTATION
About NADO
 National association for 540 regional development
organizations, including emerging network of Rural
Transportation Planning Organizations (RTPOs or RPOs)
 Promote public policies that strengthen local governments,
communities and economies through the regional strategies,
coordination efforts and program expertise of the nation’s
regional development organizations

3. RURALTRANSPORTATION
About NADO
 Through the NADO Research Foundation, develop training and
resources related to:
• Rural/small metro transportation planning, RPO America
• Small business finance
• Economic development planning
• Regional resiliency
• Developing quality of place

4. RURALTRANSPORTATION
What is Rural?
4

5. RURALTRANSPORTATION
Session agenda
• Mix of interactive exercises and presentation slides
• Asset identification
• Overview of rural trends and rural community economic
development practices
• Identify transportation’s role to support regional assets
• Build a value chain with transportation as a support
• Plan to strengthen your connections and relationships
5

6. RURALTRANSPORTATION
Exercise 1: How’s Your Rural Place?
• Identify two things you like about the rural community or
region where you live, work, or visit
• Write them down on a sticky note at your table
• Share them with folks at your table
6

7. RURALTRANSPORTATION
7

8. RURALTRANSPORTATION
8Slide source: David Beurle, Future IQ

9. RURALTRANSPORTATION
9

10. RURALTRANSPORTATION
Aging Rural Places
10

11. RURALTRANSPORTATION
Rural Migration
11

12. RURALTRANSPORTATION
Increasing Rural Diversity
• Rural minorities are 22% of the population in 2017 (compared to
42% in urban areas), but diversity is increasing. USDA ERS: Rural
America At-a-Glance 2018
12

13. RURALTRANSPORTATION
Rural County Economy Types
1976 nonmetro counties (of 3143 total U.S. counties). Each county has one economy type.
Source: USDA ERS County Typology 2015
13
Farming
20%
Mining
9%
Manufacturing
18%Fed/State
12%
Recreation
11%
Nonspecialized
30%

14. RURALTRANSPORTATION
Rural County Economy Types
1976 nonmetro
counties (of 3143
total U.S. counties).
Each county has
one economy type.
14
Source: USDA ERS County Typology 2015, accessed through Atlas of Rural & Small Town America

15. RURALTRANSPORTATION
County Policy Types
Counties may have more than one policy type or no policy type. Source: USDA ERS County Typology 2015
15
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
Low Education Low Employment Persistent Poverty Persistent Child
Poverty
Population Loss Retirement
Destination

16. RURALTRANSPORTATION
Low Employment
16
Low Education

17. RURALTRANSPORTATION
Rural Unemployment
• Rural unemployment rates have been similar to metro rates,
at the national level
• 2010
– Rural: 10.3% peak
– Urban: 9.9% peak
• 2017
– Rural: 4.4%
– Urban: 4.1%
– Source: USDA ERS Rural America At-a-Glance 2018
17

18. RURALTRANSPORTATION
Rural Employment
18
Source: USDA ERS Rural America At-a-Glance 2018

19. RURALTRANSPORTATION
Rural Employment
19
Source: Daily Yonder

20. RURALTRANSPORTATION
Rural Employment, July 2018 - 2019
20
Source: Daily Yonder

21. RURALTRANSPORTATION
Rural Poverty
• Rural poverty occurs at higher rates than urban poverty
– Rural: 16.4% in 2017 (down from 30-yr peak of 18.4% in 2013)
– Urban: 12.9% in 2017
• Rural racial/ethnic minorities had the highest poverty rates
– 2017: black 32%, Native American 31%, Hispanics 24.5%
– Poverty among whites was 13.5%, but whites made up 80
percent of the rural poor in 2017.
Source: USDA ERS, Rural America At-a-Glance 2018
21

22. RURALTRANSPORTATION
What does this mean for transportation?
Economic wellbeing:
• Some people follow jobs, some jobs follow people
• Important economic activities, but limited tax base
• Residents, visitors, and businesses need reliable movement:
– Through rural places
– From rural origins
– To rural destinations
22

23. RURALTRANSPORTATION
Transportation & Economic Development
Research Findings
• In recent research, the NADO Research
Foundation found that transportation
practitioners emphasize economic resilience
• Research themes:
–Broad engagement
–Link existing planning processes
–Connect concretely to implementation
23

