Rural Project Examples: Children and youth
Other Project Examples
Camp Mariposa
Updated/reviewed August 2023
- Need: To help children whose family members are struggling with substance misuse.
- Intervention: A year-round program provides mentoring as well as substance use prevention education.
- Results: In 2022, Camp Mariposa served a total of 123 youth in its four rural locations in Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, and West Virginia. In a study, 93% of participants reported no use of any substance to get high.
Clinic for Special Children
Updated/reviewed July 2023
- Need: To provide healthcare for the genetically vulnerable children and adults of the rural, uninsured Amish and Mennonite communities in southern Pennsylvania.
- Intervention: A clinic that serves as a comprehensive medical practice for children and adults (primarily from the Amish and Mennonite communities) with rare, inherited, or complex disorders.
- Results: In 2022, about 1,400 active patients with more than 400 unique genetic mutations were treated at the Clinic for Special Children.
Energy Capital Cooperative Child Care (ECCCC)
Updated/reviewed July 2023
- Need: To bring needed child care to rural Mercer County, North Dakota.
- Intervention: A nonprofit cooperative provides part-time and full-time child care.
- Results: ECCCC currently has about 60 children enrolled, but it had 86 children at the height of its enrollment history.
School-Based Drug Misuse Prevention Program
Updated/reviewed July 2023
- Need: School-based drug misuse prevention program in Appalachian Ohio, a need triggered by a high school student's overdose death.
- Intervention: Implementation of the HOPE curriculum, an age-appropriate K through 12th grade drug abuse prevention program.
- Results: No further drug overdose deaths after curriculum initiated.
The Hunger Coalition's Bloom Truck and Bloom Markets
Added July 2023
- Need: To improve access to healthy, affordable food for low-income families and children in Blaine County, Idaho in a stigma-free way.
- Intervention: A truck that delivers free, healthy meals to kids in local neighborhoods and a farm stand selling fresh produce at heavily discounted rates.
- Results: The Bloom Truck delivers meals to between 250 and 400 children each summer, with 1,599 meals served in June of 2023.
Hope Squad
Updated/reviewed June 2023
- Need: To reduce youth suicide rates.
- Intervention: Hope Squad is a nationwide program that trains youth to look after their classmates and refer those with suicidal thoughts or other mental health concerns to adult advisors.
- Results: Studies suggest that Hope Squad schools' students with suicidal thoughts are more likely than non-Hope Squad schools' students to solicit help. In addition, stigma surrounding mental illness is decreasing.
SJRC Texas Belong Community-Based Care (CBC)
Added June 2023
- Need: To develop a child welfare system that provides rural Texas communities with flexibility, authority, and adaptability to improve services for children and families.
- Intervention: SJRC Texas's division Belong is the lead provider for Community-Based Care, which oversees foster and kinship care, case management, reunification services, and prevention services in the South Central and Hill Country regions of Texas.
- Results: Since October 2021, SJRC Texas Belong CBC has served over 1,100 children and young adults and provided over 700 home and virtual visits.
The Sapling Center
Updated/reviewed June 2023
- Need: To create a safe space for youth and young adults, ages 14 to 25, in rural eastern Kentucky.
- Intervention: The Sapling Center provides independent living skills education and offers a wide array of services as well as fun activities in a supportive environment.
- Results: The Sapling Center serves 50-75 teens and young adults every day. Increasing demand for services led to the opening of more centers in the region.
Facing Diabetes: Quality Improvement in Rural South Dakota Project
Updated/reviewed May 2023
- Need: To help adults and children in rural South Dakota prevent or manage their diabetes.
- Intervention: The Facing Diabetes Project offered medical visits for adults and provided prevention and education sessions for the local 4th and 5th graders.
- Results: Many adults and children in the region felt better equipped to choose healthy foods, exercise regularly, and manage their stress: all factors that can help prevent diabetes or decrease its effects.
MIST: Mothers and Infants Sober Together
Updated/reviewed May 2023
- Need: To address the needs of pregnant women who are using substances and infants born into drug-positive families.
- Intervention: The Mothers and Infants Sober Together (MIST) program assisted mothers who used substances get treatment and provide a safe, drug-free home for themselves and their newborn.
- Results: MIST has helped mothers find treatment and education and has helped children grow up in safe and healthy homes.
For examples from other sources, see: