National Rural Health Day – “Rural Rising”

I’ve spent the past couple of weeks reflecting on National Rural Health Day 2025. This year’s event emphasized resilience, identifying practical pathways for rural health organizations to deepen community engagement and develop workforce retention. Since COVID-19, resilience has grown in public consciousness; individuals and communities have increasingly relied on one another to creatively innovate at times of emergency. We saw this clearly in Western North Carolina after Hurricane Helene, where the community came together to deliver supplies, share information, and clear debris. In rural communities, resilience is a way of life born of necessity to survive. Historically, the poorest and most rural counties in North Carolina were home to large populations of enslaved people. Today, these same counties experience significant barriers to healthcare access and the poor health outcomes associated with generations of structural inequity.

Systemic change does not come from a single person. No one individual has the power to transform an entire system. True, systemic change happens when communities come together, and when coalitions have authentic collaboration. A workforce development session at the event highlighted this. Panelists emphasized that the earlier medical residents could build meaningful connections to a person or place, the more likely they are to remain in that community to practice. Residents crave opportunities for genuine community engagement, and many who train in FQHCs or RHCs later choose to stay. Additionally, panelists shared that team-based care is one of the greatest contributors to retention, fostering collaborative relationships between residents and community members to jointly shape treatment plans and identify opportunities for improvement.

Growing resilience requires social innovation. On December 31, 2025, North Carolina will learn whether it received the federal funding for the Rural Health Transformation Program. The State’s application proposes a hub-and-spoke model centered on regional needs and driven by cross-sector collaboration and locally led initiatives. Advancing rural health care will require constant staff training and development, robust community engagement work to identify partnerships and resources, and prioritization of rural experiences. The community’s wealth of collective knowledge cannot be understated.

Resilience is not built or taught. It grows through repeated challenges, failures, and moments of hope: hope for a healthier future, a more equitable society, and meaningful policy change. Like a phoenix from its ashes, rural North Carolina will always rise.