Okay, so this is another episode of Less People. I’m Jenny Russell, and today I am talking to Simone Elder, and I have spoken a little bit about the Power Up and Go report, and also the Power Up movement in the state of Kansas. And so I thought this would be a great segue to get Simone on and just have her talk to you a little bit more about the work that she is doing for the Kansas Sampler Foundation, and also just what challenges some of our younger people are facing in some of these rural communities.
I spoke a little bit about the fact that when you are a rural by choice person and you are a younger person, sometimes it gets a little bit lonely because maybe there’s not a lot of younger people that are back yet in your community, and so the work that you’re doing and the experience that you’re having gets a little bit lonely. So having some support there, having others that are your age from around the state that understand what you’re dealing with on an everyday basis is really helpful. So, Simone, I would like to have you introduce yourself. Tell us a little bit about what your background is and how you came into this job.
Sure. Thanks, Jenny, for having me. I’m excited to be able to share about the Power Up movement with everybody. So the Power Up movement started almost 20 years ago when Marcy Penner, the founder of the Kansas Sampler Foundation, was traveling around the state. She’s been to all 625 Kansas communities, and she noticed a difference between different communities.
In places where people in their 20s and 30s were actively involved in the decision-making team and in places of power, there was more energy and vibrancy. And after she completed the Kansas guidebook, she brought a handful of these people she met on her journey together, and that was the impetus of the Power Up movement. And a lot of the same issues that people were facing 20 years ago still continue to be things that Power Ups that I connect with now in my role are wanting to figure out, whether it’s personal items like childcare or housing or, like you mentioned, the loneliness.
It is remarkable for as friendly as rural communities can be how loneliness is a factor in helping people feel like they belong to a community. So I know that you kind of got involved as a Power Up back in the day, and probably even before the Power Up age actually started. Tell our listeners a little bit about your background and how you kind of started getting into this type of work.
Sure. So I grew up in Atwood, Kansas. Grew up rural and was involved actually in high school with our local economic development and had the opportunity to see the inner workings of community and be intentionally invited to come home to a rural community from a pretty young age.
I went off to college. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, but I continued to be involved in economic development in rural places, not just in Kansas, but across the high plains. And so in 2011, I was offered the job to be the Wichita County Economic Development Director, which is, I’m sure most of your listeners know, but it is not the city of Wichita.
It is western Kansas, Leota. And so I moved out here and took a job not knowing a single soul in this community, only thinking another rural community. Surely it’s the same.
Luckily, well, I was incorrect in that thinking, but luckily I was connected with a really good neighboring community, Christy Hopkins, who had slowly been getting involved in the Kansas Sampler Foundation Power Up Movement. And so without her, and I think that speaks to the power of the Power Up Movement, she was able to bring me along and give me this statewide group of people who were facing similar issues, people in their 20s and 30s who were, again, it’s about being rural by choice. I chose to come to Leota even though it was not the same kind of rural that I was expecting it to be.
So yeah, over the years I’ve seen the Power Ups, that core group, grow and shift and become what we call Power Ons, people who are now 40 plus. And that’s really cool to see how we’re all shaping our own rural communities. So you went from economic development to the banking world for a little while, and then this opportunity with the Kansas Sampler Foundation came about.
What kind of work are you doing and why is it important? Yeah, so in 2021, as you, I think, mentioned in previous episodes, the Kansas Sampler Foundation worked on what’s now known as the Power Up and Go Report, the PUG report. We were commissioned to do it by the Office of Rural Prosperity. And in that report, we interviewed 175 Kansans, got survey answers from nearly 500 Kansans that were 21 to 39.
And so in that, a large part of the work I’m doing is, first and foremost, I continue to interview Power Ups that come up. As we’re out around the state, we connect with these people, we hear their stories, and they’re really vital parts of the future of Kansas. And so I interview Kansans, I love opportunities like this to share about the work of the Power Up movement.
I’m also available, we’ve done this a few times since I’ve been on, I’ve been on almost two years, of gathering local Power Ups in a community and helping them, A, connect with one another, which is really powerful, but also helping them understand there are other people across the state who are facing similar challenges and invite them to be part of that network. There’s, you know, we’ve tried to create a network of trust to help people know that they’re not alone and that their choice to be in a rural community does not mean they failed or are less than or made a mistake. It’s okay to feel those things, but we want to help raise the bar and give them some hope and connections to move forward on things that are important to them.
