Apply for the 2024 Cohort
What is RUX?
The Kentucky Rural-Urban Exchange (RUX) cohort is a leadership program designed to develop skills and confidence, grow social capital, and build relationships to bridge divides.
Over the years, 300 Kentuckians from 65 counties have been collaborating for Kentucky’s future. Each summer, the KY RUX cohort program is hosted in two regions of the state and is designed to help participants understand and value the culture, landscape, context, and people of each place.
KY RUX is an initiative of Art of the Rural and is facilitated by a statewide steering committee and staff. The initiative is supported by statewide partnerships with the Kentucky Arts Council, the Kentucky Folklife Program, and regional host partnerships.
To date, RUX has been hosted in Bowling Green, Hindman, Horse Cave, Campbellsville & Taylor County, Covington, Whitesburg, Louisville, Paducah, Harlan, Muhlenberg County, Lexington, Owensboro & Daviess County, and Estill County, bringing dozens of people to these regions for the first time. From an Eastern Kentucky hotel development to integrated learning across our community college system, a dozen collaborations have developed.
Please review all of the information provided to ensure that RUX is a good fit for you and that you can attend all of the 2024 Dates.
Applications for the 2025-2026 cohort will open on February 10, 2025. Subscribe to our newsletter to be notified or follow us on social media.
Key 2025 Dates
February 10 - Applications Open
February 22 - Virtual Open House (optional)
March 10 - Applications Close
By March 26 - Acceptance Notification
April 4 - Signed Commitment, Participation Fee, and Bio Due
May 1 - Public Announcement of KY RUX 2025 Cohort
Virtual Orientation:
Saturday, April 26th, 9am CT/10am ET via Zoom
The 2025 Exchange dates and locations are to be announced in early 2025.
COVID-19 Concerns
We can't wait to travel Kentucky with you safely. We care about your well-being and the health of the communities that will host RUX throughout the summer. Our cohort members, steering committee, and staff will all agree and adhere to safety protocols based on best practice guidelines. More information is available in the application.
KY RUX cohort members gather for a storycircle at the Daviess County Public Library during the Owensboro 2024 Community Intensive.
How does RUX work?
RUX attracts Kentuckians who are interested in getting to know different regions of the state while developing leadership skills. We invite applications each Spring and select our cohort based on peer review. We work to ensure that each RUX cohort is diverse in thoughts and beliefs, geography, and their experiences of age, ability, expertise, gender, race, sexuality, culture, and class.
Upon acceptance, cohort members commit to four community intensive conferences over a two-year period, with two intensives scheduled between May-October each year. Cohort members will also be able to attend two optional relationship & partnership-building weekends with alumni. Over two years, each cohort is hosted in at least four communities of varied size and geography. We choose to meet in communities across rural and urban Kentucky to build connection across cultural, racial, economic and geographic divides.
In each community, a host committee and regional partner design an itinerary that uplifts the hidden treasures in their community and reflects their diversity of people, cultures, organizations, and businesses. Alongside these place-based experiences, RUX integrates workshops, trainings, and facilitation from our Currency of Connection framework into the agenda. These processes support creative leadership development, build networks, and inspire cross-sector collaborations that are specific to the context of Kentucky in the 21st century.
We know that all Kentuckians have cultural and historical experiences that are representative of their place. RUX aids members in recognizing how our regional identities are connected to other Kentucky regions. By revealing and emphasizing these connections, we develop the trust and shared values necessary to advance long-term work. This approach to leadership development helps Kentuckians remember our roots, reclaim our sense of belonging, and connect Kentucky people and places.
What kinds of activities will I do in RUX?
We explore themes and issues through the radically simple approach of spending time with those most affected— square dancing with folks in recovery at a treatment facility in Appalachia, sharing traditional Bosnian coffee with immigrants and refugees in a Southern Kentucky mosque, and listening to RUX veterans share their military service experience while staying on an army base in the Western Kentucky Coalfields.
We know that understanding sense of place relies on immersive experiences, so we often host seminars in the community—discussing regional collaborations in government with elected officials at the Bellevue Community Center, teaching network strategy at the African American Museum in Bowling Green, and identifying the unique opportunities and challenges of each region at the Eastern Kentucky Social Club.
We also plan unforgettable social experiences to create the conditions for social cohesion—a pontoon tour of Lake Malone, a fish fry supper at the Hotel Metropolitan, or an evening of matchless entertainment from the RUX Talent Showcase.
In addition to the travel, immersive experiences, and social experiences, RUX strives to create open and compassionate spaces for people from different backgrounds and experiences to meet, learn more about our communities, engage in respectful dialogue, and move forward together. A range of cultural traditions and facilitation techniques are used to guide Exchange members through explorations of common identity, history, and culture. This aspect of programming draws on practices including story circles, rooted in the Civil Rights Movement, seminar discussions focused on readings and viewings of cultural materials, cultural cartography, cultural organizing workshops, narrative stages, and personal writing prompts.
A core piece of a RUXer’s experience is their Home Room group. These smaller groups serve as a touch point through the entire RUX year to check in, process and break down the programming and supplementary materials, and serve as a group that works together throughout the year.
