What is RUX?
The Kentucky Rural-Urban Exchange (RUX) is a creative leadership program that strengthens professional and intercultural competencies while building connections across racial, economic and geographic divides— towards our shared future.
In RUX, we imagine a Kentucky where:
• Kentuckians have a shared sense of place and can see beyond the boundaries that exist between people and places.
• Kentuckians are ambassadors of their communities and of Kentucky, working together to create solutions to the challenges we face.
• Kentuckians are welcome as neighbors in other communities across geography, ideology, identity, race, class, gender, sector, and other barriers.
Who is RUX for?
Together, we are growing relationships across divides to build a more collaborative and connected Commonwealth.
RUX has connected 260 Kentuckians from 49 counties in 11 host communities. RUX members are passionate about their community and want to contribute to community solutions. They equally desire to learn about other communities and are ready to listen deeply, develop meaningful relationships, and lend their own expertise.
How is RUX led?
RUX is a values-based organization that uses a distributed leadership approach to movement building.
Partners, staff, steering committee members, host committees, alumni, and cohorts each have meaningful opportunities to contribute through program design, facilitation, committees, and evaluation.
How did RUX get here?
The Kentucky Rural-Urban Exchange (RUX) was founded in 2014 as a partnership between Art of the Rural and Appalshop. And that was just the beginning.
From grassroots backyard conversations, to becoming a model for Rural-Urban Interdependence, RUX has worked to be a sustainable and adaptive organization rooted in growth.
In 2018, our Rural-Urban Exchange Handbook was created and captures the history of RUX as well as the Currency of Connection Framework. The Living with Complexity Case Studies shares the impact of the RUX movement on twelve Kentuckians.