Skip to main content
Rural Health Information Hub

Human Services to Support Rural Health – Resources

Selected recent or important resources focusing on Human Services to Support Rural Health.

Exploring Remaining Needs and Opportunities for Improvement in Rural Communities: A Focus on Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood (HMRF) Services
Report discusses the distribution and impact of the Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood (HMRF) programs in rural counties across the country. Highlights the counties with programs funded my HMRF and counties that lack HMRF services.
Author(s): Ashton Cain, Emma Ward, James Murdoch, Neel Chakraborti
Date: 12/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organizations: 2M Research, Administration for Children and Families
view details
Exploring Remaining Needs and Opportunities for Improvement in Rural Communities: A Focus on Health Profession Opportunity Grants (HPOG) Programs
Report explores the distribution and impact of the Health Profession Opportunity Grants (HPOG) in rural counties. Details the grant recipient type and location by state and county. Discusses the remaining need for HPOG in rural counties.
Author(s): Emma Ward, Emily Brimsek, James Murdoch, Neel Chakraborti
Date: 12/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organizations: 2M Research, Administration for Children and Families
view details
Serving Native American Households Using ERA: Learning from High-Spending Programs
Examines high-spending Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) on Native lands to address housing issues such as overcrowding, homelessness, and application accessibility, among others. Examines 7 Tribes and Tribally Designated Housing Entities (TDHEs) in the states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, and Nebraska. Provides background on housing instability, statistics about allocated funding and households served by ERA, and challenges TDHEs face.
Author(s): Neetu Nair, Sophie Siebach-Glover, Andrew Aurand
Date: 12/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organizations: National Low Income Housing Coalition, United Native American Housing Association
view details
USDA Rural Housing Programs: An Overview
Outlines housing programs administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) Rural Housing Service (RHS) and targeted specifically to residents of rural communities. Describes trends related to Section 502 Direct and Guaranteed Loans. Highlights policy proposals regarding multifamily housing preservation and the administration of rural housing programs. Includes information on the appropriations of rural housing programs between fiscal years 2017-2021.
Date: 03/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Congressional Research Service
view details
Best Practices in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Employment and Training (E&T) Programs: 2016–2020 Final Report
A literature review of 105 research studies and papers from 2016-2020 related to employment and training programs for low-income individuals, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Employment and Training (E&T). Includes information about program changes, referral and retention strategies, work-based interventions, and more. Includes discussions about rural contexts throughout.
Additional links: Summary
Author(s): Anne Paprocki, Melissa Mack, Mahika Rangnekar
Date: 02/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organizations: Social Policy Research, USDA Food and Nutrition Service
view details
Aligning Systems to Advance Family and Community Well-Being: A Partnership Playbook for Community Action and Human Services Agencies
Provides an overview of how community action and human service agencies partnered, collaborated, and aligned services to address COVID-19 on a family-level and a systems-level. Presents field examples of partnerships in rural Maryland and rural Ohio with their successes and challenges when aligning services such as Head Start, housing assistance, and more. Discusses how rural models and strategies were employed in other geographic areas to mitigate COVID-19 issues in communities.
Date: 01/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organizations: American Public Human Services Association, Community Action Partnership
view details
Disproportionality in Child Welfare
Explains the concept of disproportionality in child welfare, paying particular attention to the overrepresentation of American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) children in the child welfare and foster care systems. Discusses the problem at the national level, and also lists the top 15 U.S. states with the highest rates of disproportionality.
Date: 12/2021
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: National Indian Child Welfare Association
view details
2021 Housing Assistance Council (HAC) National Rural Housing Conference
Video recording of the 2021 Rural Housing Conference that covers discussions on rural housing equity, diversity, federal policy and priority updates, and more. Includes 8 sessions available for viewing. Transcript available below description.
Date: 12/2021
Type: Video/Multimedia
Sponsoring organization: Housing Assistance Council
view details
Creating the New Normal: COVID-19 Leaves Its Mark on Rural America
Offers articles discussing various impacts the COVID-19 pandemic has had on affordable rural housing and those organizations working to ensure affordable rural housing. Shares stories describing how federal aid was used to address homelessness and rural residents' housing needs in Wisconsin, how the pandemic has impacted Oregon farmworkers' housing and health, and how flexible U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) programs have helped rural nonprofits in Washington serve rural communities.
Citation: Rural Voices, 25(1)
Date: 11/2021
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Housing Assistance Council
view details
Human Services Programs in Rural Contexts: Mixed Methods Analysis, Integration, and Triangulation Plan
Analysis plan outlining the research design and methodology of a study of human services delivery in rural areas funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) in the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) in collaboration with the Health Resources and Services Administration's (HRSA) Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB). Covers stakeholder engagement, research questions and qualitative data collection, data analysis, and integration of findings.
Author(s): Dallas J. Elgin, Kelly McAleer, James Murdoch, et al.
Date: 09/2021
Type: Document
Sponsoring organizations: 2M Research, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Urban Institute
view details

Additional resources are available related to this guide. See the full list of resources by topic for:


Last Updated: 11/22/2024