Overview
Rural community colleges are at the heart of their communities — serving as workforce engines, cultural centers, and trusted anchors. By capitalizing on their stability and innovation, these institutions can catalyze efforts to build socially just and economically prosperous communities.
Launched in 2020, Achieving the Dream’s Building Resiliency in Rural Communities for the Future of Work initiative supported seven rural colleges in strengthening institutional capacity, advancing equitable student success, and preparing students for careers in the digital economy.
Why It Matters
This initiative demonstrates how rural-serving institutions can expand opportunity, embed digital skills across programs, and build sustainable student supports.
The work shows how targeted investment in rural colleges produces measurable returns — increased student retention, workforce readiness, and strengthened community partnerships that drive local and regional resiliency.
Key Goals
The initiative focused on helping rural colleges:
- Prepare and connect students to careers in the digital economy
- Identify and close equity gaps
- Foster a culture of evidence
- Develop and strengthen community partnerships
Featured Publications
To identify lessons learned through the Rural Resiliency Initiative, ATD partnered with Education Northwest to conduct a qualitative, participatory, and formative evaluation of the initiative, with a specific focus on the initiative’s first goal: Preparing and connecting students to careers in the digital economy.
At the close of the initiative, ATD partnered with Education Northwest to conduct a comprehensive, four-year, qualitative evaluation capturing:
- colleges’ essential role in rural communities,
- conditions that enable implementation of effective practices at rural community colleges,
- effective practices to prepare students for the digital economy,
- and strategies for sustaining momentum toward institutional change.
Impact Highlights
- Seven rural colleges engaged in the cohort
- Students earned 1,500+ digital skills badges, boosting career readiness
- Over $700,000 saved in student costs through adoption of open educational resources (OER)
- Expanded holistic student supports, including emergency aid and proactive advising, improved retention and narrowed institutional performance gaps, especially for students furthest from opportunity
- Cross-campus teams and data culture strengthened institutional decision-making
- New and deeper community partnerships aligned colleges with regional workforce needs
The Rural Resiliency Cohort Colleges
Connected Initiatives
The Rural Resiliency initiative laid the foundation for ATD’s continued work across the field:
- ATD’s partnership with MDRC in the National Rural Higher Education Research Center to advance research on rural learners and institutions to inform national policy and practice
- ATD’s Community Vibrancy Framework situating rural success within a roader commitment to student access, momentum, economic mobility, and resilient communities
Funders
The Building Resiliency in Rural Communities for the Future of Work initiative was funded by the following organizations from 2020 to 2023:
- Cognizant U.S. Foundation
- JPMorgan Chase & Co.
- The Community Focus Fund at the Chicago Community Foundation
- Walmart
- Ascendium Education Group
In 2024, ATD was pleased to receive philanthropic funding from Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies, enabling the momentum of the initiative to continue.
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