Rural Links
Rural-Related Websites and Resources
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The Carsey Institute
http://www.carseyinstitute.unh.edu/
“The Carsey Institute conducts national and regional policy research on vulnerable children, youth, and families and on sustainable community development. We give policy makers and practitioners the timely, independent resources they need to effect change in their communities.”
Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues
http://www.ruraljournalism.org/
“The Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues helps non-metropolitan journalists define the public agenda for their communities, and grasp the local impact of broader issues. It interprets rural issues for metropolitan news media, conducts seminars and publishes research and good examples of rural journalism. It helps journalists all over America learn about rural issues, trends and events in areas they’ve never seen but have much in common with their own. It helps rural journalists learn how to exercise editorial leadership in small markets... The Institute publishes The Rural Blog, a daily digest of events, issues, trends and journalism in rural America, with story ideas and sources.”
The Rural Blog
“A digest of events, trends, issues, ideas and journalism from and about rural America, from the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, based at the University of Kentucky.”
Daily Yonder – Keep it Rural
"We're your daily multi-media source of news, commentary, research, and features.... Check us throughout the day for breaking news, commentary, reports from our rural correspondants, updates from the best rural bloggers, and eye-opening photography from across the rural U.S. ... The Daily Yonder has been published on the web since 2007 by the Center for Rural Strategies, a non-profit media organization based in Whitesburg, Kentucky, and Knoxville, Tennessee."
Center for Small Towns
http://www.morris.umn.edu/cst/
"The University of Minnesota, Morris Center for Small Towns (CST) is a community outreach program that serves as a point of entry to the resources of the University of Minnesota. Small towns, local units of government, K-12 schools, nonprofit organizations, and other University units are able to utilize CST’s resources as they work on rural issues or make contributions to rural society. CST’s mission is to focus the University’s attention and marshal its resources toward assisting Minnesota’s small towns with locally identified issues while creating applied learning opportunities for faculty and students. CST is dedicated to creating a bright future for small towns throughout the state."
Rural School and Community Trust
“The Rural School and Community Trust is a national nonprofit organization addressing the crucial relationship between good schools and thriving communities. Working in some of the poorest, most challenging places, the Rural Trust involves young people in learning linked to their communities, improves the quality of teaching and school leadership, and advocates in a variety of ways for appropriate state educational policies, including the key issue of equitable and adequate funding for rural schools.”
RUPRI (Rural Policy Research Institute)
"The Rural Policy Research Institute (RUPRI) provides unbiased analysis and information on the challenges, needs, and opportunities facing rural America. RUPRI’s aim is to spur public dialogue and help policymakers understand the rural impacts of public policies and programs."
Economic Research Service (USDA)
Home page: http://www.ers.usda.gov/
Webpage on Rural Economy and Population: http://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/rural-economy-population.aspx
County codes:
County Typology Codes: http://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/county-typology-codes.aspx
Creative Class County Codes: http://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/creative-class-county-codes.aspx
Natural Amenities Scale: http://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/natural-amenities-scale.aspx
Rural-Urban Commuting Area Codes: http://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/rural-urban-commuting-area-codes.aspx
Commuting Zones and Labor Market Areas: http://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/commuting-zones-and-labor-market-a...
Rural-Urban Continuum Codes: http://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/rural-urban-continuum-codes.aspx
Urban Influence Codes: http://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/urban-influence-codes.aspx
Frontier and Remote Area Codes: http://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/frontier-and-remote-area-codes.aspx
Rural Definitions: http://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/rural-definitions.aspx
Atlas of Rural and Small-Town America: http://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/atlas-of-rural-and-small-town-amer...
Center for Rural Affairs
“Established in 1973 in an old store front in a Northeast Nebraska town of 1,000, the Center for Rural Affairs has grown to a national organization with 30,000 supporters across the country. We remain rooted in agriculture and rural communities to this day. Our staff live in rural communities of less than 5,000 or the countryside surrounding them. We have evolved into one of the nation’s leading rural organizations, known for our pioneering work to rebuild rural America and reform federal policy. ”
Rural Grocery Initiative
"Confronting issues of business development, public health and community sustainability, CECD is partnering with the Kansas Sampler Foundation, the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development, grocery store owners from across the state and faculty and staff from the departments of agricultural economics, human nutrition and rural sociology at K-State to identify and develop models to sustain retail sources of food for rural Kansas citizens. The Center for Engagement and Community Development and its partners have identified nearly 200 grocery stores in rural towns across Kansas with populations under 2,000 and are beginning a much-needed conversation with these rural Kansas grocers."
Rural Sociological Society
http://www.ruralsociology.org/
"The Rural Sociological Society (RSS) is a professional social science association that promotes the generation, application, and dissemination of sociological knowledge. The Society seeks to enhance the quality of rural life, communities, and the environment. This website is intended to serve all those interested in rural people and places."
Southern Rural Development Center
"The Southern Rural Development Center seeks to strengthen the capacity of the region's 29 land-grant institutions to address critical contemporary rural development issues impacting the well-being of people and communities in the rural South."
Regional Rural Development Centers
http://www.csrees.usda.gov/nea/economics/in_focus/rural_if_regional.html
"The NIFA Regional Rural Development Centers (RRDCs) play a unique role in USDA's service to rural America. They link the research and educational outreach capacity of the nation's public universities with communities, local decisionmakers, entrepreneurs, families, and farmers and ranchers to help address a wide range of development issues. They collaborate on national issues that span regions—like e-commerce, the changing interface between rural, suburban, and urban places, and workforce quality and jobs creation. Each tailors programs to address particular needs in its region."
Southern Rural Sociological Association
http://www.ag.auburn.edu/auxiliary/srsa/SRSA.htm
"...an educational and scientific organization established to foster the study, understanding, and application of rural sociology in the South."
Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs
"The Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs (IIRA) builds the capacity of community leaders and policymakers by providing technical support, applied research, policy evaluation, and training across the state. IIRA is a clearinghouse for information on rural issues, coordinates rural research, and works with state agencies on issues of importance to rural communities."
Website on the Country Life Commission: http://www.iira.org/clc/
Center for Rural Studies
“The Center for Rural Studies at the University of Vermont is a nonprofit, fee-for-service research and resource center that works with people and communities to address social, economic, and resource-based challenges. A part of the University's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences since 1978, CRS supports the research and teaching missions of the university through its work in applied research, community outreach, program evaluation, and consulting services. CRS is also the US Census Bureau's State Data Center for Vermont.”
National Center for Research on Rural Education (R2Ed)
The National Center for Research on Rural Education (R2Ed)... is housed in the Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families and Schools (CYFS) at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The long-term goals of the Rural Education Center are to (a) improve in rural settings students' acquisition of reading and science knowledge and skills by identifying effective practices that lead to the systematic provision of evidence-based instruction in rural settings; and (b) establish an infrastructure for conducting and disseminating nationally-relevant, cutting-edge research and leadership related to rural education.
Agricultural History Society
http://www.aghistorysociety.org/
"The Agricultural History Society was founded in Washington, DC in 1919 "to promote the interest, study and research in the history of agriculture." Incorporated in 1924, the Society began publishing a journal, Agricultural History, in 1927. The term "agricultural history" has always been interpreted broadly, and the Society encourages research and publishes articles from all countries and in all periods of history. Initially affiliated with the American Historical Association, the Agricultural History Society is the third oldest, discipline-based professional organization in the United States. Currently the membership includes agricultural economists, anthropologists, economists, environmentalists, historians, historical geographers, rural sociologists, and a variety of independent scholars."
