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Rural Health Information Hub

Rural Health
Resources by Topic: Needs assessment methods and resources

Community Food Security Assessment Toolkit
Toolkit of standardized measurement tools for assessing various aspects of community food security.
Date: 07/2002
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: USDA Economic Research Service
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Downtown Revitalization Playbook
Offers materials focused on supporting stakeholders in downtown redevelopment and revitalization projects in rural Appalachia. Includes case studies, an investment readiness tool, an overview of the stages of investment in downtown development, and a breakdown of investment types and strategies. Provided materials highlight funding, collaboration, and community assessment while touching broadly on topics related to rural needs and challenges.
Author(s): Ruthie Caldwell, Melissa Levy, Robert Donnan, Barbara Wyckoff
Type: Website
Sponsoring organizations: Appalachian Funders Network (AFN), Central Appalachia Network (CAN)
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North Carolina Community Health Assessment, CHIP, and SOTCH
Provides access to North Carolina's community health assessments (CHAs), community health improvement plans (CHIPs), and state of the county health reports (SOTCHs). CHAs identify concerns, set priorities, and include community profiles, demographics, and more. CHIPs and SOTCHs provide interactive scorecards for CHA-identified priorities. Also provides resources for the creation of CHAs, CHIPs, and SOTCHs in North Carolina, including checklists and submission process overviews.
Type: Website
Sponsoring organization: North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services
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Toward Racial Equity & Rural Prosperity: Legal & Policy Resources for Rural Communities
Resources for local and state policymakers discussing inequity in rural communities for Black, Indigenous, and other people of color (BIPOC). Includes resources for policymaking, water access, housing, and broadband.
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: ChangeLab Solutions
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Assessment for Advancing Community Transformation Tool
Provides guidance and resources to help community-based teams and individuals identify focal areas for health transformation based on 6 key themes and 22 subthemes using a score-based assessment method.
Type: Website
Sponsoring organization: Georgia Health Policy Center
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Rural America Placemaking Toolkit
Provides information and strategies for rural community placemaking through public spaces, community arts, downtown revitalization, and design. Discusses processes for community and cultural assessments, and covers food access initiatives and healthcare in the Cross-Sector Partnerships module. Includes directories of organizations offering technical assistance and financial assistance.
Type: Website
Sponsoring organizations: Community & Economic Development Initiative of Kentucky, USDA Rural Development
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Healthy Aging in Rural Towns (HeART) Toolkit
A toolkit for community leaders in rural areas that contains resources to conduct needs-and-assets assessments and develop strategies to strengthen community supports for aging adults. Offers 10 modules focused on planning, data collection and analysis, developing strategies, and building coalition and community support. Contains tips and anecdotes from rural Wisconsin communities who implemented HeART projects. Toolkit is free to download with registration.
Author(s): Sharon Schumacher, Eileen Whalen Partridge, Molly Schwebach, Kim Nolet, Barbara Bowers
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Center for Aging Research and Education (CARE) at the UW-Madison School of Nursing
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Social Determinants of Health Database
Provides data files reflecting social determinants of health (SDOH) variables, including social context, economic context, education, physical infrastructure, and healthcare context that is linkable by county or zip code. Data are curated from federal and other public datasets.
Type: Database
Sponsoring organization: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
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How to Conduct a Rapid Community Assessment: A Guide to Understanding Your Community's Needs Regarding COVID-19 Vaccines
Guide to help healthcare providers and other organizations understand the concerns of their communities related to COVID-19 vaccination and identify strategies to increase vaccination confidence. Includes sections specific to addressing vaccine confidence in rural and tribal communities.
Additional links: Addendum: Considerations for Conducting Rapid Community Assessment in Migrant and Seasonal Farmworker Communities, Addendum: Considerations for Conducting Rapid Community Assessment in Tribal Communities
Type: Website
Sponsoring organization: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
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Health Equity Toolkit for Rural and Remote Communities
Educational toolkit outlining health equity and steps that rural and remote public health organizations can take to improve health equity. Discusses rural challenges impacting health equity. Offers a curriculum to support staff discussion sessions, procedures for conducting a community health survey, and a session evaluation tool. Email address required to access toolkit documents.
Type: Document
Sponsoring organizations: OMNI Institute, Pitkin County Public Health, Silver Thread Public Health District
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