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Rural Health Information Hub

Community Vitality and Rural Healthcare – Resources

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

Revealing Rural Realities: What Fuels Inaccurate and Incomplete Coverage of Rural Issues?
Report discussing the representation and misrepresentation of rural issues and prosperity in national and regional news media and journalism. Offers recommendations to journalists based on interviews in 2019 with rural experts, activists, and journalists, and a media scan to analyze coverage of rural America in national and regional news. Identifies rural healthcare as a common topic of coverage, noting media emphasis on negative aspects of rural life including hospital closures, health disparities, and suicide.
Date: 05/2020
Sponsoring organizations: Aspen Institute, Center for Rural Strategies, Hattaway Communications, Rural Housing Assistance Council
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AARP Rural Livability Workshop Report
Report describing rural community characteristics with a focus on rural elders. Discusses rural demographics, community dynamics, public spaces, housing, transportation, economy, healthy living, broadband access, and disaster readiness.
Author(s): Melissa Stanton, Patricia Oh
Date: 04/2020
Sponsoring organization: AARP
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Rural Development Hubs: Strengthening America's Rural Innovation Infrastructure
Looks at the role rural development hubs play in rural infrastructure development. Discusses healthcare access and population health as beneficiaries of rural infrastructure development.
Additional links: Executive Summary
Date: 11/2019
Sponsoring organization: The Aspen Institute Community Strategies Group
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Transforming Persistent Poverty in America: How Community Development Financial Institutions Drive Economic Opportunity
Report discusses the role community development financial institutions play in rural communities. Highlights economic and social barriers in rural counties, such as unemployment, lack of financial institutions, inadequate housing, structural inequality, and lack of access to healthcare, among others.
Date: 11/2019
Sponsoring organization: Partners for Rural Transformation
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A Systemic Framework for Understanding the Dynamics of Rural Communities in America
Identifies factors and mechanisms that influence positive and negative outcomes in rural communities. Discusses the relationship between labor and health capacity, with examples of how these can vary over time. Examines household, organizational, and community dynamics, as well as the impact of regional, state, and federal forces on rural communities.
Author(s): Gery W. Ryan, David Catt, Lauren Davis, J. Luke Irwin, Susan S. Everingham
Date: 09/2019
Sponsoring organization: RAND Corporation
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Case Study: Eastern Washington
Results of a field study focused on the Empire Health Foundation, a private, rural health funder with a service area of 7 counties, including 14 Native American tribes on 3 reservations. Part of the Rural Philanthropic Analysis series.
Date: 07/2019
Sponsoring organization: Campbell University Office of Rural Philanthropic Analysis
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Case Study: New England
Results of a field study focused on two rural funding organizations in Maine and New Hampshire, documenting how philanthropy and community can work together to support rural vitality. Part of the Rural Philanthropic Analysis series.
Date: 06/2019
Sponsoring organization: Campbell University Office of Rural Philanthropic Analysis
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Case Study: New Mexico
Reports the results of a field study focused on rural New Mexico documenting how philanthropy and community can support rural vitality. Part of the Rural Philanthropic Analysis series.
Date: 05/2019
Sponsoring organization: Campbell University Office of Rural Philanthropic Analysis
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Case Study: Northeastern Iowa
Results of a field study documenting how philanthropy and community can work together to support rural vitality. Part of the Rural Philanthropic Analysis series.
Date: 04/2019
Sponsoring organization: Campbell University Office of Rural Philanthropic Analysis
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Community Reinvestment Program
Profiles the Eastern Oregon Coordinated Care Organization (EOCCO), a rural program that received community reinvestment funding from the Oregon Health Authority to invest in the community and provide care for Oregon's Medicaid recipients using a fixed global budget system. EOCCO engaged a community advisory council (CAC) comprising local individuals that showed an active interest in improving their own and the community's health. EOCCO in turn reinvests the money they receive in projects targeted to improving priority health concerns determined by local community health assessments.
Date: 09/2018
Sponsoring organization: Rural Health Value
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Last Updated: 3/28/2025