The situation in our small towns—and some help

One kind of community in America that is struggling today, especially in areas that are not close to a sizable city, is the very small town—a place with just several thousand people, or less. Of course, to live in western Illinois is to be familiar with many such places.

I’ve been studying and discussing those communities for a long time. One highly praised book that I first read in college long ago, and still have a copy of, is “Main Street on the Middle Border” (1954) by Lewis Atherton. He focuses on the development of Midwestern small towns from the later nineteenth century—when many such places were doing rather well, economically, and there was a deep sense of meaningful community—to the mid-twentieth century, when things had often become far worse.

Early in the book, Atherton discusses the many small town activities that drew local people together and the sense of “belonging” and “togetherness” that so many village residents enjoyed. But later in the book, he discusses the negative changes that were becoming evident in the twentieth century, as people struggled with poverty and lack of development in so many of those communities:

“Many small places have been hard hit. In some of them . . . decay is so evident to the visitor from the moment he arrives. Empty store buildings . . . vacant lots on Main Street; unpainted, warped, and dying business houses. . . . In such places, only one or two grocery stores and a filling station still operate.”

Another, more recent book, which I have often referred to when giving small-town programs, is Robert Wuthrow’s “Small-Town America: Finding Community, Shaping the Future” (2013). He discusses in some detail “How Small Towns Are Changing” (through declining population, loss of local businesses, etc.), but he also recommends some helpful approaches to maintaining an effective “spirit of community.” Among those are “rituals and celebrations that bring people together . . . for emotional expression, remembrance, and joy”; having a well-known “story of community,” which “tells how it originated, who founded it, and . . . weaves together its stories about progress, failure, hard times, and notable events,” and maintaining “social networks” that “tie people together” and promote “neighborly behavior, along with acts of charity, benevolence, and community service.”

Another helpful recent book is “Rural Communities: Legacy and Change” (2013) by Cornelia and Jan Flora. It also emphasizes helpful approaches for such rural villages, including developing a community vision, creating better housing opportunities, establishing walkable areas, etc. Like Wuthrow, the authors stress community interaction as well, to allow for meaningful conversation, to foster appreciation for others, and to promote community through “storytelling” about local experience.

All of that relates to a new initiative, focused on serving such small towns, which has been initiated by the Illinois Humanities organization. That public service group is now providing grants to rural villages in our state, to provide programs that pull local residents together, increase awareness of community history, conserve local traditions, emphasize shared values, etc. In short, that state organization wants to foster meaningful, helpful cultural activities in Illinois villages (of 7,500 or fewer people), so civic engagement is promoted and rural villages have a stronger sense of community and social purpose.

Grants of up to $10,000 dollars are available through their Foreground Rural Initiative program, which libraries, public high schools, civic organizations, and public economic development groups in rural villages should consider applying for. Simply go to their website for more information: https://ilhumanities.org/program/foreground-rural-initiative/.

I urge readers of the “McDonough County Voice” who know residents in nearby small towns to pass along this information, so that folks in area villages can become aware that funding is available for programs and activities that strengthen community and foster social purpose in such places. (There will be grants available in 2022, 2023, and 2024.) In my view, this is a great opportunity for residents of small towns to make progress toward activities which can have a meaningful impact on the local community.)

The situation of rural villages today is something we all need to be aware of, and helpful toward, as local residents in those places make efforts to improve the communities that they belong to. And I hope people in our region of Illinois, where such small towns are so common, make a big effort to use this rare opportunity to acquire funds from Illinois Humanities for activities and programs that strengthen their rural communities.

Writer and speaker John Hallwas is a columnist for the “McDonough County Voice.”

This article originally appeared on The McDonough County Voice: Small towns face significant challenges