So as I mentioned before, in some of the previous episodes, this was really important to my success in a rural area, and as Simone just mentioned, this has been really important for her success in a rural area. Sometimes people take that leap and get to a rural area, especially as a younger person, and decide, well, this is really daunting and really hard, and so if you don’t have those extra people, we talked a lot about networks a couple of years ago at some of Marcy’s events about having that network. The network, and who you know, is really important to your success in many different things, not just rural Kansas and rural life, but in, you know, in work and different avenues of life.
Just who you know is important. So you talked about the Kansas, the rural, sorry, Power Up and Go report. What were some of the key findings of that report, just some of the top points off the top of your head in terms of what younger people are facing in some of our rural areas? Yeah, so I mentioned at the top, child care was a big thing, and the interesting findings, I guess, that came out of this, in my opinion, one thing was the call out for, it’s not just one person or community’s job.
For us to be successful and for rural Kansas to be attractive to more young people, it’s going to take government agencies stepping up. It’s going to take local community foundations and economic development agencies putting their money behind projects as they’re able. So child care, a need for communities to be welcoming out of this, one of, I guess, a more soft, softer, not program driven thing that came out of it was this idea of communities of the future.
And so communities of the future need to be welcoming. Young people want to live in places that are welcoming, have arts and culture. I, in some of my interviews, and it was echoed out of the PUG report interviews as well, people are looking for sidewalks.
They’re looking for salads, good food, fresh physical activity, good food, and spontaneity, which I think really just leads to that idea of how do we connect with one another in rural communities? And I want to give a shout out to one other program. It wasn’t necessarily named this in the in the Power Up and Go report, but an idea that came forth was, man, wouldn’t it be nice if we had a way to take these these people, these power ups who are volunteering their time to make projects happen, give them a little bit of money to really focus in on it and give them a little bit of money to support the project so it can really grow eggs and move forward. And out of that, the Office of Rural Prosperity has created the Rural Champions Project.
And so they’re in their second cycle of about a dozen people across the state who have identified a need in their community, whether it’s focusing on mental health or housing or child care or even just starting up an economic development. And I mean, you’re you know all about what that kind of work that takes. So the Rural Champions Program is something that really has grown legs and is being supported across the state.
And I really think that’s something that we’ve seen a lot of progress in since you and I think I’m a little older than you. So even before you, since we started in this work those many years ago, I feel like the state of Kansas has really taken notice of rural areas. And I don’t feel like that was always the case.
It was more of a focus on the urban areas where you could show a lot of impact and a shorter amount of time because you had the numbers of people. But the truth is, a large majority of our state is rural. And so, yes, there may not be as many people and economies of scale in those terms, but a large geographic region was kind of just an afterthought.
And I really feel like the Office of Rural Prosperity has been a great step forward in getting that rural voice out and having them listen to those boots on the ground people like Marcy Penner with the Kansas Sampler Foundation that have been out in these communities and working in these communities for many years. So it’s nice to be able to be heard and also nice to be able to have some action behind some of these items. Yeah.
So in terms of your implementing the recommendations from the Power Up and Go report, which I really like what you were talking about with sidewalks, I mean, sidewalks, you would think, what a simple little thing. But I remember trying to walk my babies around our small town in a stroller and it was like, OK, one little tiny bit of sidewalk was good. You had to go to the street.
You had to come back. And that was awful. And it was just a nightmare to walk.
And, you know, child care, we, you know, we think of this as a rural Kansas problem. But what I found from some of my work with the Aspen Institute out of Washington, D.C., is this is a rural problem nationwide. Bakersville, California, some of those places that we consider very big, they have the exact same issues with housing and child care that rural Kansas does.
Chicago, Iowa, a lot of those rural places that have rural areas also have those challenges. So it’s not just an us problem. And I think that comforted me a little bit knowing, OK, it’s not just us that’s behind.
There’s an issue here creating that problem. So let’s talk a little bit about what you’re working on now, some of your initiatives trying to implement the findings from the Power Up and Go report. Who are you looking for or to for leads and what kind of people are you looking up to looking for for power ups to to talk to and help? Yeah, so where to start.
