Call for Workshop Proposals for the 2025 National Rural Housing Conference
The Housing Assistance Council (HAC) invites you to submit a proposal for workshops at the 2025 National Rural Housing Conference (NRHC). We encourage proposals with interactive content or those that facilitate lively discussion.
About HAC
Since 1971 HAC has been helping local organizations build affordable homes in rural America. With a mission “to improve housing conditions for the rural poor”, HAC places an emphasis on the poorest of the poor in the most rural places.
HAC assists in the development and preservation of affordable housing, community facilities, and placemaking. Our efforts emphasize local solutions, empowerment of people in poverty, and self-help strategies. HAC offers services to public, nonprofit, and private organizations throughout the rural United States, including the areas with persistent challenges in housing and community development, such as Central Appalachia, the Border Colonias, the Mississippi Delta and rural Southeast, Native American Lands, farmworker communities, and communities with large Veteran populations.
Important Dates and Information
| Proposals Due: | June 15, 2025 |
| Notification By: | July 30, 2025 |
| Workshop dates: | Wednesday, November 5th and Thursday, November 6th |
| Location | Washington, DC |
Questions? Contact Kelly Cooney and Aquila Ledbetter.
About the Conference
The 2025 National Rural Housing Conference will be held November 4 – 7, 2025 at The Capital Hilton in Washington, DC.
The biennial NRHC is a space for collaboration, where leaders, advocates, industry experts, and practitioners come together to share successes, best practices, and bold strategies at the intersection of housing and community development. Through workshops, plenary sessions, the exchange of data, and policy discussions, we amplify the narrative of rural America, highlighting both its challenges and its triumphs.
Rural communities don’t thrive by accident — they are built with intention, vision, and action. Build Rural is more than just the theme for the 2025 NRHC; it is an ongoing call to invest in the future of rural America. By continuing to focus on housing, infrastructure, and community-driven solutions, we ensure that rural communities are healthy and sustainable for decades to come.
At its core, Build Rural is about turning ideas into impact. The National Rural Housing Conference challenges us to address the urgent need for housing affordability and preservation, invest in critical infrastructure and essential facilities, and empower residents to shape the places they call home. It pushes us to expand capacity, foster strategic partnerships, and advance resident led placemaking—because a strong rural America is built by and for the people who live there.
Workshops should seek to align themselves with the conference theme or one of the following threads: Housing Affordability, Development, Preservation, Community Facilities, Rural Prosperity, Placemaking, Capacity Building, or other adjacent threads.
About the Workshops
Workshops are intended to facilitate the active exchange of approaches and ideas. HAC recognizes learning landscapes have changed in recent years and aims to have workshops that engage participants in meaningful and beneficial ways.
Focused Workshops are 45 minutes. They should seek to provide exposure to new ideas, techniques, or approaches or provide concentrated engagement for participants. Focused workshops should allow at least 10 minutes for Q&A.
Standard Workshops are 90 minutes. A standard workshop could provide the time required to address a more complex or nuanced issue; allow additional presenters to provide a variety of examples or viewpoints; provide for discussion, case study, an activity, etc. Standard workshops should include 15 minutes for Q&A.
The NRHC is paperless. All workshop materials and information will be available via the conference app and website.
In addition to workshops that expand participants’ knowledge of traditional affordable housing and community development practices, HAC encourages workshops that address:
- Placemaking, art, and design
- Health and community connections
- Nonprofit financial management
- Housing rehab and/or preservation
- Innovative homebuilding and construction methods
- Other emerging topics
Selection Criteria
HAC will evaluate proposals using the following criteria. The order below does not reflect importance.
- Interest and relevance to conference participants
- Experience and organization of the presentation team
- Potential to contribute to a balanced conference program
- Presentation engagement and approach
Submission of a workshop proposal does not guarantee acceptance.
Submission Guidelines
HAC invites interested parties to submit workshop proposals here.
Proposals should include the following information:
TOPIC
- Workshop title
- Topic(s)
- Impact Statement
PRESENTER(S)
- Workshop Coordinator
- Workshop Presenters, proposed and confirmed
- Experience
FORMAT
- Preference for a 45-minute or 90-minute workshop session
- Workshop outline
- Required resources
