What happens when unresolved trauma goes untreated in rural communities—and what does it really take to rebuild hope? In this episode of Rural Builds, host Rob Birdman Hephner speaks with Jonathan Brunson at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York about the realities of mental health, poverty, and resilience in rural North Carolina.

Brunson is a board member with the Rural Opportunity Institute and the founder of Unafraid to Be Gifted. His work focuses on identifying and addressing unresolved trauma in young people—especially youth of color—in rural counties like Edgecombe, Wilson, and Tarboro. Drawing from experience in classrooms, community spaces, and grassroots organizing, Brunson explains how trauma often shows up as behavior, discipline issues, substance use, or hopelessness when the root causes go unaddressed.

The conversation explores how historic flooding, housing instability, food insecurity, lack of transportation, and limited economic opportunity compound mental health challenges in rural areas. Brunson shares why trust is the biggest barrier to change, how meeting people where they are builds credibility, and why culturally grounded outreach—like community events, barbershop conversations, and youth-centered spaces—can succeed where traditional systems fail.

More than a discussion of problems, this episode highlights the power of service, humility, and presence. From suicide prevention to youth mentorship, Brunson's story shows how one committed individual—and the right partnerships—can help rural communities move from trauma toward healing.

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Sitgreaves Community Development Corporation

What really shapes a person's health—and why does medical care account for only a small piece of the outcome? In this episode of Rural Builds, host Rob Birdman Hephner sits down at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York with Aaqil Khan, a rural systems builder working at the intersection of technology, healthcare, and community change.

Khan shares his work with Collectively, an AI-driven company focused on improving financial health literacy and patient billing experiences, alongside his passion project, Connected Communities—a three-county coalition in Northwest Illinois addressing substance use disorder, food insecurity, and housing stability. Together, they break down what "social determinants of health" really mean in everyday terms: housing, food access, transportation, education, and the ongoing stress caused by instability.

The conversation traces how efforts to address substance use disorder led upstream to deeper root causes like childhood trauma, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), and lack of social connection. Khan explains how recovery housing, sober living homes, community fridges, and recovery-friendly workplaces are all connected—and why housing, transportation, and employment form the foundation for lasting recovery and economic stability.

This episode also takes on stigma head-on, emphasizing why language matters, how data helps communities understand impact, and why building trust among local stakeholders is the hardest—and most important—work. It's a grounded, practical conversation about empathy, systems thinking, and how rural communities can build healthier futures by seeing the whole person, not just the problem.

RURAL BUILDS is brought to you by Birdman Media™ and supported by the following sponsors;

Please visit their sites for more information and support them when you can.

Sitgreaves Community Development Corporation

Mountain Retreat Realty Experts

How do communities actually solve complex problems like poverty, housing instability, and workforce readiness—without wasting money on studies that sit on a shelf? In this episode of Rural Builds, host Rob Birdman Hephner sits down with Richard Taylor, co-founder of eTransX, to unpack a platform designed to help communities work smarter, not harder.

Recorded at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the conversation explores why most communities struggle to coordinate services across nonprofits, churches, healthcare providers, and local government—and how eTransX was built to fix that. Taylor explains how the Well-Being Care Community Platform connects people, households, and service providers in one shared, person-centered system that addresses housing, food access, transportation, jobs, and other social drivers of health.

The episode explains why this kind of data sharing hasn't happened sooner, how privacy and consent are protected, and what it really costs a town or region to implement a system like this. More importantly, it shows how real-time, community-owned data can replace expensive studies, reduce duplication of effort, and help leaders make better decisions that actually improve lives.

This is a practical, plain-spoken conversation about technology as a tool—not the solution—to help rural and local communities move the needle on poverty, health, and economic development.

RURAL BUILDS is brought to you by Birdman Media™ and supported by the following sponsors;

Please visit their sites for more information and support them when you can.

Sitgreaves Community Development Corporation

Mountain Retreat Realty Experts