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Community Vitality and Rural Healthcare – Resources

Selected recent or important resources focusing on Community Vitality and Rural Healthcare.

Swimming Upstream on the Path to Thriving
Explores challenges and opportunities for equitable economic development in rural, disadvantaged communities. Discusses the impact of persistent poverty, local entrepreneurship supports, community development strategies and policies, and investment models. Highlights the relationship between community health and prosperity, including discussion of the value of local hospitals and medical centers.
Author(s): May Erouart, Amanda Weinstein
Date: 03/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Center on Rural Innovation
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Rural Partners Network with Farah Ahmad
Podcast episode featuring Farah Ahmad, Deputy Under Secretary for Rural Development at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Discusses the Rural Partners Network, an alliance of 25 federal agencies working together with 36 communities across 10 states and Puerto Rico to help rural communities build prosperity through job creation, infrastructure development, and community improvement. Describes how USDA Rural Development and the Rural Partners Network are working to address housing and transportation concerns in rural areas.
Date: 03/2024
Type: Audio
Sponsoring organization: Impact! Communications, Inc.
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2024 County Health Rankings National Findings Report
Analyzes county-level health and wellness data, focusing on issues such as public investment and health equity. Includes information on access to broadband, information, civic infrastructure and services, and more. Provides U.S. map of county-level life expectancy (LE) and discusses the relationship of LE to civic health.
Date: 03/2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: County Health Rankings & Roadmaps
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The Impact of Rural General Hospital Closures on Communities—A Systematic Review of the Literature
Presents a literature review of studies on the health and economic effects hospital closures have had on rural communities. Analyzes 21 studies completed in the previous 8 years and details the economic and healthcare access outcomes identified.
Author(s): Carol A. Mills, Valerie A. Yeager, Kathleen T. Unroe, et al.
Citation: Journal of Rural Health, 40(2), 238-248
Date: 03/2024
Type: Document
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Small Towns, Big Opportunities
Report evaluating rural employment opportunities, defined as a "good job" based on income thresholds. Discusses gender, race and ethnicity, educational attainment, population decline, disability, and more. Offers recommendations for rural growth through education, training opportunities, and emerging industries. Includes rural and urban comparisons in addition to county level maps for each state.
Additional links: State Maps
Author(s): Anthony P. Carnevale, Lulu Kam, Martin Van Der Werf
Date: 2024
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce
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Community Health Partners in Unexpected Places
Examines how health systems partner with community services such as libraries, barber shops, dollar stores, and others to improve access and reduce health disparities in minority and rural populations. Discusses strategies to increase the use of community health partners, such as co-designing with input from the community, procuring funding, building awareness of available programs, and utilizing novel means to conduct day-to-day operations.
Author(s): Michael K. Hole, Sunjay Letchuman, Allister Chang, Leonard L. Berry
Citation: Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 98(12), 1883-1841
Date: 12/2023
Type: Document
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Matchmaking for Community Benefit: The Rural Partners Network Connects Rural Leaders With Federal Resources
Provides an overview of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Partners Network (RPN), which aims to coordinate rural-targeted capacity-building efforts across different federal agencies. Uses place-based economic development, capacity building, and coordination principles to evaluate the program's purpose, program design, and first 15 months of implementation. Describes rural economic development challenges and historical federal capacity-building efforts in rural areas. Offers recommendations for continued assessment and reporting and expanding the geographic reach of RPN.
Author(s): Jenny Tran, Mark Haggerty
Date: 11/2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Center for American Progress
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BEAD Program Toolkit for Counties
Resource hub for county stakeholders working in broadband initiatives. Includes suggested action items, county-level data on broadband access, Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) related resources, webinars, and more.
Date: 10/2023
Type: Website
Sponsoring organization: National Association of Counties
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A Road Map for Asset Based Investing in Central Appalachia
Report highlighting various wellbeing and community asset measures in the Appalachian region in the areas of economics, population health, infrastructure, housing, health facilities, and more. Discusses the associations between wellbeing and community assets as well as the implications for investment.
Date: 08/2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organizations: Community and Economic Development Initiative of Kentucky, Reinvestment Fund
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Four Mindsets for Funding Economic Mobility in the Black Rural South
Highlights opportunities for philanthropy to contribute to economic mobility in the Black rural South, based on conversations with nonprofit leaders, cooperative extension staff at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), funders, researchers, and others. Identifies 4 mindsets that, if changed, could impact the effectiveness and support of existing institutions that are already active in the Black rural South. Features statistics on per capita grantmaking from 2010-2014 with breakdowns including the Alabama Black Belt and Mississippi Delta region, Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia.
Author(s): Mike Soskis, Angie Estevez Prada, Mark McKeag, Rich Pierre, Cynthia Phoel
Date: 08/2023
Type: Document
Sponsoring organizations: National 4-H Council, The Bridgespan Group
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Last Updated: 4/4/2024