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Rural Health Information Hub
Rural Health Information Hub

Rural Project Examples: Child welfare

Effective Examples

Updated/reviewed April 2025

  • Need: To support parents whose children have been removed from the home so that the parents can make the changes needed for the children to return safely home.
  • Intervention: A statewide program in Iowa pairs these parents with mentors who have successfully navigated their own child welfare cases.
  • Results: Participants' children were more likely to return home than non-participants' children, and participants were less likely to have another child removal within a year of the child coming home.

Other Project Examples

funded by the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy

Updated/reviewed November 2024

  • Need: To support pregnant and parenting women with a history of substance use, mental health, or co-occurring disorders in rural areas of Montana.
  • Intervention: One Health, a consortium of Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), developed a team of "recovery doulas" – individuals who are dual-certified as doulas and peer-support specialists. The One Health recovery doula program offers group and individual services to women and their partners from pregnancy through the first years of parenthood.
  • Results: A team of nine recovery doulas (or doulas-in-training) employed by One Health offer services in 13 rural Montana counties. Recovery doulas have provided essential support to women with substance use disorder, survivors of sexual abuse, unhoused individuals, and individuals facing other complex challenges.

Updated/reviewed June 2024

  • Need: To develop a child welfare system that provides rural Texas communities with flexibility, authority, and adaptability to improve services and outcomes 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 region of Texas.
  • Results: Since October 2021, SJRC Texas Belong CBC has served more than 1,700 children and young adults and provided more than 1,400 home and virtual visits.

Updated/reviewed November 2020

  • Need: Decrease rates of domestic violence, child sexual abuse, and child neglect for people in remote tribal villages.
  • Intervention: An evidence-based model of traditional culture trains local communities on methods of prevention and treatment for domestic and interpersonal violence.
  • Results: Self-sustaining local system with improved family and spiritual well-being and decreased healthcare access needs.
funded by the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy

Added March 2019

  • Need: Pediatric behavioral health services in Delta County, Colorado.
  • Intervention: Multi-organizational and community-wide effort to increase healthcare access for children and to integrate behavioral health care into the area's primary care clinics.
  • Results: Sustainable increases in access to pediatric behavioral health services.

For examples from other sources, see: