November 16, 2023 • 37 mins
Are you ready to gain an understanding of the innovative strategies transforming rural communities? In today's episode, we sit down with the insightful Jerry Kenney, Program Officer at the TLL Temple Foundation. He gives us a comprehensive look at the foundation's mission for rural capacity-building, regional capacity-building, and community development.
Ever wondered how communities are navigating billion-dollar challenges? Jerry explains the art of thinking strategically and creatively to derive optimal solutions. He highlights how the TLL Temple Foundation is filling crucial structural gaps and creating a viable rural ecosystem, in an area the size of South Carolina that lacked CDFIs. The conversation takes an interesting turn as he discusses their efforts to leverage resources for transformational impacts, even amidst the global pandemic.
Finally, we'll learn about the barriers to rural community development and the creative solutions the TLL Temple Foundation has implemented to address them. Jerry provides a heart-touching account of his upbringing in rural East Texas and how it has fueled his passion for community development. He talks about the national attention the Temple Foundation is receiving and finishes by showcasing the potential for investment in East Texas. This episode will leave you inspired by the transformative work the TLL Temple Foundation and Communities Unlimited are doing to empower rural communities in East Texas.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
We know that our rural leaders and our rural
residents are innovative.
If you spend time in ruralcommunities, you know it's not a
matter of their not beingtalent.
It's just a matter of matchingup the resources and matching up
the right partnerships.
And you start asking yourselfwhat are the barriers, what are
the structural gaps that ourrural communities are facing,
and then how do we, asphilanthropy, start to fill
(00:22):
those gaps?
We're not going to solve theseproblems in 12 months, because
it didn't take us 12 months toget into the situation that
we're in.
We need to be thinking in termsof decade.
Can we think ahead about wherewe're going as a rural region?
And maybe we can make some ofthose investments into that
strategic thinking, but alsobringing and leveraging some of
those resources that can maketransformational impacts in
(00:43):
terms of changing the trajectoryof where we're going as a rural
region.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
All right, welcome to Small Talk, episode 18, the
Community's Unlimited podcast.
My name is Chris Baker.
It is the podcast designed toempower rural communities, and
my guest today is Jerry Kinney.
Jerry, how are you doing?
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Doing.
Great Thanks for having me,Chris.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Yeah, absolutely, jerry.
Correct me if I'm wrong here,but your title is Program
Officer at the TL-TimpleFoundation.
Do you kind of specialize inthe education and economic
opportunities?
Is that kind of where you lie,or?
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Yes, sir, and we were moving into a focus on rural
capacity building, regionalcapacity building and community
development.
So increasingly I'll be workingon that portfolio.
So that's something our boardjust approved and it gets right
at the heart of why ourpartnership with Communities,
unlimited, is so important.
So, yep.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Yeah, we're going to be best friends?
I think I think so.
Yeah, we'll get into thepartnership between Communities
Unlimited and the TL-TimpleFoundation here in just a minute
.
But I wanted to ask you ifpeople aren't familiar with the
foundation, could you kind ofgive us a brief backstory and
tell people why you guys existand what you do?
Speaker 1 (01:49):
The TL-Timple Foundation is really part of the
fabric of East Texas and deepEast Texas.
It was initiated in 1962 withGeorgie Temple Muns created the
foundation in honor of herfather, tl-timple, who formed
the Southern Pine Lumber Companyin 1893.
So in 1962, georgie Temple Munsprovided an initial gift of a
(02:14):
thousand shares of Southern PineLumber Company stock, which at
the time was worth $56,000.
And now, over the past 60 years, the Temple Foundation has
invested over $500 million incommunities across East Texas.
So it's still our board iscomposed of community leaders as
(02:40):
well as family members ofTL-Timple.
So, yeah, we're a place-basedfamily foundation which, when we
get into the role of ruralphilanthropy and what that means
, it's a rarity.
There's not a lot of otherphilanthropic dollars in rural
East Texas.
So we really have an obligationto commit to building thriving
(03:03):
rural East Texas communities,which is our mission, but
creating access and opportunityfor all residents of East Texas.
We're honored to be a part ofEast Texas and we really
embraced that rural side whichis we're based here in Lufkin,
which is a micro-polletoncommunity.
But one thing that'sinteresting about our service
area is we cover 23 Texascounties and one Arkansas county
(03:25):
and most of all of it is ruraland then we really we live rural
, we invest rural, we're part ofthese communities, and so that
rural focus is really criticaland important to us.
Another thing is we serve anarea around the size of South
Carolina, so Texas is big and weknow that for us, as a
(03:47):
relatively small stafffoundation, we take a lot of
those challenges that our ruralcommunities face.
We don't have a lot of staff,and so we've got to be creative
and innovative about the ways wetry to achieve our mission for
creating a thriving rural EastTexas.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
I was going to say when you were bringing that up.
One of the things I really likeabout your organization is
you're based in Lufkin, soyou're walking the talk, you
know.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Yeah, I get the water alerts that our water is out or
we get the.
When we talk about broadbandaccess, we fill it.
We live that.
When we talk about the winterfreeze, it freezes our houses.
We're not coming in from anurban area trying to figure out
rural.
We are rural, we're based ruraland we care deeply about these
(04:31):
rural communities, so we can.
A lot of the challenges are ourchallenges here and we're
living it.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Yeah, and that's got to make a big difference I know
it does when you are looking forsolutions to problems or you
know problems to.
I mean, like you said, they areyour problems as well.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
So yeah, it makes a big difference and I think that
leveling a lot of what we'retrying to do is.
You know there's this seemingdisconnect between rural and
metro areas and we can talk.
You know a bit about what thatdisconnect looks like in terms
of social, economic, healthaccess, education access.
But when you're here and yousee those challenges and you
(05:08):
know the future you want foryour rural communities, when our
children are here and we wantto build that future out, you
don't have to bridge that divide.
We're in it, we're in rural, sowe can speak with some accuracy
and legitimacy about thechallenges that we're facing.
We can also be part of thesolution, because we see these
folks in church and at thesupermarket and at the football
games, and so we're definitelyliving it and trying to be part
(05:31):
of the solution here in EastTexas.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
So you kind of hinted at it there as well.
But are there areas ofparticular focus that TLL Temple
is involved in?
Is there certain things thatyou guys kind of pinpoint?
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Yes, sir.
So we, I think, as much aspossible, try to take on the
challenges and areas ofopportunities that are facing
rural communities and our civicleaders all the time.
So you know, part of what makesrural philanthropy and rural
development both exciting andchallenging is we're dealing
(06:03):
with all these issuessimultaneously.
So when you're talking aboutbroadband access, when you're
talking about healthcare access,when you're talking about
access to education andpost-secondary supports, early,
early education, food security,all of these things, we can't
pinpoint one program area andsay this is all we're going to
do and we're going to letsomebody else pick up those
(06:24):
others, because we know we'vegot to make progress on all of
these things at the same time toreally push forward rural
development.
So the Temple Foundation, wehave program staff, kevin
Lamming, who leads our health.
So that's all things health.
He tries to make progress onhealth access, increasing the
(06:44):
number of providers in ruralcommunities, health care
providers.
We have Laura Squires who workson our Human Services portfolio
and that's mostly focused onfood security, working through
our regional food banks andmaking sure our pantries have
high capacity and access to food, which has been incredibly
important during the COVIDpandemic and inflation and with
(07:07):
our residents dealing with thosethings.
Then we have Silvia Leal, wholeads our education portfolio,
so that's focused on earlyliteracy and numeracy, so making
sure our students can read ongrade level by third grade.
But also looking at how do weconnect our education system
with regionally relevant, highdemand, high wage jobs where
(07:28):
students can have the type oflives and careers that can
support a family here in ruralareas.
So making sure we bridge thosegaps.
So we also have a 19,000 acreconservation area, so Steve Jack
is the director of that.
It's incredibly important andhistorically relevant area here
in East Texas so we try to usethat as a platform for research.
(07:50):
So we're doing lots of thingsacross lots of program areas.
But it reflects the challengesfacing our rural communities and
the opportunities now withhistoric, unprecedented and
infrastructure dollars emergingwhere we can connect our
communities to thoseopportunities.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Do you find, jerry, that I guess I may not be using
the right terminology here, butrural philanthropy talk to me
about that.
That's got to be unique, orparticularly.
I don't want to say challenging, but a challenging there,
because there isn't a whole lotof roadmaps for that right.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
No, you're right, this is the obligation that we
have.
