A national nonprofit accelerating educational and economic outcomes for rural youth from cradle to career through programmes, civic infrastructure and investment in rural America.
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Partners for Rural Impact (PRI) is a national nonprofit that works to accelerate educational and economic outcomes for rural youth from cradle to career. Its activities fall into three areas: delivering high-quality programmes that widen access across the education-to-career pipeline; strengthening the civic infrastructure of rural places so that communities can support student opportunity and success; and mobilising resources and investment towards rural communities of persistent poverty. The organisation was founded by Dreama Gentry and grew out of place-based partnership work in Appalachia, which its founders carried on for 25 years before extending the approach to rural America nationally.
PRI's operating model is place-based. It convenes local and proximate leaders and centres community knowledge and lived experience in its decision-making, working through partnerships rather than as an outside operator. Its stated equity commitment is to serve rural students regardless of zip code, income, background or ability, with a focus on upward mobility for young people in communities of persistent poverty. Geographic presence spans Appalachia, where the work originated, and rural communities across the United States.
The organisation has set a goal of putting a further one million children and youth on a path to upward mobility by 2030. Its work sits at the intersection of education, rural and community development, youth and workforce development, and philanthropy.
