North Dakota Models and Innovations

These stories feature model programs and successful rural projects that can serve as a source of ideas. Some of the projects or programs may no longer be active. Read about the criteria and evidence-base for programs included.

Evidence-Based Examples

Women to Women Online Support Network
Updated/reviewed November 2020

• Need: Women living in rural areas with chronic illness often face little social support, leading to increased rates of depression and stress
• Intervention: Women to Women offered rural women with chronic conditions social support networks via telecommunication
• Results: WTW intervention participants experienced positive increases in self-esteem, social support, and empowerment over the control group

Other Project Examples

Targeted Rural Health Education Project
Updated/reviewed May 2023

• Need: Dual platform to both teach health literacy principles to health professions students and disseminate health information to rural populations.
• Intervention: Writing project using community-specific public health data in order to write a plain language health education article suitable for publication in a rural newspaper.
• Results: Since program start in 2017, nearly 50 students have successfully published their plain language health education articles in one or more rural newspapers in 3 states.

Rural Aging Action Network
Added February 2023

• Need: To connect underserved and isolated older adults in rural Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota to services and supports so they can age in place.
• Intervention: The Rural Aging Action Network is a collaborative of organizations that offer different services like caregiver support, behavioral health, financial counseling, and assistance with chores and household maintenance.
• Results: Since 2015, the collaborative has reached over 4,000 older adults and caregivers in over 100 rural communities.

Energy Capital Cooperative Child Care (ECCCC)
Updated/reviewed July 2022

• 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 had 86 children at the height of its enrollment history.

FirstLink Care and Support Program
Updated/reviewed July 2022

• Need: To reduce suicide and substance-related deaths in North Dakota and Minnesota.
• Intervention: The Care and Support program provides support through phone calls, cards, and texting to those who have called suicide helplines or were referred by a healthcare provider.
• Results: In 2021, FirstLink made 11,466 calls and sent 1,127 cards to program participants.

Avera LIGHT
Updated/reviewed March 2021

• Need: Assistance for urban and rural physicians — as well as other healthcare providers — who are experiencing burnout and other issues associated with well-being.
• Intervention: As part of its provider well-being focus in its rural and urban facilities, Avera Health system has created a program which attends to physician wellness issues starting with recruitment with continued support through retirement.
• Results: With increasing engagement due to word of mouth, the program creates a culture of wellness where stigma is decreased and providers are encouraged to be proactive in reaching out for assistance for issues related to their personal and professional well-being.

Sowing the Seeds of Hope
Updated/reviewed November 2020

• Need: Agriculture workers and their families have high rates of psychological distress and suicide, but limited access to mental health services.
• Intervention: The "Sowing the Seeds of Hope" (SSoH) program was created to provide affordable and culturally appropriate mental health services to individuals working in agriculture and their families in Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin.
• Results: The regional program ran from 1999-2014 and successfully established a variety of interventions to help individuals in rural communities access behavioral health services.

Minot-Williston Rural Training Track Program
Updated/reviewed October 2020

• Need: Like many rural areas, parts of North Dakota lack primary care physicians to fulfill the needs of the community.
• Intervention: The Minot-Williston Rural Track Program was developed to create new medical residency opportunities in rural North Dakota.
• Results: Now over 1000 applicants are applying for the two residency slots.