WHO WE ARE
Decatur County is one of the poorest counties in Iowa. It's also full of people and organizations who already know how to take care of each other. Our job is to make them easier to find.
We're a small, volunteer-run organization focused on the years when support matters most: early childhood. We do that through education people can really use, and through building things ( gardens, panels, handouts ) that stay in the community after the event ends.
WHAT WE do
Before and After Baby
Pregnancy and the first few months at home are when families in rural counties have the fewest places to turn. We're building family nutrition education that meets people where they are and connection to the care and support that already exists nearby.
Resources for growing families
Parents shouldn't have to piece together what their kids need from scattered flyers and word of mouth. We build practical resources for families with young children: a plain-language guide to what's available in Decatur County, food security programming, and free tools like Tableshed that help households make the most of the land and food they have.
A whole community raising kids
Children's development isn't a private family project; it's something a town does together. We connect neighbors to that work through the Peacemakers community garden, food security panels and pantry partnerships, and internships that bring people into the day-to-day of building something for local families.
meet the TEAM
Lauren athon
I'm a data scientist with degrees in data science and human environmental sciences, and I live in Lamoni.
I came to this work because I kept noticing the same gap: small towns are full of people doing the actual labor of keeping each other fed, housed, and cared for, and they're doing it alone. Uplift exists to close a little of that gap: supporting parents and young families here, with the resources and information that bigger places take for granted.
A few things I believe, so you know what you're walking into:
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Mutual aid, not charity. The people we serve are neighbors, not cases. That shapes how we write, how we ask questions, and who gets a say.
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Local knowledge is real knowledge. Data matters, but it doesn't outrank what a parent already knows about their own life. Our job is to make information usable, not to tell people what their experience means.
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People should own what they build. The tools I make are free, open, and in the process of becoming self-hosted: no one should have to rent access to information about their own community.
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Unglamorous work counts. Most of what moves things forward is a handout that's readable, a spreadsheet that's clean, and a meeting that people showed up to in-person. Members (volunteers, interns, board members) here do real work, not busywork, and your name goes on it.
If that sounds like your kind of thing, I'd love to hear from you.
Eva yelle
Eva Yelle is a lifelong Lamoni resident who is passionate about strengthening the community she calls home.
An avid reader and true crime documentary enthusiast, she loves learning new facts and hearing people's stories.
Growing up in Lamoni instilled in her a deep appreciation for the power of community, and that appreciation grew even stronger when she became a mother and began raising her own family here.
Eva believes that thriving rural communities are built through connection, service, and a shared commitment to supporting one another, making Uplift of Rural Iowa's mission especially meaningful to her.