When you're talking aboutphilanthropy in rural East Texas
, you're really you're talkingabout the Temple Foundation.
They can get lonely out here.
There's not a lot of otherphilanthropies based in rural
and you can look at some of thedata emerging at the national
level when they've done analysisof how much on a per capita
(08:47):
basis, how much philanthropyreaches rural areas, and you're
talking orders of magnitude lessthan the average.
If the average is this was someof the data coming out of the
St Louis Fed report is 500,let's say per capita across the
country $500 per capita.
In our rural areas theBlackbill, some of the areas in
South Texas we're getting, onaverage per capita, 50.
(09:09):
That's 10% of what the averageis.
Then if you look at metro areaslike New York or San Francisco,
it's thousands of dollars percapita.
That is a serious challenge andreally forces philanthropy to
look differently at the way weoperate in rural environments.
Sometimes we're facingbillion-dollar challenges in
(09:31):
rural communities the cost ofbuilding out fiber the backbone
I think the latest report wastalking almost 15,000 per
resident in isolated rural areasthe cost of hospital closings
and trying to provide healthcareaccess.
The cost of people trying totravel to get access to
post-secondary education Watersystems.
(09:54):
I know communities are limited.
That's something we're workingon in these Texas the cost of
rebuilding and revitalizingthese water systems.
These are expensive things todo in rural communities.
We feel like these arebillion-dollar challenges on
aggregate and we have access tomillions of dollars, but there's
not million-dollar solutions tobillion-dollar challenges.
(10:14):
Our question is how do we usephilanthropy in a catalytic way?
We need to make investmentsthat our return for our rural
residents is much higher thanthe investments that we're
making, oftentimes askingourselves we don't have the
dollars to build out a fiberinfrastructure ring, but can we
find partners that can providetechnical support?
(10:36):
Can we leverage our dollars foras matching funds?
Can we think creatively abouthow we use our rural
philanthropic dollars?
Because if we miss the mark,then our communities miss out on
access and we're not addressingthe challenges that they're
facing.
It forces us to think reallycreatively, really innovatively,
about how we use our dollars,making catalytic investments.
(10:58):
But also, how do we bring otherfunders along?
If there's funders at thenational level, if there's
federal partners at USDA or EDA,how do we work with them and
use our rural philanthropicdollars to bring their dollars
and make use of them in ruralcommunities.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
That's really interesting because you have to
be very strategic about that,don't you?
You have to really think aboutit because the ROI is important.
It's not an ROI monetarily,it's an ROI human-wise.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
Yeah, you're absolutely right, and oftentimes
thinking if we're the only onesinvesting in this and we're not
finding ways to bring otherdollars to the table, then what
opportunities are we missing outon?
How are our communities missingout on the real solutions they
need to move forward?
So you're absolutely right.
But it makes it really exciting.
It makes it something where,hey, how do we use these dollars
(11:49):
to address all these challengeswe know we're facing in rural
communities?
But when you're able to makethose partnerships with other
federal and national andstatewide funders and you see
the impact because we know thatour rural leaders and our rural
residents are innovative, if youspend time in rural communities
, you know it's not a matter ofwhether or not being talent or
(12:11):
they're not being risk takerswho are willing to do big things
.
It's just a matter of matchingup the resources and matching up
the right partnerships.
And I often like to think aboutit in terms of a minimum viable
rural ecosystem.
And when you start thinkingabout it in terms of an
ecosystem lens, you start askingyourself what are the barriers,
what are the structural gapsthat our rural communities are
(12:31):
facing, and then how do we, asphilanthropy, start to fill
those gaps?
So you're really having tostretch the timeline.
We're not going to solve theseproblems in 12 months, because
it didn't take us 12 months toget into the situation that
we're in.
We need to be thinking in termsof decades.
And one of the exciting thingsis you know an entity like the
TLL Temple Foundation that'sbeen in East Texas since 1962,
(12:55):
we're going to be in East Texasfor the next 50 years, so we can
take that longer term view tosay, yeah, we know a lot of our
rural leaders are dealing withshort term, immediate challenges
.
I mean, there's nothing moreimportant than safe, clean
drinking water.
There's nothing more importantthan access to broadband.
There's nothing more importantthan access to healthcare.
Everybody's trying to keep theboat.
We're just, you know, like thatduck paddling on the water and
(13:18):
the feeder just moving so fast.
Can we think ahead about wherewe're going as a rural region?
And maybe we can make some ofthose investments into that
strategic thinking, but alsobringing and leveraging some of
those resources that can maketransformational impacts in
terms of changing the trajectoryof where we're going as a rural
region.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
That's awesome.
I love that kind of talkbecause that's the kind of talk
we do here, and so let's talkabout that partnership between
TLL Temple and our organization,communities Unlimited.
Take me back to how thatstarted, take me back to where
we're at and maybe a little bitabout where we're headed.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Sure.
So the story, I think, reallycan start in the middle of the
pandemic.
So I'll take you back to 2020,which nobody wants to go back to
2020.
So I know it's a bad start, butwe'll get to a better.
It's a better path.
So, in the middle of thepandemic, we knew that our rural
businesses were reallystruggling, those small
(14:15):
businesses that make up reallythe fabric of our economic
systems and rural communities.
And so our question toourselves was okay, we know that
we can't let these businessesfail.
So what support?
Is there a way for us to getresources into the hands of
these small business owners,particularly those underserved
small business owners, and makesure they remain a part of our
(14:38):
communities, because we knowit's so hard to get them back on
their feet if they close down.
And so we recognize prettyquickly the role of community
development financialinstitutions, and billions of
dollars were being earmarked andtargeted to CDFIs, because
CDFIs are those nonprofit,mission-driven financial
institutions that care mostabout these communities and have
(15:00):
linkages to these communities.
And so we said, all right, well, let's find our CDFIs and then
provide capital to them so thatthey can support the small
businesses.
So we did a quick desk research.
And do you want to know howmany CDFIs we had in rural East
Texas in 2020?
Again, an area the size ofSouth Carolina.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
I'm going to guess probably less than three.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
We had zero, zero.
We did not have a single CDFIoffice and, being from a rural
community, you know theimportance of trust and
relationships, and if you don'thave a CDFI office located here
and there's not somebody thatsomebody can open the door,
shake a hand, that's not goingto work.
And so people told us well,cdfis offer online lending
(15:45):
options, and we said we don'thave broadband access.
So, like, there's all theselevels of inaccessibility, of
barriers for rural communities.
And so, going back to the ideaof a minimum viable rural
ecosystem, if we don't haveCDFIs as part of our ecosystem,
then we it's not a viableecosystem.
We need those as part becauseour communities are missing out
(16:07):
on billions of dollars thatother communities in other rural
areas and other urban areashave access to.
So we asked ourselves okay,well, what do we do about this?
Do we try to create our ownCDFI?
Is there a way that we canbring CDFIs we really want best
in class CDFIs to office here,to locate here?
So we decided to open up arequest for proposals.
We reached out to what we feltlike were rural, serving CDFIs
(16:32):
across the south and asked themwhat would it take to get you
here?
So we invited.
I think we had around sevenapplications.
Communities Unlimited wascertainly on that list and we
decided, after a selectionprocess, to invest in
Communities Unlimited as well asPeople Fund, which is another
CDFI, texas based CDFI and so weselected.
(16:55):
We said we're going to launchCommunities Unlimited and People
Fund here in East Texas.
Communities Unlimited is basednow out of an office in
Nacodotius, people Fund is basedout of an office here in Lufkin
.
But the criteria was you haveto be based here, you have to
hire local staff here, and wewant you here for the next
hundred years.
We don't want you here.
(17:15):
This isn't a one-off projectjust to try to address the COVID
pandemic.
This is something where you'renow part of the ecosystem of
East Texas, and so it was athree-year grant period.
We're now in year two of thatand I'll just say, chris, like
the results have beenoverwhelmingly positive, because
you hear things like well, thereason you don't have a CDFI is
(17:37):
because there's not enoughopportunity in rural East Texas,
and that's simply not true, andwe know all the time these
assumptions that people makeabout rural places are often way
off the mark, and this wasanother example of that, and so
we're about to go past year onein terms of the offices being
opened and we're going tosurpass a million dollars in
lending to small businessesacross East Texas.
(17:59):
So, although the offices arelocated here in Lufkin and
Nacodotas, the mandate is toserve all those isolated rural
communities across East Texasand they're getting out.
