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Rural Health
Resources by Topic: Families

Recruitment, Selection, Enrollment, and Retention Strategies with Head Start-Eligible Families Experiencing Adversity: A Review of the Literature
Examines Head Start recruitment, enrollment, and retention strategies in relation to families experiencing adversity. Reviews 39 research studies published between 2011 and 2021 to identify adversities experienced by Head Start-eligible families, such as poverty, homelessness, involvement with foster care and child welfare systems, and substance abuse. Includes information about unique adversities experienced in rural locations.
Author(s): Cassandra Baxter, Nikki Aikens, Louisa Tarullo, et al.
Date: 05/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organizations: ACF Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, Brazelton Touchpoints Center, Mathematica
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Strategies to Support Healthy Relationships for American Indian and Alaska Native Fathers
Provides strategies that can be utilized by American Indian and Alaskan Native (AI/AN) fathers to develop strong coparenting and familial relationships that are based on AI/AN cultural values. Discusses benefits of supporting the fatherhood role, such as increased health and emotional benefits and a decrease in substance abuse and domestic violence in AI/AN communities. Includes strategies based on interviews with experts and fathers, a scan of available research, and an awareness of the historical trauma present in AI/AN communities.
Author(s): April Wilson, Isabel Griffith, Deana Around Him, et al.
Date: 04/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organizations: Administration for Children and Families, Child Trends
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Area-Level Deprivation and Adverse Childhood Experiences among High School Students in Maryland
Examines the frequency of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in adolescents in Maryland such as food insecurity and parental addiction, mental illness, violence, or incarceration. Reports on the 2018 Maryland Youth Risk Behavior Survey/Youth Tobacco Survey data of 41,091 adolescents to examine the connection between ACEs and area-level deprivation. Includes data breakdowns by rural/not rural county, age, sex, and sexual and gender minority (SGM) status.
Author(s): Shaheen Kurani, Lindsey Webb, Kechna Cadet, et al.
Citation: BMC Public Health, 22, 811
Date: 04/2022
Type: Document
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Parent Partners Provide Mentoring and Support in Rural Iowa
Features a statewide program in Iowa that pairs families whose children have been removed from the home with mentors with shared experience who have successfully navigated the state's Department of Human Services system. Describes the services that mentors provide: coaching, advocating, and connecting clients with community resources.
Author(s): Allee Mead
Citation: Rural Monitor
Date: 03/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Rural Health Information Hub
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Aligning Systems to Advance Family and Community Well-Being: A Partnership Playbook for Community Action and Human Services Agencies
Provides an overview of how community action and human service agencies partnered, collaborated, and aligned services to address COVID-19 on a family-level and a systems-level. Presents field examples of partnerships in rural Maryland and rural Ohio with their successes and challenges when aligning services such as Head Start, housing assistance, and more. Discusses how rural models and strategies were employed in other geographic areas to mitigate COVID-19 issues in communities.
Date: 01/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organizations: American Public Human Services Association, Community Action Partnership
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Wisconsin Office of Children's Mental Health 2022 Annual Report
Provides an overview on children's mental health in Wisconsin, with information on well-being trends and demographics, partnerships and response to needs, potential strategies, and more. Includes data on county-level provider to resident ratios, mental health statistics broken down by race/ethnicity as well as social/economic factors, and family stories from rural areas.
Additional links: Briefing, Dashboard, Presentation Slides
Date: 2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Wisconsin Office of Children's Mental Health
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Federal Nutrition Programs for Grandfamilies and Kinship Families
A fact sheet that provides information on benefits, programs, and organizations that assist low-income grandfamilies and kinship families gaining access to healthy food. Includes information on the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR).
Date: 2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organizations: Food Research & Action Center, Generations United
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Alaska Native Health Status Report
Provides an overview of Alaskan Native health, with a focus on sociodemographics and social determinants of health (SDOH); mortality; morbidity; maternal, infant, and child health; adolescent health; adult health; preventive care; and environmental health. Includes data and maps on health issues in Alaskan regions. Discusses advocacy, program planning, policy development, and evaluation related to Alaskan Native public health.
Date: 12/2021
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium
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Supporting Families in Region XI AIAN Head Start: Centers' Early Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic
Describes how Region XI Head Start children's centers adjusted their communications and services with families during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Examines the needs that families reported to center staff during the COVID-19 pandemic, including food and nutrition services and healthcare related to COVID-19, and discusses how centers provided supports to meet these needs.
Author(s): Katie Gonzalez, Sara Bernstein, Lizabeth Malone, Addison Larson, AIAN FACES 2019 Workgroup
Date: 12/2021
Type: Document
Sponsoring organizations: Administration for Children and Families, Mathematica
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Accessing Oral Health Care in Rural Areas
A tip sheet that discusses how pregnant people and children struggle to access oral healthcare in rural areas. Provides strategies for Head Start staff to extend oral healthcare access to rural families.
Date: 11/2021
Type: Document
Sponsoring organizations: Administration for Children and Families, Office of Head Start
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