May 15, 2025

“We can all thrive. We can all live lives of meaning and dignity, and the key to our thriving is found in our community.” 

This reflection from Kamilah Pickett, Director of Race Matters Institute at MDC, captures the essence of the 2025 State of the South Report. In May 2025, MDC hosted a series of webinars diving into the report’s themes of Meaning, Dignity, and Community and associated recommendations for action. We were joined by community partners, report authors, and MDC staff to help us break down these themes and how they are playing out in Southerners’ lives today. Couldn’t make the webinars? Read on for our recap of the conversation on Dignity below.  

DIGNITY 

On May 15, Cate Elander was joined by Peter Hille, recently retired CEO of Mountain Association; Courtney Alexander, Program Director for Educational Equity at MDC; and Angel Conrad, Director of Parents as Teachers at Imprints Cares, to discuss the Dignity section of the 2025 State of the South Report. MDC defines dignity as “the sense of respect and value Southerners experience in all the places they live, learn, and work”. In this conversation, we discussed the importance of investing in rural communities and early childhood educators.  

Community Economic Development 

“We’ve got to really build this from the ground up and be very thoughtful not just about what we’re trying to accomplish, but how we do it, and who benefits.” – Peter Hille 

Rural America is transforming, and the South is playing a big role. From 2022-2023, the Southeastern US added about 95,800 residents, 90% of the 108,000 residents that moved to rural counties across the country in that year. As new people move into these communities, we need to make sure that the local economy will continue to support them. Some of the South’s largest rural industries, including manufacturing, agriculture, and retail, have been in decline for decades, while the real estate, administrative, and education sectors have experienced the most growth. In coal communities like those in Eastern Kentucky, people have been experiencing these “boom and bust” cycles since the 1950s, as coal jobs began to decrease even while coal production increased. As economies and population in the rural South shift, it is more important than ever to center communities and workers in planning for the future.  

Peter Hille, recently retired CEO of Mountain Association, discussed the importance of investing in communities and infrastructure to create spaces where people want to live and run businesses after decades of extractive industries serving as the main economic driver. Peter stressed the importance of investing in broadband, affordable housing, and childcare to attract entrepreneurs and retirees to choose life in rural communities. As communities transform, it is key to invest in leaders and worker training so that children and families feel that there are opportunities for the future. Ideally, children will have a pathway to remain in their hometown communities and not feel pressured to seek prosperity elsewhere.  

“What we have to do is help communities recreate themselves as places where people can live and will choose to live. And when we do that, the people will come, and the jobs will follow.” – Peter Hille 

Childcare Workforce 

“As we work with these providers, we want them to have their voices lifted because you cannot create something for people if you do not talk to them and find out what they need.” – Courtney Alexander 

Child care is a crucial sector of the economy, offering parents the opportunity to go to work while giving children what they need right now and setting up future generations of learners for success. Yet, early childhood educators remain underpaid and undervalued. Take North Carolina as an example: the average hourly wage for center-based providers is $14.42; for family child care providers, it is $10.19. Likely due in part to these low wages, 35% of family child care providers and 42% of center-based providers report using public assistance in the past three years. Only 49% of center-based providers had access to employer-subsidized health insurance. Turnover and staff absences in the child care field cost the state $5.65 billion annually – so investing in higher wages and protections for child care providers is a clear opportunity to boost economies across the South.  

Family child care providers are a critical source of care for immigrant families, families living in rural areas, and families who work second and third shift, yet the number of family child care providers has been declining, dropping from 10,124 in 2003 to 2,506 in 2023. MDC’s Home-Based Child Care initiative aims to support these providers in making the profession’s wages and benefits more sustainable. As a Program Director, Courtney Alexander leads MDC’s work with providers and support organizations working to improve policies, systemic support, and awareness of the importance of home-based child care in NC. The initiative is designed to offer shared learning and connections to home-based providers as well as develop a unified policy agenda to improve conditions for child care providers across the state. Angel Conrad, Director of Parents as Teachers at Imprints Cares, is a member of the Home-Based Child Care Community of Practice. 

Family, friend, and neighbor care (FFN, or informal child care) is an important piece of the child care puzzle. Angel shared an example emphasizing the importance of support systems for FFN care: her organization was able to connect an elderly family caregiver with information and resources to provide more comprehensive care to their grandchild with developmental delays.  

“Family, Friend, and Neighbor Care (FFN) is very crucial to the development of the economy. Without FFN care providers, many of our families would not be able to go to work. FFN is the most popular form of childcare, and I would like to say that FFN caregivers are not just babysitters. They are educators, and . . . the laws and the licensing procedures for home-based child care as well as FFN care [should be] fair for all care providers, all types of care, informal and formal.” -Angel Conrad 

Conclusion 

We concluded the Dignity webinar by lifting up the recommendations from the Call to Action section of the 2025 State of the South Report. To learn more and get involved, check out the Call to Action, and let us know how you’d like to join us in the work to build a thriving South.  

• Download our Webinar Resource Guide (links to data, research and narratives about the issues) 

• Watch our Webinar Highlight Reel (covering key data, report author perspectives, and what we can do next) 

ABOUT STATE OF THE SOUTH 

MDC’s State of the South program aims to build knowledge and collective power in the South by forging and deepening connections between communities, artists, nonprofit leaders, policy makers, and funders working on shared issues. We do this by sharing regional data and amplifying effective policies and strategies, hosting issue-focused convenings across the region, and investing in Southern art and storytelling.  

Read the 2025 State of the South Report. To get connected with State of the South, reach out to Cate Elander, State of the South Program Director, at [email protected].