One thing you mentioned, though, I think when the power up movement was sort of first rolled out as an idea, there were probably some older people who said, well, what about us? Like what makes the young people so important? But we found that things that are good for power ups are really good for the whole community. And I mean, you nailed it. Like people are having children at that age.
So child care and good walkable streets is important. But then they’re also preparing for for the future of their community. Like, hey, maybe when I’m, you know, 65, 70, I want to be able to walk if, for God forbid, my my driving license is taken away.
But these are all it’s all part of the system. And eventually we’re going to grow older and we hope that we’re able to age in place. So on that note, the kind of people who are power ups and one of the things I’d really like to do is I love a good quiz that like, hey, you’re this kind of person.
I want to develop a power up quiz that tells you, oh, you’re a you’re a joiner or you’re a starter or you’re the person who’s always going to show up with the cookies because power ups can look like all all of those things. So one thing that makes a good power up is really leaning into that role by choice. Another thing is appreciating the people who have come before you and the work that they have done.
We often as power ups, we do we come with different experiences after moving away or living other places. And and it’s important to be confident in the skills that we bring to a community and the table. But it’s it’s also important to respect the ideals of the community, get to know the community.
If it’s someplace that you’ve never been, take a trip to the museum. And so I just want to see the power up movement grow in terms of people, a identifying as power ups. And I see this work looking in a couple of ways.
You know, recently, the Northwest Kansas Today, Dane G. Hansen Magazine interviewed three three power ups. And one of them that really came to mind was Zoe Kaiser from the Greenfield Grinnell area. And she she moved back with her husband, has an opportunity like businesses in sort.
They were able to figure out some housing. Luckily, when they moved back and she’s really thinking about that future, what do I want this place to look like for my children? Even if I’m right now, I feel like I’m the only person in my mid 20s who has moved back. And that is the loneliness journey.
So we’re bringing bringing her into the network and hoping to connect her with the neighbors, like another one of the power ups who was interviewed. Alissa Kirchhoff from Stuttgart, Phillips County area. So it’s that’s a big part of the work.
It’s it’s by ones like finding the power ups who are maybe struggling, maybe maybe not struggling. Maybe they’re just doing really cool things and elevating their stories and bringing them into the network. And because I think young people just want to know that they’re living in a place that likes itself and that they’re not alone.
And it’s a good one of the things I like to remind people, and this was part of the power up and go report was really talking about the business infrastructure. And you’re an excellent example of like, I want to be rural. Now, what can I do from here? And in my work previously with Network Kansas, I once heard a speaker say the quote, like, I want to stand on the edge of my community and look out and see what I can offer the world from here.
And with there’s just lots of opportunities globally for power ups to be able to do that. We just had our big real brainstorm conference last week, and the theme was transforming ideas from blah to bold. And one of the messages we encourage people to sort of walk away with, and I think it’s important again for power ups is you’re not settling by choosing rural.
You can we can do bold things. We can be bold. We can have just as many nice things in rural places.
I think the quote came from you. Rural is not less than. So from the from the thought process that you’re stuck somewhere to the process that you’re ruled by choice, it’s very empowering, you know, being ruled by choice.
You’re here on purpose. You’re not here because you got stuck. You’re not here because you failed somewhere else.
You’re here because you love the people. You love the place. I always say, too, if it’s not your hometown that you’re you’re drawn back to, but you do love rural, try somewhere in your region, you know, finding those other people who are ruled by choice as well.
You know, it’s just kind of like a snowball effect. I know we’ve had some successes around that in some of the areas I work in. And, you know, somebody does something cool and then somebody is like, well, I could do something cool.
And so then they do something with a building. And then, you know, it really happened when the city fixed the streets. I mean, that’s something, you know, not from a rule by choice power up movement type of thing, but the city invested in the sidewalks and the power poles.
And you wouldn’t think that’s a big deal, but it elevated how Main Street looked. And then people started catching on and doing cool things. So it’s kind of amazing how that can snowball.
So let’s talk a little bit about what if you’re not a power up, but you just really want to encourage power ups in your place. You know, I think a lot of us get comfortable in our own skin and in our own place. And maybe we don’t reach out like we should, or maybe we don’t get out of our house and go meet somebody new like we should.
What are some things if you’re not a power up, but you want to encourage people who are power ups in your community? What are some things you can do? So I’m glad you asked this question. One of my favorite sections besides the communities of the future in the power up and go report is a section about creating the choir. So if you are a person who has been in your community for a really long time, one thing you can do is be the welcomer.