We have a dashboard on ourwebsite Now.
I'll link to that.
You can find where you can.
We do quarterly updates onwhere those loans are going out.
Over 30 loans, hundreds of jobscreated, like this again goes
(18:22):
back to that catalyticinvestments, like if we can
launch these new institutionsand partner with communities
unlimited and communitiesunlimited has access to federal
resources, to technicalassistance then we're bringing
catalytic impact into East Texasand it's another example of
just this really positive cyclewe can start to build out.
So that's how the relationshipstarted.
The partnership started withcommunities unlimited, but then
(18:45):
it's just exploded from there.
So I'm happy to go into otherexamples of what we're doing as
well.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
Yeah, for sure.
I mean it sounds, before we dothat, like it sounds like you're
really thinking of TL temple.
If I'm going to simplify this,it's like a magnet for resources
for the communities that you'rein.
And you're doing that throughpartnerships, right, and that
makes a lot of sense, becauseyou can't possibly execute
everything, like you said.
The guy that's doing yourhealth department right, I mean
(19:10):
health.
I mean that pie is very bigright.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
Yeah, you're absolutely right.
I often joke because it's likehe's not focusing on like one
thing in health, he's doing allhealth, and so what does that
even mean, across the spectrumfrom mental health to dentistry,
to healthcare access toincreasing number of residents.
So, yeah, you're absolutelyright, chris.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
So you get a CDFI going and you're building a
foundation, because then you'reworking with people and
generating wealth for them andgenerating jobs for others,
which is, you know, I mean it'sa domino effect, right, we all
know that it starts there.
You said yourself it startedthere, but we recently have done
more.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
I mean there's there's more to do there's more
to do and it absolutely startsthere and it goes back to the
value that you emphasize, whichis on these High capacity
intermediaries that play just acrucial role in regional rule
development.
And so when we think aboutthese things, we're not going to
be able to place a broadbandexpert or some water system
(20:10):
expert in every single smallrule coming across these Texas.
But when we start reallythinking regionally and saying
we're going to provide, you knowwe're going to support a high
capacity intermediary likecommunities unlimited To do this
rule development as a hubregionally.
And then this goes into thisnext level partnership and the
thing I'm most excited aboutwith communities unlimited,
(20:31):
which is our connect ruralpartnership that we just
launched last year.
So that really gets that.
I want to talk about threebarriers.
If you feel, indulge me, allowme to go into the weeds a bit
here, because it's prettyexciting.
So you think about like threestructural barriers that are
facing rural communities I'dlike to put.
This is based on some researchdone with the Ford Family
(20:52):
Foundation and rural prosperitypartners up in Oregon and I
think this lays out really wellwhat those categories are.
So one the first barrier isstaffing.
We we know that ruralcommunities face a staffing
problem we have.
We have leaders in ourcommunities wearing so many
different hats and we've done anetwork analysis to look at how
(21:13):
many different hats are theywearing.
We keep going back to the samefolks that are trying to address
economic issues, health issues,broadband issues, users, as the
same people trying to fulfillmultiple roles.
My colleague, emily at theMitchell Foundation, likes to
talk about STPs and I've justI've taken that phrase from her
and it stands for the same twopeople.
And so you go to thesecommunities like you got to.
(21:34):
You got to connect with theSTPs, but we can't keep loading
additional jobs onto the STPsbecause they they're exhausted
and they run out of capacity.
So what often happened is, whenyou know you're sitting around
the table, you're like who'sgoing to pick up, who can step
up and fulfill this new role?
Because we know we got to thinklonger term, there's no one
else to do these things.
So staffing bucket, that's thefirst bucket.
(21:54):
The second is just expertiseand technical assistance.
So you know, five, six yearsago, before rural broadband
really exploded, before thepandemic, there weren't a ton of
rural broadband experts andcommunities didn't have access
to rural broadband experts whowere able to really think about
the engineering plans and thepre development work that it
takes.
Now, all of a sudden, everyrule coming across the country
(22:16):
needs to be have some expertisein broadband to really develop
these plans and get access tothis, this funding, coming down.
So is there a way we canconnect communities to the right
technical assistance in all ofthese different infrastructure
areas, whether it be energy orwater, or broadband, or economic
development and you'll noticethat tracks well with what
communities and limited focusingon in your different areas and
(22:37):
departments, housing.
I mean all of these things weneed to be able to connect them
to the right expertise.
The last, the last bucket soyou've got staffing, you've got
technical expertise, then you'vegot resources and a lot of our
communities get left out becausethey don't have access to the
matching funds, they don't haveaccess to the pre development
dollars.
They need to move thingsforward.
So we felt like how do we?
(22:58):
We can't just address one ofthese buckets.
We're going to have to addressall these buckets simultaneously
to really push our communitiesforward and do that, propel them
forward in a way that lets themaccess these unprecedented
federal infrastructure dollarscoming down.
So we came to communities andlimited, after partnering with
them on this initial project andworking with the Nez and Martha
(23:18):
Claire, on really saying let'sjust think really creative.
We think really creativelyabout how we, how we, how we
target and address each of thesebuckets and these challenges.
And so for the first bucket, thestaffing bucket, we have a new
community limited has a newstaff staffing position called a
community resource manager.
So think about them as askilled generalist.
We're going to place them ineach of our regions.
(23:38):
So we've hired them for DPSTexas, for Northeast Texas in
the texture cana area and theirjob.
They have a caseload of ruralcommunities that they go out to
and engage.
So that allows us to say who'sgoing to like, who can take up
the slack and push this forward?
Now there's an answer for thatCommunity resource manager can
help facilitate the meetings,convene people, coordinate,
connect to the right grants andopportunities.
(24:01):
The second bucket technicalassistance.
Now we can plug intocommunities and limited multi
state network of a specialist inall these areas.
So the community resourcemanager can say, hey, is your
main priority housing?
Let's connect you to ourhousing expert.
Is your main priority watersystems?
Hey, we can connect you to ourwater experts Like.
So now there's that warmhandoff connecting local needs
(24:22):
with regional technicalassistance.
And the last bucket on theresources.
We created a matching pool offunds that communities can draw
down so they're no longer leftat the table saying, well, we
can't even move these plansforward because we don't have
the resources we need to addressthe matching requirements.
So connect rural, which is afive year initiative we're
launching now across East Texaswith communities, unlimited is
(24:45):
just now getting into its secondyear.
But it's an effort tostrategically address each of
these barriers and we have thissort of Chris like if we build
it, they will come.
That's like if we build out thecivic infrastructure.
We're going to see otherinvestments complement this and
we're already seeing it.
We're seeing national fundersinterested in saying now there's
(25:05):
a landing strip that addressesthat missing middle piece.
We can invest in this, in theseplatforms at the regional level
, with communities and limitedbut also federal partners like
USDA rural development, saying,hey, we now have a partner doing
this bottom up work that canconnect to our top down
resources.
So this missing middle piece,that's really what we're doing
with these, with these regionaldevelopment hubs, and I'm
(25:26):
excited about it.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
I can.
I can see that.
I love that excitement.
I'm going to ask you about thatin just a second.
But you dropped a bit ofknowledge there that I want you
to define regional developmenthubs.
You said the center isimportant, the place is
important, being there isimportant, but doing that work
regionally is is an interestingproposition because you get to
(25:53):
know an area and you get to knowa region and, like you said,
till temple in the twenty threecounties is a big region and the
problems, the challenges thatthey have in that region have
got to be somewhat unique percity.
How are we addressing those?
Is it just a find out what theyneed and do that, or meet them
(26:13):
where they are?
That's a term we use a lot.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Yeah, no, that's a.
That's a great question and soyou have to somewhat think about
it in terms of a flexible,adaptive model that allows you
to engage in that bottom up,meet them where they are.
So that's that communityresource manager position that
can go into community work withlocal leaders.
Make sure that our process isinclusive, that nobody's being
(26:37):
left out, that we can have theseconvenings of bringing people
together, because we needeverybody in these rule
communities if we're gonna movetogether and move forward.
So the community resourcemanager can engage in that
bottom up, then when it gets tothe level where we're no longer
making assumptions about whatrule communities need but we're
actually working with them onlocal action plans, then based
(26:58):
on their priorities, then we canconnect at a regional level to
the technical assistance theyneed.
So it goes back to that idea ofThinking about scalable models.
