Ann Arbor, Michigan, March 9, 2026: Corporation for a Skilled Workforce (CSW), with support from Truist Foundation, is launching the Rural Workforce Academy (RWA), a two-year initiative designed to strengthen workforce organizations serving rural communities across the Southeastern United States. The RWA will equip local leaders and practitioners with practical tools, peer learning opportunities, enhanced data strategies, and trauma-informed approaches that support worker and staff resilience, expanding access to quality jobs and support long-term economic mobility for workers and their families.
Up to 20 workforce practitioners from organizations in rural communities across the Southeast U.S. will be selected to participate in an up-to 12-month learning experience that includes facilitated learning sessions, individualized coaching, and applied learning projects. Following the Academy, organizations will continue to receive coaching and have access to a Rural Workforce Learning Network to sustain collaboration, share results, and advance long-term systems change.
The Academy will kick off with outreach in Spring 2026, with plans to officially launch in late summer 2026. CSW will release a short survey in March to gather feedback from organizations serving rural communities. Insights from this survey will help illuminate current challenges and ensure the Academy is responsive to the immediate needs and realities facing rural workforce practitioners.
Rural regions are close-knit communities with deep local knowledge and dedicated workforce professionals. The Rural Workforce Academy builds on these existing strengths by helping organizations deepen service quality, strengthen and build partnerships, and use data to guide decision-making and continuous improvement. Through a structured learning experience, participating organizations will collaborate with peers, apply improvement strategies in real time, and strengthen pathways to middle-skill and higher-wage jobs.
“The Rural Workforce Academy is about recognizing the strengths already present in rural communities and investing in the people and the organizations that work every day to create opportunity and make it reachable,” said Jessica Carr, Senior Policy Associate at CSW. “By bringing these organizations together across regions, we’re creating a space where they can learn from one another, test new ideas, and use data to design solutions that fit their communities. Building lasting change doesn’t happen overnight—it’s incremental, one step at a time, one partnership at a time, and one really good job at a time.”
“Rural communities are rich with talent, resilience, and deep local knowledge, yet too often face barriers to opportunity,” said Lynette Bell, head of Truist Philanthropy and president of Truist Foundation. “At Truist Foundation, we believe everyone deserves access to career pathways that lead to economic mobility and long‑term stability. We’re pleased to support the Rural Workforce Academy and to partner with organizations that are building on existing strengths to expand opportunity, bolster local systems, and help rural communities thrive.”
Following the initial survey in March, recruitment for the RWA will begin in early spring 2026. Workforce boards, American Job Centers, education and training providers, and community-based organizations that are actively engaged in workforce development activities within rural communities in the Southeastern United States, including Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia, are encouraged to apply once applications open.
For more information or to join the list of interested organizations, please contact Jessica Carr, Senior Policy Associate at jcarr@skilledwork.org
About Corporation for a Skilled Workforce (CSW): Corporation for a Skilled Workforce (CSW) is a national workforce policy non-profit that partners with government, business, education, and community leaders to cultivate good jobs and the skilled workers to fill them. Since 1991, CSW has catalyzed change in educational and labor market systems, focusing on scalable improvements in worker skills, job quality, and access to opportunity. CSW provides services across five strategy areas: Competencies & Credentials; Improving Practices & Outcomes; Federal, State, & Local Systems Change; Research & Evaluation; and Trauma & Resilience at Work. CSW advances policies and practices which increase economic mobility, particularly for people of color and others historically excluded from economic success.
About the Truist Foundation: Truist Foundation is committed to Truist Financial Corporation’s (NYSE: TFC) purpose to inspire and build better lives and communities. The Foundation, an endowed private foundation established in 2020 whose operating budget is independent of Truist Financial Corporation, makes strategic investments in a wide variety of nonprofit organizations centered around two focus areas: building career pathways to economic mobility and strengthening small businesses to ensure all communities have an opportunity to thrive. Embodying these focus areas are the Foundation’s leading initiatives – the Inspire Awards and Where It Starts. Learn more at TruistFoundation.org.
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