For more information about this Currency of Connection Framework, check out our Exchange Handbook.
KY RUX cohort members, alumni, & their families squaredance at Third Weekend 2024, Carter Caves State Resort Park.
Who are we looking for?
As an ideal candidate for RUX, you are passionate about your community and want to contribute to community solutions. You equally desire to learn about other Kentucky communities and are ready to listen deeply, develop meaningful relationships, and lend their your expertise. The ideal RUX candidate is thoughtful, sincere, curious, accountable, respectful, and open.
The ideal RUX cohort will include members from various stages of life, experience, and career development. RUX alumni are aged 18-72 and work as farmers, nurses, poets, factory workers, CEOs, teachers, elected officials, and more. Some are retired, some pursuing higher education, and others cannot hold full time employment because of a disability, illness, or caretaking responsibility. We value the whole person at RUX. We recognize that many Kentucky leaders do not hold paid leadership positions, and believe that while professional life is important, it is not always defining. While we value understanding how your role, affiliation, or experience might support your work with the RUX network, it is not our only criteria. We strongly consider the ideas, aspirations, and values you share in the application narrative in our assessment.
COMMITMENT TO ACCESS:
It is our goal that RUX is fully accessible to individuals with disabilities. Several RUX alumni experience auto-immune disorders, blindness and visual impairment, hearing impairment, and physical mobility issues. We are committed to making every accommodation to ensure accessibility to this program. We are prepared to offer accommodations and alternatives to this text-based application if needed.
COMMITMENT TO EQUITY, DIVERSITY, INCLUSION, AND ANTI-RACISM:
The Kentucky Rural-Urban Exchange works to amplify a more complete and nuanced representation of Kentucky and to skill more Kentuckians in working across differences. We believe in the vision of a united Kentucky Commonwealth.
RUX knows firsthand that geography is not the only thing that divides us. To build pathways for people to work across differences, we have to create spaces that are safe, accessible, and welcoming to people from a range of backgrounds, beliefs, and experiences of age, ability, expertise, gender, race, sexuality, culture, and class.
RUX is an anti-racist organization. For us, that means working to create an environment where all RUX members know that they are valued. We do this by identifying, challenging, and working to correct racism and other inequities within our network and in the communities we visit. We strive to be an open and compassionate space for Kentuckians to meet, learn more about our state, engage in respectful dialogue, and move forward together.
What's the commitment?
RUX is a two-year commitment. By completing this application, you are committing to fully participate in two intensives per year in 2025 and 2026, and occasionally participate remotely. The intensives always take place between May-October and are weekend-long, typically beginning at 4 PM, local time, on Friday, and adjourning by 3PM on Sunday.
Virtual Orientation:
Saturday, April 26th, 9am CT/10am ET
The 2025 Exchange dates and locations are to be announced in early 2025.
What you get:
Lifelong friends across the Commonwealth, who share your passions and interest in Kentucky’s future.
Skills development and new connections that benefit you personally and professionally.
Access to media, readings and the unique Currency of Connection Framework.
Overnight stays (valued at $1500 per participant), which will help you see Kentucky communities from new perspectives.
Food, experiences, and entertainment reflecting regional culture and traditions.
The benefit of understanding other Kentuckians' narratives and experiences.
What you give:
A signed participant agreement form.
Attendance at all four exchange weekends over two years; your complete participation is vital to the experience.
Transportation and some meal costs. (Carpooling and travel reimbursements are available.)
Collaboration with other exchange participants to address opportunities and challenges in your community.
Continued communication throughout the two years, including completing requests for information and follow-up surveys.
A participation fee* with the option of adding a donation or sponsoring others. We maintain this low cost thanks to generous supporters.
*Participation Fees
Our goal is that the cost to participate is not a barrier for RUX members. Thanks to generous supporters, partners, and donors we are able to offer the RUX experience on a sliding scale, pay-what-you-can model.
We ask at a minimum for participants to pay $25 per year towards supporting our cohort experiences. While $25 helps, it does not reflect the true cost of our programming, which would be more accurately supported by a fee of $75/per weekend intensive.
In the spirit of greater access, we hope that those who are able and want to support others contribute what they can on a sliding scale towards the cost of $75/per weekend.
For cohort members who are attending RUX on behalf of a business or organization, whose name will be listed in cohort directories and appear on the participant’s name badge each weekend, we ask for their support of $100/per weekend.
All participation fees above $25 generously allow for more people across Kentucky to experience RUX; we appreciate your consideration as you select a participation payment that fit for you.
Applying to RUX
RUX applications are reviewed and scored by a panel of steering committee members who have graduated from the program themselves. The process is highly competitive, and panelists take great care in carefully reviewing each application. For questions about the application process, email us at kentuckyrux@gmail.com.
If you need assistance filling out your application, you can meet with our team.
Have questions or want application tips?
Join us for our Virtual Application Open House! This is low-pressure, relaxed virtual gathering to share application tips and answer any questions you have about RUX or the process.
Saturday, February 22
9am CT/ 10am ET
via Zoom