Mission

Our Mission

We acknowledge the present complexity of forces affecting the quality of life in rural Wisconsin and the difficulty in achieving equitable solutions to current and future problems.

We recognize the ongoing deterioration of local community control over solutions to community problems.

We recognize that solutions and problems in contemporary American life require both urban and rural communication, understanding, and cooperation.

We affirm the right of all Americans regardless of where they live to full participation in the country’s political and economic systems and an equitable share of society’s goods and services.

We are committed to a holistic approach to rural problems and to generating alternative solutions.

We support policies that enhance equal access for rural people to basic human services such as energy, Internet, housing, jobs and economic opportunity, the arts, recreation, healthcare and promotion, social services, educational opportunities, and transportation.

We advocate for local control and ownership of economic activities and oppose unresponsive absentee ownership which results in exploitation of local people and natural resources.

We are particularly concerned about certain groups of individuals in rural Wisconsin who face special barriers to full participation and who should receive special focus including low income families, single-parent headed households, children, Native Americans, African Americans, Latinx, Hmong-Lao, people with intellectual and physical disabilities, farmworkers, small business owners, small farmers, and senior citizens.

.