Stories of Hope from Rural America
Today we Share Some Inspiring Stories for Rural Communities
As One Country Project gets ready for the 4th Annual Rural Progress Summit in July, we are taking a look back to highlights from past Rural Progress Summits every Friday.
Registration is now open for the 4th annual Rural Progress Summit July 8-10. Learn more and register today!
Today we are looking at some of the hopeful stories that have been shared at previous Rural Progress Summits.
Aura Mulkern joins the Rural Progress Summit to discuss the role of women farmers, the emerging awareness of diversity in the farming community thanks to updated census of agriculture data, and her upcoming documentary Women's Work: The Story of America's Female Farmers.
Michael Running Wolf and Ian Her Many Horses co-founded the Lakota Code Camp to teach indigenous youth coding languages and create a path to careers in tech.
Michael and Ian join the Rural Progress Summit to discuss the camp's successes, the future of the Lakota language, and using AI language models to preserve native languages.
Eternal Polk joins the summit to discuss his new film Gaining Ground: The Fight For Black Land. In just a few decades after the end of enslavement, Black Americans were able to amass millions of acres of farmland. Today approximately 90% of that land is no longer in Black hands. Various factors have been employed to take Black land including violence, eminent domain and government discrimination.
But it is a little-known issue, Heirs’ Property which has had a devastating effect on Black land ownership. Gaining Ground: The Fight for Black Land from Emmy Nominated DirectorEternal Polk examines the causes, effects, and what is being done to fight the exploitation of this law and how landowners are reclaiming their agricultural legacy and creating paths to generational wealth.
Two college kids - Ezekiel and Lucas - curious to learn more about their country and its people. One summer to travel to every geographic region of the United States. All with the 2024 presidential election looming and partisan tensions running high. Their goal: spread our documentaries to living rooms across America and share a message of hope, love, and unity.
Whitney Kimball Coe, Vice President and Director of National Programs for the Center for Rural Strategies, joined the Summit to discuss the importance of putting time, energy, and money into rural communities to ensure rural Americans are well-positioned to succeed and to be a part of the important decisions happening in Washington and in state governments across the country.
Follow us on Substack for updates on the 2025 Rural Progress Summit.
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Do you have an inspiring story to share about your rural community? Tell us about it. Email: podcast@onecountryproject.com and your feedback could be on an upcoming episode of The Hot Dish.