Like we're not going to be ableto place a broadband expert in
every small community, but if wehave one or a couple at the
regional state level that canplug into when communities need
that, so it's that just in timesupport.
(27:18):
So meet them where they are,figure out what they need,
connect them to the righttechnical assistance, make sure
they have the resources to movethe project forward.
Like that's the magic mix, likethat's the combination.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
Do you think those community champions are the stps
?
Do you think they're like man?
I don't know if I should raisemy hand as a person who wanted
to be involved, because there'sa lot to do.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
You know, you're absolutely right.
There's a lot to do, but thehere I hope that we can get away
from this sort of doom andgloom narrative of like man.
If only we had more support wecould do this because, I'm
telling you, there are peopleacross the sexes that are much
smarter than I am, that have theideas and the solutions of
their communities need.
They're just not connectedwithin the right ecosystem and
(28:00):
the right partnerships and theright resources.
If we can Mobile eyes andenergize and bring these people
to the table providing solutionsand we can provide them the
right support, that's whenthings will take off.
So yeah, absolutely say.
Maybe they some are reluctantto raise their hands, but I
guarantee there's more peoplethat want to raise their hand
then those that would bereluctant.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
Yeah, we're talking to jerry.
Can you from the templefoundation?
You're listening to small talk,the podcast from communities
and limited jerry.
This excites you and I can telland it's really cool to see
that.
What's your, what's yourbackground?
How did you get here to getexcited about that?
Speaker 1 (28:35):
So I'm from rural east texas.
Unfortunately, I'm from an area, a county tightest county which
is just outside the area weserve.
So if I go back home I'm likeI'm sorry, I try to work on it,
but you just outside of kit, Ican't do that.
I grew up, was born in marshaltexas, grew up in cookville,
which is a suburb of mountpleasant, and if you're from the
area you know that's kind of ajoke, it could feel small.
(28:56):
My parents, my dad, was a coalminer when the when the coal
stack fell, he was a truckdriver for a while and my mom is
a teacher, a school teacher,dyslexia specialist and they now
have a longhorn farm.
So if you ever on interstate 30from dallas to texture canna
and you look to the left, you'llsee a large longhorn farm.
(29:19):
They have about 40 longhorncattle so people stop on, take
pictures and things like that.
So I grew up rule.
You know, often times if peopleask me why, why are you so
passionate about this?
I have this.
You know success when I wasgrowing up was leaving like if
you you had to leave the rulecommunity to succeed, and I
think unfortunately that's stillthe story and I think that's
(29:42):
really damaging for communities,like when you talk to parents
and grandparents just thinkingyou know our children have to
leave and they have to go, moveto the big cities to find
opportunity.
We've got to find a way to stopthat and to create opportunity
for folks to stay to raisefamilies where they're, where
they're from.
So, like many, I left, had theopportunity, privilege to go to
(30:03):
college and Then got reallyexcited about international
development work, did the peacecorps, spent two and a half
years in small post industrialvillage in armenia in the
mountains.
Then I was able to come back tothe to the bush called the texas
a and m and then startedworking in international ag
development.
So spent a year in south africawith texas a and m on a cheetah
(30:25):
reserve doing agriculturaldevelopment work across sub sean
africa.
Then got really passionateabout south sudan as the newest
country.
So work to year in south sudanwith with world vision there and
then came back home and, let asmany do, have been blessed to
have two children and we broughtthem back to east texas.
So get to Be around family, getback and try to apply all that
(30:48):
the knowledge and skills Ilearned internationally, to the
work happening here in ruraleast texas.
I will tell you most of theworld is rural and most of the
world is involved in inagricultural nothing.
So I think oftentimes in therural context, coming back to
the states, we get there somelessons we can learn from, from
what people are moving and sortof the partnerships and the
(31:10):
capacity building this happeninginternationally, and apply it
to some of our challenges hereand on the domestic side.
So Really excited to do that.
I've been with the templefoundation now for about three
years know about cheetahs.
Stay away from.
I know that the really fast andthey're finicky about what they
eat.
Their only eat a fresh kill.
(31:30):
So we did come a few times upona A fresh cheetah killer.
They had a wildebeest down andthat was pretty cool.
But, yes, stay away from them.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
The thing that I wanted to take away from that is
that you were talking, you know, the international lessons we
can bring domestically andreferencing the national
attention that some of the workthat the temple foundation and
see you are receiving for theirpartnership.
I know it's kind of in theinfant stages a little bit, but
(32:04):
what does that look like?
How?
How is that playing out?
Speaker 1 (32:07):
I think right now, chris, there are so many there's
such an emphasis and a focus ongetting changing the narrative
and changing the trajectoryaround rural communities and
people are really eager to seemodels that might work, that
models that might fit.
And so this is our shot, likewe have a chance now to really
(32:29):
address that challenge and fillthat gap.
And so, you know, I think itstarted slow, like we planted
some seeds and now that they'restarting to grow, we're seeing a
lot of interest among both onfederal agencies but also other
national funding partners thatare looking for what are ways we
(32:50):
can bridge that gap and reallyaddress that missing middle.
So now, instead of saying,imagine the challenge, if you're
in Washington DC or you're inNew York, or you're in even
Austin, texas, and you'relooking to make an investment in
rural East Texas, there's a lotthat you would have to do to
even figure out the landscape,the partners, the challenges,
(33:12):
the priorities.
If we can, if we can fill thosegaps, because they know that
communities and limited is here,working bottom up with our
communities, they know that theTLL Temple Foundation is here
and we have those partnerships,we're place-based, we will be
here for the long term, we canopen those gates and align those
pipes so that resources startto flow from the top, from the
(33:33):
national and state level, intoEast Texas.
That's what it's all about andwe're starting to see some early
fruits of what that could looklike from investments.
That communities are limitedand the interest.
I know talking with the NES andMartha Claire they're busy all
the time with a lot of intereston what we're building here but
I really feel like that's ourobligation is to figure out what
this model looks like and thenpromote it and tell the story,
(33:55):
because we do need the storygetting out, that there are
opportunities to invest and whenwe do this the right way, rural
communities always step up andthere is a chance to change the
story, to change the trajectoryand to build a thriving future
for our future residents here inEast Texas.
So I think that's ourobligation and we see some
(34:16):
milestones along the way thatthese markers it's happening.
I do feel like we're buildingmomentum.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
I wanna give a brief little shout to Melody's
Macarons and the Lufkin Mallthere.
I've seen the pictures.
Talked to Melody and that wasone of our lending clients and
she might have the best lookingcookies I've seen.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
Hey, I'm telling you, from macarons to ice cream, to
fresh bread, to breweries, we'vegot some excellent stuff.
So you're always come to EastTexas and people are always
surprised when we bring themhere.
They're like this is beautifuland you have some great people
and some great businesses andsome great products and I just
(34:56):
feel like it's undersold.
We gotta keep banging the drumand telling the story, chris,
but you're absolutely right onthe macro.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
I think catalytic there is the keyword that I'm
taking away.
It's like the ignition right,you got the spark and go for it.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
Yeah, so catalytic is right, and I feel like we're
building the engine but we needit to run right now, so like
we're both pressing the gaspedal but we're also making sure
we have all the right parts.
And that's what's so excitingabout this partnership with
Commune's Unlimited, becausey'all are just ambitious enough
to go with us, and so it'sreally a neat partnership.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
Ambitious was a strategically chosen word there,
huh yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
I could go with a few others, and we've used those
words before, but all that.
It's.
Y'all are key partners inmoving with us.
That's the important thing.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
Jerry man, I really appreciated talking to you in
here.
I wanna go ahead and make aspot on the calendar to talk
again in, like you know, sixmonths, three months, something
like that, where we can talkabout some more of the momentum
gathered and some, like some ofthe more you know, hard examples
of the strategy playing out inreal life, you know.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
Yeah, for sure I would love to, because I'm
always gonna like to tell thestory.
And one thing we always go backto I have this motto.
It's written on my board nodead ends.
And so we just gotta keep go.
No rural dead ends, Like ifthere's a challenge, if there's
an opportunity, we have to keepbuilding those structures so
that people have the chance toengage and come up with
solutions.
So what you'll see is you'llcontinue to see us breaking
(36:24):
those barriers, overcoming those.
And this is gonna lookcompletely different in a year,
because we're gonna have successstories and we're gonna have
new tools, new systems, and sowe're gonna continue making
progress.