So I remember when I first moved to Leota, again, thinking I knew rural communities, I would sit on my porch, hoping that my neighbor, someone or someone, drive by and say, hey, welcome to the community. And that that is huge, just knowing you have a contact or, you know, a friendly face in the community or the grocery store is is a huge thing that someone has been around. And then to that point, like invite them to go to your board meeting or even a city council meeting or a or a fun event.
I think sometimes we get caught as people who have been a community for a long time saying, oh, there’s someone new, I’m going to have them join this club and keep the next president. And we really need to do a better job of letting people like dip their toe and things, because, again, the the idea of power, it’s a little bit about this transfer of power, a transition of leadership. And so you you want to do that, but you don’t want to dump all your dump, all your stuff on the newcomers and the power ups.
Another thing I think people can do is really kind of priming the pump for the next four power ups to become power up. And we call people under the age of 21 spark the people who are rural by choice and enthused about rural communities, but aren’t power ups, they’re sparks. So as someone who’s been in the community, whether you’re a teacher or a business owner, like what are ways you can invest, whether it’s offering summer jobs or internships for kids so they can get some hands on experience or just talking positively about the things in your community, not always saying, oh, but we’re rural and we’ve tried that before.
And so I guess to that final point, I would just say, ask how how you can help. Maybe they maybe they need a babysitter because they don’t have family in the community. And, you know, an afternoon of babysitting to run errands might be really helpful.
Or maybe they just need somebody to grab coffee with. Sure. So if if this is resonating with the listener and they’re like, I know somebody that could use that extra support and that’s in that age group and who is rural by choice, how do they get ahold of you to recommend somebody that might be good for you to speak to and help? And is there any other parameters around that? Yeah, no, I welcome if you if you know somebody who sounds like they are a power up and has that power up energy, you can either send me an email and I don’t know if I’ll let you include that in your show notes, but send me an email introduction or just say, hey, here’s this person.
I am not afraid to cold call someone or look on Facebook and introduce myself and their their direct messages because we’re excited to welcome people who are doing things. And so then what that looks like is I’d set up a phone call or a Zoom and just get to know them. And we also then offer we have a Facebook page and then a Facebook group where serving those power up groups.
And finally, I just put a plug in for our We Can Tid Bits newsletter that the Kansas Sampler Foundation sends out monthly. I include a week tip for power ups in there. And it’s good for those who are power ups and those like we just mentioned, like people who are power ons or have lived in the community.
Like, how do you create an opportunity to connect with those people? So email the best way or check out our website, ruralbychoice.com, and there’s a way to submit questions and information that way, too. OK, I just want to point out, too, we talked about the office of rural prosperity has really put some force behind some of the some of the initiatives that our rural communities have looked at for years. And so I guess my my final point would be dream bigger.
You know, I think that’s what I noticed when someone mentioned the Northwest Kansas Today magazine with Dane G. Hanson. And when we live in a very fortunate part of our state and the counties that are served by the Dane G. Hanson Foundation. But that was somebody dreaming back in the day, you know, Dane G. Hanson in the 1960s put a little, you know, some money into an account or into a foundation fund thinking, didn’t know what that would mean this many years later.
So I’ve talked about investing in your community foundations and your communities is a very good thing to do to create those many Dane G. Hanson foundations for your community and your region. So the Northwest Kansas, especially you can dream bigger than we ever have before. It’s something I really notice is that our communities didn’t dream big enough in the beginning because we used to have to, you know, if we wanted to do something, the power ups wanted to do at the pool or the park.
You have to have like 65 bake sales to be able to do anything with any substance or any substantial investment. And so having some of those abilities and statewide with the Office of Rural Prosperity, they have grant programs. Patterson Foundation has grant programs.
Network Kansas has a lot of different funding available for business. And so I just encourage you to dream bigger as a Kansan, listen to your power ups and see what they want and see what you can make happen. And don’t limit yourself on your rules so you can’t have nice things.
I think that’s a great, great point to be made. Thank you, Simone, for coming on today to Less People and telling us a little bit more about the power up movement. Is there anything you want to say in closing? No, I just want to say thank you for for doing this podcast, even.
I mean, this is this is a fantastic resource. So thanks for letting me on. OK, thanks, Simone.