Texas is at a critical crossroads where two vital and often invisible infrastructure workforce pipelines—water and broadband—are showing serious signs of strain. This challenge threatens the state’s economic prosperity and the future of its communities, especially those in rural areas. Texas Rural Funders and Texas Water Foundation commissioned Jobs for the Future to conduct a landscape analysis across the state....

Texas has some of the biggest and best hospitals in the nation, known for cancer treatment, cutting-edge research, and training generations of innovative, caring health care providers. In rural communities, small, local Texas hospitals provide many Texans with a community-based connection for first-line emergency care, regular physicals, and routine surgeries. They employ many medical professionals and support staff, and provide....

On the shores of beautiful Lake Texoma, the library in Pottsboro, Texas, reinvents the traditional library. It’s a community resource and information hub, connecting the town of 2500 and broader area population of 7000. To start, they offer a “library of things,” which expand the definition of a traditional collection. These resources can be checked out include construction equipment, tables....

Operation Connectivity formed to connect Texas’s 5.5 million public school students with an e-learning device and reliable internet sufficient for learning. The project started in May 2020 as a joint effort among Governor Greg Abbott, the Texas Education Agency, the Texas Legislature, Dallas ISD and ESC Region 4. Project lead Gaby Rowe took on the challenge in a sequence of....