24. RURALTRANSPORTATION
Transportation + Economic Resilience
What we heard from practitioners:
• Economic resilience should be a goal of transportation
investment; ability to withstand economic shocks
• Job creation
• Job retention
• Workforce development/access to opportunity
• Placemaking and rooted economies

25. RURALTRANSPORTATION
Transportation + Economic Resilience
Economic development in transportation involves
deliberate interventions to produce tangible
benefits that are specific to the context, are
sustained over time, and make a place more
resilient.
25

26. RURALTRANSPORTATION
Multiple Forms of
Wealth
Improved
Livelihoods for
Everyone
Local
Ownership
WealthWorks: Doing Economic Development
Differently
Demand-driven community and economic development

27. RURALTRANSPORTATION
Slide credit: Rural Development Initiatives
Eight Forms of Community Assets/Capital

28. RURALTRANSPORTATION
Exercise 2: Identifying Your Assets
• Identify which of the eight forms of community capital
correspond with the things you like about your rural
community
• Write down the asset/capital type on your sticky note
• How do these capitals relate to transportation?
28

29. RURALTRANSPORTATION
Goal: Inclusion & Equity
To improve the livelihoods of people and
communities by creating wealth through market
interactions that are owned, controlled, and reinvested
locally.

30. RURALTRANSPORTATION
Intentionally Including People on the Economic
Margins
• It’s a mindset and perspective you bring to value chain
development
• Want to use all assets – people, skills, knowledge, etc.
• Take into consideration:
– Low income people
– Ethnic minorities
– People unable to take risks

31. RURALTRANSPORTATION
Who to Engage
Explorers and planners Producers or suppliers
Employees Owners of assets
Consumers Beneficiaries

32. RURALTRANSPORTATION
Doing Inclusion in Transportation
• How are you engaging low-income people or others who
have not been at the table?
• Are they explicitly considered in your public outreach
efforts?
• Do you consider the skills and abilities they can bring to
the table, beyond how they might benefit from
transportation services?
• Do priority projects/services address equity?
• Are you using accessible language in your plans/projects?
32

33. RURALTRANSPORTATION
To improve the livelihoods of people and communities
by creating wealth through market interactions that are
owned, controlled, and reinvested locally.
WealthWorks Goal: Rooting Wealth Locally

34. RURALTRANSPORTATION
Developing/delivering products and services
• Use inclusive outreach and demand-driven planning to
improve regional transportation and support broad
community impacts
• Organize partners into value chains for delivering
transportation
• Assess how transportation serves as a key link in other
value chains
34

35. RURALTRANSPORTATION
Some Vocabulary
Supply Chains focus on the operational steps to get a product from
its original form to the consumer
Value Chains focus on adding value at each step to meet consumer
expectations
WealthWorks Value Chains, like all value chains, are demand
driven, but focus on building local ownership, equity, and multiple
forms of wealth.
*Consider the whole system and respond to gaps where
multiple forms of wealth can grow*

36. RURALTRANSPORTATION
Sample Value Chain Roles
36
Slide credit: Appalachian Center for Economic Networks

37. RURALTRANSPORTATION
Value chains do not self-organize
A coordinator should be willing to take on these functions:
• Holds and steward the vision and values
• Builds relationships among and between partners
• Guides activities and partnerships to build multiple forms of
capital
• Ensures low-income people and places participate and
benefit
• Measurement: develops clear measures early on; focuses
collaborating partners and strengthens impacts
37
Slide credit: Appalachian Center for Economic Networks

38. RURALTRANSPORTATION
Supporting Functions
Coordinator
Rules & Regulations
Suppliers Producers Processors Distributors
Demand:
Consumers
Welcome to the Chain!
Slide credit: Appalachian Center for Economic Networks

39. RURALTRANSPORTATION
39
Slide credit: Mountain Association for Community and Economic Development

40. RURALTRANSPORTATION
Transportation in the Value Chain
• Transportation projects and services are built assets that are
often critical to building more assets
– Financial (access to jobs, access to financial services)
– Individual (access to training, access to health destinations)
– Social (access to social network and destinations)
• Transportation supports sectors that are currently in the
region’s economy
40

41. RURALTRANSPORTATION
Substance Use Disorder
41https://opioidmisusetool.norc.org/

42. RURALTRANSPORTATION
Substance Use Disorder
42
Slide credit: Dr. Michael Betz, The Ohio State University
10
30
50
70
90
110
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013 2015
PrescriptionRate
OverdoseDeathRate
US Overdose Death and Prescription Rates
1999-2016
All Drugs Prescription opioids Prescription rates
OxyContin Reformulation 2010
KY, OH, WV PDMPs

