Don’t talk about the people of rural Kansas and Missouri. Talk to them | Opinion

It is often said that rural America feeds, fuels and clothes the world. Yet despite their importance, rural communities are frequently misunderstood, underinvested in and overlooked. Too often, the national conversation focuses only on what rural communities lack: access to health care, education and economic opportunity — rather than what they contribute.

I grew up in a small town, and I don’t recognize myself in the bleak portraits often painted of rural life. My family ran successful small businesses for multiple generations. Rural communities are not simply places of scarcity; they are places of resourcefulness.

We underestimate rural communities’ strengths and overlook their solutions. One reason is simple. We talk about rural communities without talking to them.

Urban-centered data sets and a shortage of high-quality rural research obscure both the weaknesses and the strengths of rural communities. When the data is thin, assumptions fill the gap. That affects everything from policy design to philanthropy. According to the Chronicle of Philanthropy, rural communities receive only about 7% of philanthropic funding despite representing 14% to 20% of the U.S. population.

The result is predictable: solutions crafted far from the communities they aim to serve — and problems that persist year after year.

At United WE, we believe strengthening rural communities begins with listening to the people who live there.

For more than a decade, we have partnered with rural communities to better understand the barriers shaping economic opportunity, particularly those limiting women’s full participation in the workforce and civic life. Through town halls and listening sessions across Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri, we’ve heard personal stories from those who call rural communities home.

Many of their aspirations are familiar, and shared. Like people in cities and suburbs, rural communities want good jobs that allow them to support their families, flexibility to balance work and caregiving, and the respect and dignity that come with economic independence.

But listening reveals something else: While the challenges, such as caring for children and aging parents or access to health care may be similar, the solutions cannot be one-size-fits-all.

For example, shift-based workforces are common in rural economies, yet most child care systems are designed around a standard 9-to-5 schedule. And in sparsely populated areas, it is often not economically feasible to operate large child care centers, leaving families to patch together informal care arrangements.

When policy is shaped without deep engagement in rural communities, solutions designed for urban contexts don’t always translate. When we listen to rural communities, we hear practical ideas grounded in lived experience.

In Arkansas, our research on child care barriers recommended expanding home-based providers, building on successful models such as the state’s Growing Opportunities for Family Child Care initiative. In Coffeyville, Kansas, leaders opened the state’s second 24-hour child care center — a lifeline for families working nontraditional hours.

These innovations did not emerge from theory. They emerged from listening.

To deepen that work, United WE recently launched the United WE Rural Research Fellowship, a competitive, interdisciplinary program designed to generate practical, nonpartisan policy solutions for rural communities.

Supported by the Patterson Family Foundation, the 12-month fellowship will fund original research focused on the most pressing challenges facing rural America. While projects will emphasize Kansas and western Missouri, the lessons will have national implications.

The goal is simple but powerful: Equip policymakers and community leaders with rigorous data rooted in lived realities, especially the realities of rural life.

Because when everyone can participate fully in the workforce, rural economies grow stronger. When caregiving infrastructure works, businesses can hire and retain workers. When research reflects real life, policies become more effective.

Rural communities have always contributed disproportionately to America’s strength. They deserve policies and investments that reflect that reality, but we cannot build those policies from a distance.

If we want an economy that works for everyone, we must start by listening — not just to the loudest voices or the largest cities, but to the people running farms, opening small businesses, caring for aging parents and raising the next generation in small towns across this country.

Rural communities have something to teach us. The question is whether we are ready to listen.

Wendy Doyle is president and CEO of the 501(c)(3) nonprofit United WE in Kansas City.