So there'll be a next level setof stories to tell in six
months or a year.
Speaker 2 (36:39):
All right, I'm preserving my spot on your
calendar now.
So Awesome, awesome, Jerry,thanks for coming on.
We'll talk again soon.
And again, if you want to checkout the TLL Temple Foundation,
I highly suggest you do so.
Their website is a greatresource TLLTemplefoundation.
And again, Jerry, thank youvery much for coming on.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
Small Talk Always appreciate the opportunity to
address.
Thanks a lot.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
Episode 18 in the box .
We will join you in a couple ofweeks for episode 19.
Thanks for watching.
Signing off.
We know that our rural leaders and our rural
residents are innovative.
If you spend time in ruralcommunities, you know it's not a
matter of their not beingtalent.
It's just a matter of matchingup the resources and matching up
the right partnerships.
And you start asking yourselfwhat are the barriers, what are
the structural gaps that ourrural communities are facing,
and then how do we, asphilanthropy, start to fill
(00:22):
those gaps?
We're not going to solve theseproblems in 12 months, because
it didn't take us 12 months toget into the situation that
we're in.
We need to be thinking in termsof decade.
Can we think ahead about wherewe're going as a rural region?
And maybe we can make some ofthose investments into that
strategic thinking, but alsobringing and leveraging some of
those resources that can maketransformational impacts in
(00:43):
terms of changing the trajectoryof where we're going as a rural
region.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
All right, welcome to Small Talk, episode 18, the
Community's Unlimited podcast.
My name is Chris Baker.
It is the podcast designed toempower rural communities, and
my guest today is Jerry Kinney.
Jerry, how are you doing?
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Doing.
Great Thanks for having me,Chris.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Yeah, absolutely, jerry.
Correct me if I'm wrong here,but your title is Program
Officer at the TL-TimpleFoundation.
Do you kind of specialize inthe education and economic
opportunities?
Is that kind of where you lie,or?
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Yes, sir, and we were moving into a focus on rural
capacity building, regionalcapacity building and community
development.
So increasingly I'll be workingon that portfolio.
So that's something our boardjust approved and it gets right
at the heart of why ourpartnership with Communities,
unlimited, is so important.
So, yep.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Yeah, we're going to be best friends?
I think I think so.
Yeah, we'll get into thepartnership between Communities
Unlimited and the TL-TimpleFoundation here in just a minute
.
But I wanted to ask you ifpeople aren't familiar with the
foundation, could you kind ofgive us a brief backstory and
tell people why you guys existand what you do?
Speaker 1 (01:49):
The TL-Timple Foundation is really part of the
fabric of East Texas and deepEast Texas.
It was initiated in 1962 withGeorgie Temple Muns created the
foundation in honor of herfather, tl-timple, who formed
the Southern Pine Lumber Companyin 1893.
So in 1962, georgie Temple Munsprovided an initial gift of a
(02:14):
thousand shares of Southern PineLumber Company stock, which at
the time was worth $56,000.
And now, over the past 60 years, the Temple Foundation has
invested over $500 million incommunities across East Texas.
So it's still our board iscomposed of community leaders as
(02:40):
well as family members ofTL-Timple.
So, yeah, we're a place-basedfamily foundation which, when we
get into the role of ruralphilanthropy and what that means
, it's a rarity.
There's not a lot of otherphilanthropic dollars in rural
East Texas.
So we really have an obligationto commit to building thriving
(03:03):
rural East Texas communities,which is our mission, but
creating access and opportunityfor all residents of East Texas.
We're honored to be a part ofEast Texas and we really
embraced that rural side whichis we're based here in Lufkin,
which is a micro-polletoncommunity.
But one thing that'sinteresting about our service
area is we cover 23 Texascounties and one Arkansas county
(03:25):
and most of all of it is ruraland then we really we live rural
, we invest rural, we're part ofthese communities, and so that
rural focus is really criticaland important to us.
Another thing is we serve anarea around the size of South
Carolina, so Texas is big and weknow that for us, as a
(03:47):
relatively small stafffoundation, we take a lot of
those challenges that our ruralcommunities face.
We don't have a lot of staff,and so we've got to be creative
and innovative about the ways wetry to achieve our mission for
creating a thriving rural EastTexas.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
I was going to say when you were bringing that up.
One of the things I really likeabout your organization is
you're based in Lufkin, soyou're walking the talk, you
know.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Yeah, I get the water alerts that our water is out or
we get the.
When we talk about broadbandaccess, we fill it.
We live that.
When we talk about the winterfreeze, it freezes our houses.
We're not coming in from anurban area trying to figure out
rural.
We are rural, we're based ruraland we care deeply about these
(04:31):
rural communities, so we can.
A lot of the challenges are ourchallenges here and we're
living it.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Yeah, and that's got to make a big difference I know
it does when you are looking forsolutions to problems or you
know problems to.
I mean, like you said, they areyour problems as well.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
So yeah, it makes a big difference and I think that
leveling a lot of what we'retrying to do is.
You know there's this seemingdisconnect between rural and
metro areas and we can talk.
You know a bit about what thatdisconnect looks like in terms
of social, economic, healthaccess, education access.
But when you're here and yousee those challenges and you
(05:08):
know the future you want foryour rural communities, when our
children are here and we wantto build that future out, you
don't have to bridge that divide.
We're in it, we're in rural, sowe can speak with some accuracy
and legitimacy about thechallenges that we're facing.
We can also be part of thesolution, because we see these
folks in church and at thesupermarket and at the football
games, and so we're definitelyliving it and trying to be part
(05:31):
of the solution here in EastTexas.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
So you kind of hinted at it there as well.
But are there areas ofparticular focus that TLL Temple
is involved in?
Is there certain things thatyou guys kind of pinpoint?
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Yes, sir.
So we, I think, as much aspossible, try to take on the
challenges and areas ofopportunities that are facing
rural communities and our civicleaders all the time.
So you know, part of what makesrural philanthropy and rural
development both exciting andchallenging is we're dealing
(06:03):
with all these issuessimultaneously.
So when you're talking aboutbroadband access, when you're
talking about healthcare access,when you're talking about
access to education andpost-secondary supports, early,
early education, food security,all of these things, we can't
pinpoint one program area andsay this is all we're going to
do and we're going to letsomebody else pick up those
(06:24):
others, because we know we'vegot to make progress on all of
these things at the same time toreally push forward rural
development.
So the Temple Foundation, wehave program staff, kevin
Lamming, who leads our health.
So that's all things health.
He tries to make progress onhealth access, increasing the
(06:44):
number of providers in ruralcommunities, health care
providers.
We have Laura Squires who workson our Human Services portfolio
and that's mostly focused onfood security, working through
our regional food banks andmaking sure our pantries have
high capacity and access to food, which has been incredibly
important during the COVIDpandemic and inflation and with
(07:07):
our residents dealing with thosethings.
Then we have Silvia Leal, wholeads our education portfolio,
so that's focused on earlyliteracy and numeracy, so making
sure our students can read ongrade level by third grade.
But also looking at how do weconnect our education system
with regionally relevant, highdemand, high wage jobs where
(07:28):
students can have the type oflives and careers that can
support a family here in ruralareas.
So making sure we bridge thosegaps.
So we also have a 19,000 acreconservation area, so Steve Jack
is the director of that.
It's incredibly important andhistorically relevant area here
in East Texas so we try to usethat as a platform for research.
(07:50):
So we're doing lots of thingsacross lots of program areas.
But it reflects the challengesfacing our rural communities and
the opportunities now withhistoric, unprecedented and
infrastructure dollars emergingwhere we can connect our
communities to thoseopportunities.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Do you find, jerry, that I guess I may not be using
the right terminology here, butrural philanthropy talk to me
about that.
That's got to be unique, orparticularly.
I don't want to say challenging, but a challenging there,
because there isn't a whole lotof roadmaps for that right.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
No, you're right, this is the obligation that we
have.
When you're talking aboutphilanthropy in rural East Texas
, you're really you're talkingabout the Temple Foundation.
They can get lonely out here.
There's not a lot of otherphilanthropies based in rural
and you can look at some of thedata emerging at the national
level when they've done analysisof how much on a per capita
(08:47):
basis, how much philanthropyreaches rural areas, and you're
talking orders of magnitude lessthan the average.
If the average is this was someof the data coming out of the
St Louis Fed report is 500,let's say per capita across the
country $500 per capita.