43. RURALTRANSPORTATION
Improving Substance Use Disorder Outcomes
• Interventions in prevention, treatment, and recovery are
necessary
• Prevention
– Supply-side interventions
• Policy such as Rx monitoring, other supply restrictions
– Demand-side interventions
• Economic resilience
• Healthy relationships
• Health, mental health, and wellness
43

44. RURALTRANSPORTATION
Improving Substance Use Disorder Outcomes
• Treatment
– Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT)
– Counseling
– Support network of services, people, and policies (drug courts,
naloxone access, etc.)
• Recovery
– Long-term prospect with some relapses likely as individuals strive
toward stable home life, jobs, and health; maintaining treatment
44

45. RURALTRANSPORTATION
Your Turn! Exercise 3: Build a Value Chain
• Using the cards at your table, work with your neighbors to
build a value chain on substance use disorder
treatment/recovery
• Start with demand: who represents the people or
organizations that benefit from the product/service?
• Who are the transactional partners? (suppliers, distributors,
providers, agencies with contracts, etc.)
• Who are support partners? (investors, public sector,
nonprofits, others)
• Who is missing?
• Where is transportation? How is it supporting this chain?

46. RURALTRANSPORTATION
Exercise Discussion
• What surprised you about the value chain?
• How does transportation fit into supporting this sector?
• What about your value chain seems resilient?
• Are there gaps and opportunities?
46

47. RURALTRANSPORTATION
Transportation in the Chain
• Transportation is a necessary ingredient to the success of
value chains
• --BUT--
• Transportation can also be thought of as a “chain-let” or
mini chain that links to those services or sectors
• Transportation has its own:
– demand
– transactional partners
– support partners and investors
47

48. RURALTRANSPORTATION
Transportation as a Product/Service
• Demand partners
– Riders/clients
– Potential riders
– Intermediaries
• case workers, caregivers, etc., anyone setting up rides or giving training
or advice about mobility
– Anyone who relies on riders having access to mobility
• Employers, health institutions, training institutions
48

49. RURALTRANSPORTATION
Transportation as a Product/Service
• Transactional partners
– Vary based on the transportation needed by and provided to
the “demand partners”
– Anyone involved in getting mobility to the clients
• Public transit provider? Human services transportation provider?
Brokerage? Taxi company? Someone else?
– Anyone purchasing transportation
• Agencies with contracts for transportation
• Agencies that reimburse riders for fares
49

50. RURALTRANSPORTATION
Transportation as a Product/Service
• Support partners
– State DOT, FTA, state & national TA centers
– Other local and state government
– Nonprofits
– Anyone building capacity of clients to access transportation or
building capacity of transportation providers
– Anyone providing the regulatory or compliance framework for
mobility
50

51. RURALTRANSPORTATION
Transportation as a Product/Service
• Investors as support partners
– Federal government
– State government
– Local government
– Donors
– Anyone with a stake in successful mobility!
– Demand partners?
51

52. RURALTRANSPORTATION
Value Propositions: Who Cares?
• Rationale for why a person or organization/enterprise would
want to be involved in a value chain
– Self interest, shared interest, common interest (altruism)
• What might their role be?
• What do they bring to the table (besides money)?
• How does/could the value chain help them do their work or
align with their goals?
• How would you engage them?
52

53. RURALTRANSPORTATION
Applying this Framework to Transportation
• Know your community/region and its trends
• Also know and map out your assets
• Focus on demand, build value chains for opportunities
• Include intended beneficiaries in planning and decision-
making
53

54. RURALTRANSPORTATION
Applying this Framework to Transportation
• Analyze your processes (such as plans, operations, public
outreach, institutional structures and governance, project
prioritization, performance measurement) to see where
your organization can:
– Build assets
– Be intentionally inclusive
– Make success “sticky” with local ownership and control of
strategies, assets, or organizations and businesses
54

55. RURALTRANSPORTATION
Resources for Regional Planning

56. RURALTRANSPORTATION
Resources for Regional Planning

57. RURALTRANSPORTATION
Inclusive Planning & Development
• Case studies, videos, evaluation framework, and how-to
guides at www.WealthWorks.org
• http://www.rupri.org/areas-of-work/nea-lab/
• Inclusive Transportation Planning:
www.transitplanning4all.org
57

