Strengthening Rural Families: Avoiding the Money Trap

Despite work­ing hard, far too many low-income par­ents in rur­al com­mu­ni­ties face severe obsta­cles on their path toward finan­cial sta­bil­i­ty and suc­cess. They are often dis­con­nect­ed from resources they need to stay afloat and their com­mu­ni­ties strug­gle to pro­vide fam­i­ly-sup­port­ing jobs and services.

This 25-minute video high­lights finan­cial prob­lems that often ensnare rur­al work­ing fam­i­lies, includ­ing pay­day loans, high inter­est car loans, high debt, poor cred­it and more. Through the sto­ries of hard­ship and lessons learned told by real-life work­ing par­ents in rur­al Amer­i­ca, the doc­u­men­tary helps raise aware­ness among pol­i­cy­mak­ers, ser­vice providers and advo­cates. It can also be used as an engag­ing tool for finan­cial education.

The Casey Foun­da­tion believes that build­ing more promis­ing futures for vul­ner­a­ble rur­al kids begins with improv­ing the present cir­cum­stances of their par­ents. This video, and oth­er resources like it, [link to search page for ​“rur­al” resources or blog?] were devel­oped to advance our Rur­al Fam­i­ly Eco­nom­ic Suc­cess frame­work, which offers strate­gies to help fam­i­lies achieve three goals simul­ta­ne­ous­ly for finan­cial sta­bil­i­ty: 1) increase their income (“Earn it”), 2) sta­bi­lize their finan­cial lives (“Keep it”), and 3) acquire assets and build wealth (“Grow it”).