In our rural areas theBlackbill, some of the areas in
South Texas we're getting, onaverage per capita, 50.
(09:09):
That's 10% of what the averageis.
Then if you look at metro areaslike New York or San Francisco,
it's thousands of dollars percapita.
That is a serious challenge andreally forces philanthropy to
look differently at the way weoperate in rural environments.
Sometimes we're facingbillion-dollar challenges in
(09:31):
rural communities the cost ofbuilding out fiber the backbone
I think the latest report wastalking almost 15,000 per
resident in isolated rural areasthe cost of hospital closings
and trying to provide healthcareaccess.
The cost of people trying totravel to get access to
post-secondary education Watersystems.
(09:54):
I know communities are limited.
That's something we're workingon in these Texas the cost of
rebuilding and revitalizingthese water systems.
These are expensive things todo in rural communities.
We feel like these arebillion-dollar challenges on
aggregate and we have access tomillions of dollars, but there's
not million-dollar solutions tobillion-dollar challenges.
(10:14):
Our question is how do we usephilanthropy in a catalytic way?
We need to make investmentsthat our return for our rural
residents is much higher thanthe investments that we're
making, oftentimes askingourselves we don't have the
dollars to build out a fiberinfrastructure ring, but can we
find partners that can providetechnical support?
(10:36):
Can we leverage our dollars foras matching funds?
Can we think creatively abouthow we use our rural
philanthropic dollars?
Because if we miss the mark,then our communities miss out on
access and we're not addressingthe challenges that they're
facing.
It forces us to think reallycreatively, really innovatively,
about how we use our dollars,making catalytic investments.
(10:58):
But also, how do we bring otherfunders along?
If there's funders at thenational level, if there's
federal partners at USDA or EDA,how do we work with them and
use our rural philanthropicdollars to bring their dollars
and make use of them in ruralcommunities.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
That's really interesting because you have to
be very strategic about that,don't you?
You have to really think aboutit because the ROI is important.
It's not an ROI monetarily,it's an ROI human-wise.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
Yeah, you're absolutely right, and oftentimes
thinking if we're the only onesinvesting in this and we're not
finding ways to bring otherdollars to the table, then what
opportunities are we missing outon?
How are our communities missingout on the real solutions they
need to move forward?
So you're absolutely right.
But it makes it really exciting.
It makes it something where,hey, how do we use these dollars
(11:49):
to address all these challengeswe know we're facing in rural
communities?
But when you're able to makethose partnerships with other
federal and national andstatewide funders and you see
the impact because we know thatour rural leaders and our rural
residents are innovative, if youspend time in rural communities
, you know it's not a matter ofwhether or not being talent or
(12:11):
they're not being risk takerswho are willing to do big things
.
It's just a matter of matchingup the resources and matching up
the right partnerships.
And I often like to think aboutit in terms of a minimum viable
rural ecosystem.
And when you start thinkingabout it in terms of an
ecosystem lens, you start askingyourself what are the barriers,
what are the structural gapsthat our rural communities are
(12:31):
facing, and then how do we, asphilanthropy, start to fill
those gaps?
So you're really having tostretch the timeline.
We're not going to solve theseproblems in 12 months, because
it didn't take us 12 months toget into the situation that
we're in.
We need to be thinking in termsof decades.
And one of the exciting thingsis you know an entity like the
TLL Temple Foundation that'sbeen in East Texas since 1962,
(12:55):
we're going to be in East Texasfor the next 50 years, so we can
take that longer term view tosay, yeah, we know a lot of our
rural leaders are dealing withshort term, immediate challenges
.
I mean, there's nothing moreimportant than safe, clean
drinking water.
There's nothing more importantthan access to broadband.
There's nothing more importantthan access to healthcare.
Everybody's trying to keep theboat.
We're just, you know, like thatduck paddling on the water and
(13:18):
the feeder just moving so fast.
Can we think ahead about wherewe're going as a rural region?
And maybe we can make some ofthose investments into that
strategic thinking, but alsobringing and leveraging some of
those resources that can maketransformational impacts in
terms of changing the trajectoryof where we're going as a rural
region.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
That's awesome.
I love that kind of talkbecause that's the kind of talk
we do here, and so let's talkabout that partnership between
TLL Temple and our organization,communities Unlimited.
Take me back to how thatstarted, take me back to where
we're at and maybe a little bitabout where we're headed.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Sure.
So the story, I think, reallycan start in the middle of the
pandemic.
So I'll take you back to 2020,which nobody wants to go back to
2020.
So I know it's a bad start, butwe'll get to a better.
It's a better path.
So, in the middle of thepandemic, we knew that our rural
businesses were reallystruggling, those small
(14:15):
businesses that make up reallythe fabric of our economic
systems and rural communities.
And so our question toourselves was okay, we know that
we can't let these businessesfail.
So what support?
Is there a way for us to getresources into the hands of
these small business owners,particularly those underserved
small business owners, and makesure they remain a part of our
(14:38):
communities, because we knowit's so hard to get them back on
their feet if they close down.
And so we recognize prettyquickly the role of community
development financialinstitutions, and billions of
dollars were being earmarked andtargeted to CDFIs, because
CDFIs are those nonprofit,mission-driven financial
institutions that care mostabout these communities and have
(15:00):
linkages to these communities.
And so we said, all right, well, let's find our CDFIs and then
provide capital to them so thatthey can support the small
businesses.
So we did a quick desk research.
And do you want to know howmany CDFIs we had in rural East
Texas in 2020?
Again, an area the size ofSouth Carolina.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
I'm going to guess probably less than three.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
We had zero, zero.
We did not have a single CDFIoffice and, being from a rural
community, you know theimportance of trust and
relationships, and if you don'thave a CDFI office located here
and there's not somebody thatsomebody can open the door,
shake a hand, that's not goingto work.
And so people told us well,cdfis offer online lending
(15:45):
options, and we said we don'thave broadband access.
So, like, there's all theselevels of inaccessibility, of
barriers for rural communities.
And so, going back to the ideaof a minimum viable rural
ecosystem, if we don't haveCDFIs as part of our ecosystem,
then we it's not a viableecosystem.
We need those as part becauseour communities are missing out
(16:07):
on billions of dollars thatother communities in other rural
areas and other urban areashave access to.
So we asked ourselves okay,well, what do we do about this?
Do we try to create our ownCDFI?
Is there a way that we canbring CDFIs we really want best
in class CDFIs to office here,to locate here?
So we decided to open up arequest for proposals.
We reached out to what we feltlike were rural, serving CDFIs
(16:32):
across the south and asked themwhat would it take to get you
here?
So we invited.
I think we had around sevenapplications.
Communities Unlimited wascertainly on that list and we
decided, after a selectionprocess, to invest in
Communities Unlimited as well asPeople Fund, which is another
CDFI, texas based CDFI and so weselected.
(16:55):
We said we're going to launchCommunities Unlimited and People
Fund here in East Texas.
Communities Unlimited is basednow out of an office in
Nacodotius, people Fund is basedout of an office here in Lufkin
.
But the criteria was you haveto be based here, you have to
hire local staff here, and wewant you here for the next
hundred years.
We don't want you here.
(17:15):
This isn't a one-off projectjust to try to address the COVID
pandemic.
This is something where you'renow part of the ecosystem of
East Texas, and so it was athree-year grant period.
We're now in year two of thatand I'll just say, chris, like
the results have beenoverwhelmingly positive, because
you hear things like well, thereason you don't have a CDFI is
(17:37):
because there's not enoughopportunity in rural East Texas,
and that's simply not true, andwe know all the time these
assumptions that people makeabout rural places are often way
off the mark, and this wasanother example of that, and so
we're about to go past year onein terms of the offices being
opened and we're going tosurpass a million dollars in
lending to small businessesacross East Texas.
(17:59):
So, although the offices arelocated here in Lufkin and
Nacodotas, the mandate is toserve all those isolated rural
communities across East Texasand they're getting out.
We have a dashboard on ourwebsite Now.
I'll link to that.
You can find where you can.
We do quarterly updates onwhere those loans are going out.
Over 30 loans, hundreds of jobscreated, like this again goes
(18:22):
back to that catalyticinvestments, like if we can
launch these new institutionsand partner with communities
unlimited and communitiesunlimited has access to federal
resources, to technicalassistance then we're bringing
catalytic impact into East Texasand it's another example of
just this really positive cyclewe can start to build out.
So that's how the relationshipstarted.
The partnership started withcommunities unlimited, but then
(18:45):
it's just exploded from there.
So I'm happy to go into otherexamples of what we're doing as
well.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
Yeah, for sure.
I mean it sounds, before we dothat, like it sounds like you're
really thinking of TL temple.
If I'm going to simplify this,it's like a magnet for resources
for the communities that you'rein.
And you're doing that throughpartnerships, right, and that
makes a lot of sense, becauseyou can't possibly execute
everything, like you said.
The guy that's doing yourhealth department right, I mean
(19:10):
health.
I mean that pie is very bigright.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
Yeah, you're absolutely right.
I often joke because it's likehe's not focusing on like one
thing in health, he's doing allhealth, and so what does that
even mean, across the spectrumfrom mental health to dentistry,
to healthcare access toincreasing number of residents.
So, yeah, you're absolutelyright, chris.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
So you get a CDFI going and you're building a
foundation, because then you'reworking with people and
generating wealth for them andgenerating jobs for others,
which is, you know, I mean it'sa domino effect, right, we all
know that it starts there.
You said yourself it startedthere, but we recently have done
more.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
I mean there's there's more to do there's more
to do and it absolutely startsthere and it goes back to the
value that you emphasize, whichis on these High capacity
intermediaries that play just acrucial role in regional rule
development.
And so when we think aboutthese things, we're not going to
be able to place a broadbandexpert or some water system
(20:10):
expert in every single smallrule coming across these Texas.
But when we start reallythinking regionally and saying
we're going to provide, you knowwe're going to support a high
capacity intermediary likecommunities unlimited To do this
rule development as a hubregionally.
And then this goes into thisnext level partnership and the
thing I'm most excited aboutwith communities unlimited,
(20:31):
which is our connect ruralpartnership that we just
launched last year.
So that really gets that.
I want to talk about threebarriers.
If you feel, indulge me, allowme to go into the weeds a bit
here, because it's prettyexciting.
So you think about like threestructural barriers that are
facing rural communities I'dlike to put.
This is based on some researchdone with the Ford Family
(20:52):
Foundation and rural prosperitypartners up in Oregon and I
think this lays out really wellwhat those categories are.
So one the first barrier isstaffing.
We we know that ruralcommunities face a staffing
problem we have.
We have leaders in ourcommunities wearing so many
different hats and we've done anetwork analysis to look at how
(21:13):
many different hats are theywearing.
We keep going back to the samefolks that are trying to address
economic issues, health issues,broadband issues, users, as the
same people trying to fulfillmultiple roles.
My colleague, emily at theMitchell Foundation, likes to
talk about STPs and I've justI've taken that phrase from her
and it stands for the same twopeople.
And so you go to thesecommunities like you got to.
(21:34):
You got to connect with theSTPs, but we can't keep loading
additional jobs onto the STPsbecause they they're exhausted
and they run out of capacity.
So what often happened is, whenyou know you're sitting around
the table, you're like who'sgoing to pick up, who can step
up and fulfill this new role?
Because we know we got to thinklonger term, there's no one
else to do these things.
So staffing bucket, that's thefirst bucket.
(21:54):
The second is just expertiseand technical assistance.
So you know, five, six yearsago, before rural broadband
really exploded, before thepandemic, there weren't a ton of
rural broadband experts andcommunities didn't have access
to rural broadband experts whowere able to really think about
the engineering plans and thepre development work that it
takes.
Now, all of a sudden, everyrule coming across the country
(22:16):
needs to be have some expertisein broadband to really develop
these plans and get access tothis, this funding, coming down.
So is there a way we canconnect communities to the right
technical assistance in all ofthese different infrastructure
areas, whether it be energy orwater, or broadband, or economic
development and you'll noticethat tracks well with what
communities and limited focusingon in your different areas and
(22:37):
departments, housing.
I mean all of these things weneed to be able to connect them
to the right expertise.
The last, the last bucket soyou've got staffing, you've got
technical expertise, then you'vegot resources and a lot of our
communities get left out becausethey don't have access to the
matching funds, they don't haveaccess to the pre development
dollars.
They need to move thingsforward.
So we felt like how do we?
(22:58):
We can't just address one ofthese buckets.
We're going to have to addressall these buckets simultaneously
to really push our communitiesforward and do that, propel them
forward in a way that lets themaccess these unprecedented
federal infrastructure dollarscoming down.
So we came to communities andlimited, after partnering with
them on this initial project andworking with the Nez and Martha
(23:18):
Claire, on really saying let'sjust think really creative.
We think really creativelyabout how we, how we, how we
target and address each of thesebuckets and these challenges.
And so for the first bucket, thestaffing bucket, we have a new
community limited has a newstaff staffing position called a
community resource manager.
So think about them as askilled generalist.
We're going to place them ineach of our regions.
(23:38):
So we've hired them for DPSTexas, for Northeast Texas in
the texture cana area and theirjob.
They have a caseload of ruralcommunities that they go out to
and engage.
So that allows us to say who'sgoing to like, who can take up
the slack and push this forward?
Now there's an answer for thatCommunity resource manager can
help facilitate the meetings,convene people, coordinate,
connect to the right grants andopportunities.
(24:01):
The second bucket technicalassistance.
Now we can plug intocommunities and limited multi
state network of a specialist inall these areas.
So the community resourcemanager can say, hey, is your
main priority housing?
Let's connect you to ourhousing expert.
Is your main priority watersystems?
Hey, we can connect you to ourwater experts Like.
So now there's that warmhandoff connecting local needs
(24:22):
with regional technicalassistance.
And the last bucket on theresources.
We created a matching pool offunds that communities can draw
down so they're no longer leftat the table saying, well, we
can't even move these plansforward because we don't have
the resources we need to addressthe matching requirements.
So connect rural, which is afive year initiative we're
launching now across East Texaswith communities, unlimited is
(24:45):
just now getting into its secondyear.
But it's an effort tostrategically address each of
these barriers and we have thissort of Chris like if we build
it, they will come.
That's like if we build out thecivic infrastructure.
We're going to see otherinvestments complement this and
we're already seeing it.
We're seeing national fundersinterested in saying now there's
(25:05):
a landing strip that addressesthat missing middle piece.
We can invest in this, in theseplatforms at the regional level
, with communities and limitedbut also federal partners like
USDA rural development, saying,hey, we now have a partner doing
this bottom up work that canconnect to our top down
resources.
So this missing middle piece,that's really what we're doing
with these, with these regionaldevelopment hubs, and I'm
(25:26):
excited about it.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
I can.
I can see that.
I love that excitement.
I'm going to ask you about thatin just a second.
But you dropped a bit ofknowledge there that I want you
to define regional developmenthubs.
You said the center isimportant, the place is
important, being there isimportant, but doing that work
regionally is is an interestingproposition because you get to
(25:53):
know an area and you get to knowa region and, like you said,
till temple in the twenty threecounties is a big region and the
problems, the challenges thatthey have in that region have
got to be somewhat unique percity.
How are we addressing those?
Is it just a find out what theyneed and do that, or meet them
(26:13):
where they are?
That's a term we use a lot.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Yeah, no, that's a.
That's a great question and soyou have to somewhat think about
it in terms of a flexible,adaptive model that allows you
to engage in that bottom up,meet them where they are.
So that's that communityresource manager position that
can go into community work withlocal leaders.
Make sure that our process isinclusive, that nobody's being
(26:37):
left out, that we can have theseconvenings of bringing people
together, because we needeverybody in these rule
communities if we're gonna movetogether and move forward.
So the community resourcemanager can engage in that
bottom up, then when it gets tothe level where we're no longer
making assumptions about whatrule communities need but we're
actually working with them onlocal action plans, then based
(26:58):
on their priorities, then we canconnect at a regional level to
the technical assistance theyneed.
So it goes back to that idea ofThinking about scalable models.
Like we're not going to be ableto place a broadband expert in
every small community, but if wehave one or a couple at the
regional state level that canplug into when communities need
that, so it's that just in timesupport.
(27:18):
So meet them where they are,figure out what they need,
connect them to the righttechnical assistance, make sure
they have the resources to movethe project forward.
Like that's the magic mix, likethat's the combination.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
Do you think those community champions are the stps
?
Do you think they're like man?
I don't know if I should raisemy hand as a person who wanted
to be involved, because there'sa lot to do.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
You know, you're absolutely right.
There's a lot to do, but thehere I hope that we can get away
from this sort of doom andgloom narrative of like man.
If only we had more support wecould do this because, I'm
telling you, there are peopleacross the sexes that are much
smarter than I am, that have theideas and the solutions of
their communities need.
They're just not connectedwithin the right ecosystem and
(28:00):
the right partnerships and theright resources.
If we can Mobile eyes andenergize and bring these people
to the table providing solutionsand we can provide them the
right support, that's whenthings will take off.
So yeah, absolutely say.
Maybe they some are reluctantto raise their hands, but I
guarantee there's more peoplethat want to raise their hand
then those that would bereluctant.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
Yeah, we're talking to jerry.
Can you from the templefoundation?
You're listening to small talk,the podcast from communities
and limited jerry.
This excites you and I can telland it's really cool to see
that.
What's your, what's yourbackground?
How did you get here to getexcited about that?
Speaker 1 (28:35):
So I'm from rural east texas.
Unfortunately, I'm from an area, a county tightest county which
is just outside the area weserve.
So if I go back home I'm likeI'm sorry, I try to work on it,
but you just outside of kit, Ican't do that.
I grew up, was born in marshaltexas, grew up in cookville,
which is a suburb of mountpleasant, and if you're from the
area you know that's kind of ajoke, it could feel small.
(28:56):
My parents, my dad, was a coalminer when the when the coal
stack fell, he was a truckdriver for a while and my mom is
a teacher, a school teacher,dyslexia specialist and they now
have a longhorn farm.
So if you ever on interstate 30from dallas to texture canna
and you look to the left, you'llsee a large longhorn farm.
(29:19):
They have about 40 longhorncattle so people stop on, take
pictures and things like that.
So I grew up rule.
You know, often times if peopleask me why, why are you so
passionate about this?
I have this.
You know success when I wasgrowing up was leaving like if
you you had to leave the rulecommunity to succeed, and I
think unfortunately that's stillthe story and I think that's
(29:42):
really damaging for communities,like when you talk to parents
and grandparents just thinkingyou know our children have to
leave and they have to go, moveto the big cities to find
opportunity.
We've got to find a way to stopthat and to create opportunity
for folks to stay to raisefamilies where they're, where
they're from.
So, like many, I left, had theopportunity, privilege to go to
(30:03):
college and Then got reallyexcited about international
development work, did the peacecorps, spent two and a half
years in small post industrialvillage in armenia in the
mountains.
Then I was able to come back tothe to the bush called the texas
a and m and then startedworking in international ag
development.
So spent a year in south africawith texas a and m on a cheetah
(30:25):
reserve doing agriculturaldevelopment work across sub sean
africa.
Then got really passionateabout south sudan as the newest
country.
So work to year in south sudanwith with world vision there and
then came back home and, let asmany do, have been blessed to
have two children and we broughtthem back to east texas.
So get to Be around family, getback and try to apply all that
(30:48):
the knowledge and skills Ilearned internationally, to the
work happening here in ruraleast texas.
I will tell you most of theworld is rural and most of the
world is involved in inagricultural nothing.
So I think oftentimes in therural context, coming back to
the states, we get there somelessons we can learn from, from
what people are moving and sortof the partnerships and the
(31:10):
capacity building this happeninginternationally, and apply it
to some of our challenges hereand on the domestic side.
So Really excited to do that.
I've been with the templefoundation now for about three
years know about cheetahs.
Stay away from.
I know that the really fast andthey're finicky about what they
eat.
Their only eat a fresh kill.
(31:30):
So we did come a few times upona A fresh cheetah killer.
They had a wildebeest down andthat was pretty cool.
But, yes, stay away from them.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
The thing that I wanted to take away from that is
that you were talking, you know, the international lessons we
can bring domestically andreferencing the national
attention that some of the workthat the temple foundation and
see you are receiving for theirpartnership.
I know it's kind of in theinfant stages a little bit, but
(32:04):
what does that look like?
How?
How is that playing out?
Speaker 1 (32:07):
I think right now, chris, there are so many there's
such an emphasis and a focus ongetting changing the narrative
and changing the trajectoryaround rural communities and
people are really eager to seemodels that might work, that
models that might fit.
And so this is our shot, likewe have a chance now to really
(32:29):
address that challenge and fillthat gap.
And so, you know, I think itstarted slow, like we planted
some seeds and now that they'restarting to grow, we're seeing a
lot of interest among both onfederal agencies but also other
national funding partners thatare looking for what are ways we
(32:50):
can bridge that gap and reallyaddress that missing middle.
So now, instead of saying,imagine the challenge, if you're
in Washington DC or you're inNew York, or you're in even
Austin, texas, and you'relooking to make an investment in
rural East Texas, there's a lotthat you would have to do to
even figure out the landscape,the partners, the challenges,
(33:12):
the priorities.
If we can, if we can fill thosegaps, because they know that
communities and limited is here,working bottom up with our
communities, they know that theTLL Temple Foundation is here
and we have those partnerships,we're place-based, we will be
here for the long term, we canopen those gates and align those
pipes so that resources startto flow from the top, from the
(33:33):
national and state level, intoEast Texas.
That's what it's all about andwe're starting to see some early
fruits of what that could looklike from investments.
That communities are limitedand the interest.
I know talking with the NES andMartha Claire they're busy all
the time with a lot of intereston what we're building here but
I really feel like that's ourobligation is to figure out what
this model looks like and thenpromote it and tell the story,
(33:55):
because we do need the storygetting out, that there are
opportunities to invest and whenwe do this the right way, rural
communities always step up andthere is a chance to change the
story, to change the trajectoryand to build a thriving future
for our future residents here inEast Texas.
So I think that's ourobligation and we see some
(34:16):
milestones along the way thatthese markers it's happening.
I do feel like we're buildingmomentum.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
I wanna give a brief little shout to Melody's
Macarons and the Lufkin Mallthere.
I've seen the pictures.
Talked to Melody and that wasone of our lending clients and
she might have the best lookingcookies I've seen.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
Hey, I'm telling you, from macarons to ice cream, to
fresh bread, to breweries, we'vegot some excellent stuff.
So you're always come to EastTexas and people are always
surprised when we bring themhere.
They're like this is beautifuland you have some great people
and some great businesses andsome great products and I just
(34:56):
feel like it's undersold.
We gotta keep banging the drumand telling the story, chris,
but you're absolutely right onthe macro.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
I think catalytic there is the keyword that I'm
taking away.
It's like the ignition right,you got the spark and go for it.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
Yeah, so catalytic is right, and I feel like we're
building the engine but we needit to run right now, so like
we're both pressing the gaspedal but we're also making sure
we have all the right parts.
And that's what's so excitingabout this partnership with
Commune's Unlimited, becausey'all are just ambitious enough
to go with us, and so it'sreally a neat partnership.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
Ambitious was a strategically chosen word there,
huh yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
I could go with a few others, and we've used those
words before, but all that.
It's.
Y'all are key partners inmoving with us.
That's the important thing.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
Jerry man, I really appreciated talking to you in
here.
I wanna go ahead and make aspot on the calendar to talk
again in, like you know, sixmonths, three months, something
like that, where we can talkabout some more of the momentum
gathered and some, like some ofthe more you know, hard examples
of the strategy playing out inreal life, you know.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
Yeah, for sure I would love to, because I'm
always gonna like to tell thestory.
And one thing we always go backto I have this motto.
It's written on my board nodead ends.
And so we just gotta keep go.
No rural dead ends, Like ifthere's a challenge, if there's
an opportunity, we have to keepbuilding those structures so
that people have the chance toengage and come up with
solutions.
So what you'll see is you'llcontinue to see us breaking
(36:24):
those barriers, overcoming those.
And this is gonna lookcompletely different in a year,
because we're gonna have successstories and we're gonna have
new tools, new systems, and sowe're gonna continue making
progress.
So there'll be a next level setof stories to tell in six
months or a year.
Speaker 2 (36:39):
All right, I'm preserving my spot on your
calendar now.
So Awesome, awesome, Jerry,thanks for coming on.
We'll talk again soon.
And again, if you want to checkout the TLL Temple Foundation,
I highly suggest you do so.
Their website is a greatresource TLLTemplefoundation.
And again, Jerry, thank youvery much for coming on.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
Small Talk Always appreciate the opportunity to
address.
Thanks a lot.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
Episode 18 in the box .
We will join you in a couple ofweeks for episode 19.
Thanks for watching.
Signing off.
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