Rural Project Examples: Infrastructure

Promising Examples

ALProHealth
Added March 2022

Need: To improve access to healthy food and physical activity in rural Alabama.
Intervention: Researchers hold focus groups with community members to identify issues of the most concern and then help them implement appropriate interventions like installing playground equipment.
Results: From 2014 to 2018, 14 coalitions implemented 101 interventions in 16 communities.

Portable Alternative Sanitation System (PASS)
Updated/reviewed December 2022

Need: To bring low-cost water and sanitation improvements to homes in Alaska Native villages without access to piped water or sewer systems.
Intervention: The Portable Alternative Sanitation System (PASS) treats hauled water, provides for handwashing with clean water, and disposes waste without traditional piping.
Results: Residents in the pilot project reported that PASS was cleaner and healthier than the self-haul method.

Poplar Bluff Skate Plaza
Updated/reviewed April 2020

Need: Slow the increasing rates of childhood obesity stemming, in part, from a lack of physical activity.
Intervention: Creating a youth-oriented downtown skate park to build a culture of daily physical activity in the rural community of Poplar Bluff, Missouri.
Results: Increased physical activity opportunities for youth in the far southeast corner of Missouri, especially for those not typically involved in organized sports.

Granville Greenways Walkable Community
Updated/reviewed March 2020

Need: Compared to the average North Carolinian, residents age 40 to 64 in rural Granville County were dying from heart disease and diabetes at a younger age.
Intervention: Granville Greenways was created to promote active lifestyles and more walkable communities.
Results: As of December 2019, 12 miles of greenways now exist allowing for community members' hiking and biking.

Albert Lea Blue Zones Project
Updated/reviewed December 2019

Need: Healthy lifestyles are often difficult to achieve for community members of rural, small-town areas.
Intervention: The rural community of Albert Lea, as part of the Blue Zones Pilot Project, implemented walking and biking initiatives along with high-level policy systems and environmental changes to promote health and wellness.
Results: In the past 5 years, there has been a 38% increase in walking and biking among community members, and they have lost a combined total of 8,000 pounds.

For examples from other sources, see: