The Obama administration named 10 communities from Machias, Maine, to Blanding, Utah, as demonstration sites for a cooperative effort by four federal departments to reduce child poverty in rural America. The rural poverty rate, at 16.5 percent, is higher than the U.S. average of 14.8 percent. More than 6 million rural residents are poor, including 1.5 million children. The Rural Integration Models for Parents and Children to Thrive (IMPACT) project is designed to increase employment and education for parents and improve the health and well-being of their children, said the White House.
“Often, programs are structured to serve either adults or children, rather than focusing on the entire family to improve outcomes,” says the administration. “The Rural IMPACT Demonstration will help communities adopt a comprehensive, whole-family framework for addressing child poverty, such as through facilitating physical co-location of services, universal ‘no wrong door’ intake, referral networks, shared measurement systems, and use of technology to deliver services.”