Theory of Change | Core Beliefs | Methodology The Southern Rural
Development Initiative provides practical tools for rural
community leaders, organizations, and related national sectors
to create just and economically sustainable communities across
the rural South. A nation that values and invests in rural
communities. The Southeast as a region where rural communities
-- with legacies of injustice, abuse and indifference -- have
the vision, will and resources to be just, inclusive Rural
places that young people choose to call home. Theory of Change:
SRDI believes that change happens when the following four
strategies are effectively intertwined at the local level:
Community economic development is economic development that is
initiated and controlled by the people that live in the
community. CED builds on a community’s assets – human, natural,
organizational, cultural, historic and simultaneously focuses on
three bottom lines – economic benefit, equity and inter-
generational sustainability. Community organizi