PRT is minutes away from going live with our @urbaninstitute collab event - Advancing Rural Health Equity through Partnerships, Data, and Finance. 📍Urban Institute, Washington, DC

"Persistent poverty is not an accident. One way we try to leverage that is by collecting data and stories, humanizing the issue. Flexible funding is key for solving this issue." - @Emily_Burleson1 , PRT.

"Data has given me the language for what I've always seen around me." - Alex Lawson, @Hope_Enterprise

The Partners are up! We're discussing Financing Rural Health Equity & Ways to Address the Needs. Capacity building, funding, and thought leadership are all crucial to reaching healthy solutions in rural America. Follow us for how we propose to secure just that.

Asso. Administrator for Rural Health Policy at the @HHSGov, Tom Morris, opens up our conversation with an intro on the vision for trial health: healthy communities, healthy people.

Our Partner and Chair of the Research Working Group, Elaine Crutchfield (@CommunitiesU) gives us our welcome and shares info about PRT and how our collective work impacts and improves rural health outcomes.

A lead builder at DreamBuild used to build ships, and had never built a house. WeBuild's workers are often former detention center residents, coming out into the workforce seeking a fresh start. How is this the same? Expertise is learned - passion is innate.

The passion for #ruralhousing with both DreamBuild and WeBuild is visible, tangible, and translates into results.

Change in #ruralhousing is necessary. Advancements in #ruralhousing are happening - led by rural Americans. Take Nick's words to heart: "This way, Pine Bluff and Brownsville are doing this totally together...join this revolution!"

"Just giving them the introduction to construction... they're learning some really primary skills to be able to transform those hours to genuine apprenticeships...and genuine workforce members in the future." - Verna Perry, owner of Carpenter's Daughter #WeBuild #ruralhousing

It's a rainy, grey morning in Pine Bluff today, but we're brightening the day through Partnership. Today, we're visiting our local Partner Codney Washington, operating mgr. + contractor at WeCenter/WeBuild. This location is the DreamBuild (fka MiCasita) model in Pine Bluff.

The WeBuild portion is the on-the-ground, manufacturing, building, and contracting element of the program. Housing is an issue across rural America and WeBuild's hard work is paying off towards solutions in Pine Bluff.

"We work really well together and we enjoy being here and doing this work." - Nick Mitchell-Bennett, @CDCBcdcb CEO

Partnership is key in making WeBuild/WeCenter work. Check out what Codney had to say about his partnership with @CDCBcdcb!

EDIT: our lovely neighbor's name is Betty Love, not Hunt.

🧵THREAD 🧵: We've arrived in Dumas, Arkansas. Join us as we learn about this town and see how a rural community truly looks + works.

Our visiting may have ended in Dumas, but our work does not. Follow us and our Partners doing work in the city to keep up with all the progress made! @CommunitiesU @Hope_Enterprise

▫️S N A P S H O T ▫️ Population: 4,059 • Black: 62.2% • White: 36.9% • Native: 0.3% • Asian: 0.7% Area Median Income (AMI): $33,750 Poverty Rate: 29% Homes Owned: 60% Homes Rented: 40% source: @CommunitiesU

We're on the move! Follow us as we take our first site visit to Dumas, Arkansas to see firsthand the amazing housing work our Partner @CommunitiesU is doing with local residents. #movingtogether