58. RURALTRANSPORTATION
Rural Information Resources
• USDA Economic Research Service: www.ers.usda.gov
• The Daily Yonder: www.dailyyonder.com
• The Rural Blog: http://irjci.blogspot.com
• Age cohort migration: https://extension.umn.edu/economic-
development/rural-brain-gain-migration
• Idea Friendly Development: https://saveyour.town/
58

59. RURALTRANSPORTATION
Substance Use Disorder Resources
https://opioidmisusetool.norc.org

60. RURALTRANSPORTATION
https://www.rd.usda.gov/files/RuralResourceGuide.pdf
Substance Use Disorder Resources

61. RURALTRANSPORTATION
Connect with NADO
Carrie Kissel, Associate Director
ckissel@nado.org | 202.643.9560
Visit us online: www.NADO.org
www.RuralTransportation.org | www.CEDScentral.com
In-person events:
NADO Annual Training Conference, 10/19 - 22, 2019, Reno, NV
National Regional Transportation Conference, 2020 dates TBA
61

62. RURALTRANSPORTATION
62

63. RURALTRANSPORTATION
Welcome to the chain! Bonus Exercise
• Flip over your cards where they are on the table, still
arranged in a value chain but blank side up
• Map out a transportation value chain by identifying:
– Demand partners
– Transactional partners
– Support partners and investors
• Your product or service:
– How transportation supports substance use disorder
prevention/treatment/recovery
63

64. RURALTRANSPORTATION
Bonus Exercise: Value Propositions
• Using roles from your value chain, role play with colleagues at
your table.
• Create a value proposition for each of the cards
• Consider a role that you and your agency or the potential
partners on the cards could take on to advance the value chain
goals.
• Share your assumptions about how a specific role could help
them do their work or meet their goals—what’s in it for them.
• Ask them if your idea resonates or is off track.
64

65. RURALTRANSPORTATION
Bonus info: Coordinator’s Role
• Who else might or should care about this?
• Why might they care? Ask them: Why do they care?
• Will they help move the dial on the issues that matter to the
value chain?
• Track your progress! But don’t worry about who gets the
credit.
65

66. RURALTRANSPORTATION
Connecting Wealth Creation and Transportation
Processes
• Support for economic resilience
• For your region, how does transportation:
– Build the stocks of the region’s wealth, using the 8 types of
assets?
– Intentionally address equity and inclusion?
• How are you addressing equity in your public participation plan?
• How do the priority projects address equity?
• How does performance measurement address equity?
– Support local ownership and control of assets?
66

67. RURALTRANSPORTATION
Long-range Transportation Plans
• Does wealth creation align with your region’s vision and
goals?
• Do you have opportunities to align/brand/combine
transportation plans with economic development plans?
• Do you know how transportation supports important
economic sectors and quality of life in your region?
– What are we asking transportation to do?
– What gaps or bottlenecks are in the transportation system?
67

68. RURALTRANSPORTATION
Prioritizing Projects
• How does a project end up being highly ranked for your
region?
• How do your criteria stack up against the 8 forms of assets?
Are you missing any assets/capitals?
• Is equity embedded in your ranking system?
• Who is IDing and ranking projects?
– People who haven’t traditionally been at the table
– People engaged in building forms of assets
68

69. RURALTRANSPORTATION
Public Participation Plan
• Intentionally including people at the economic margins?
• Using accessible language and meeting people where they
are?
• Connecting to outcomes that are meaningful to people?
• Showing how proposed projects build local assets and
livelihoods?
69

70. RURALTRANSPORTATION
Support for Economic Sectors
• Does the transportation network (and proposed future
projects) support economic sectors identified in the local and
regional plans that exist?
• Can transportation do more to support sectors that have a
potential for root ownership and control within the region?
• Can transportation do more to promote economic resilience,
including planning for mobility in the event of an extreme
natural disaster, or changes resulting from an economic
dislocation?
70

71. RURALTRANSPORTATION
Bonus Resource: Rural Social Mobility
• A 2018 study found 6 characteristics that support upward
mobility for rural youth:
– A high expectation that youth will work hard to acquire skills
– Strong, informal support systems
– An early focus on career pathways
– Opportunities to build life skills, regardless of community size
– Many potential challenges to accessing opportunities, but creative
solutions for overcoming them
– A sense of shared fate and a deep commitment to sustaining the
community
• Source: Social Mobility in Rural America: Insights from Communities Whose Young People
Are Climbing the Income Ladder 71