Digital Commons Network^™

An Evaluation Of Capacity For Cooperative Extension To Implement Evidence-Based Programming In Two Rural Communities, Karen A. Vines, Laura A. Nelson, Sophie Wenzel

The Journal of Extension

The implementation process of an evidence-based program related to substance prevention was evaluated in two rural communities. Data included interviews with Extension agents and surveys of community leaders partnering on the program. Challenges to program fidelity were primarily associated with limited human resources in the small, rural communities. Community context must be considered when developing similar programs to determine opportunities for adjustment that will not undermine the success of the program.

Spending Time Socializing In Bars Increases The Risk Of Heavy Drinking, Danielle Rhubart, Jennifer Kowalkowski, Yiping Li

Population Health Research Brief Series

Bars, pubs, and taverns can provide important spaces for creating and maintaining relationships in a community. This is especially true in rural areas where social infrastructure may be limited. However, bars, pubs, and taverns can also facilitate and normalize alcohol misuse – a health behavior linked to numerous poor health outcomes. This brief uses data from the 2022 Rural Health and Engagement Survey to examine relationships between time spent in bars and heavy drinking. The authors show that individuals who spend time in bars are at greater risk of heavy drinking than those who spend no time in bars, and …

Alone On The Range? Rangeland Stakeholder Perceptions Of Public Lands, Community Change And Maintaining Rural Livelihoods, Hailee Rose Nolte

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Ranchers are a part of a rapidly changing rural western American landscape, and they play a special role in protecting and stewarding working landscapes. Rural communities in Eastern Oregon and Northeastern California have deeply rooted identities and economies connected to ranching and a high percentage of federal lands. The aim of this research is to: 1) document how ties to ranching are changing in communities undergoing social and economic change; 2) analyze the relationships and interactions between ranchers and federal management agency representatives; and 3) to identify how ranchers are maintaining their lifestyle under these circumstances. I interviewed representatives of …

Listening To Voices In Appalachia: Gathering Wisdom From The Field About Substance-Abuse Recovery Ecosystems, Bruce Behringer

Journal of Appalachian Health

New qualitative data collected through six regional community-based listening sessions and community meetings are presented that describe elements of the Appalachian Regional Commission’s Recovery Ecosystem Model. These data informed the Model, which was used in formulating the new ARC Recovery-to-Work initiative. Input was intentionally solicited from multiple sectors, including persons recovering from substance abuse disorder, treatment and recovery service providers, workforce development agencies, employers, and community advocacy groups.

Responding To Appalachian Voices: Steps In Developing Substance-Use Recovery Ecosystems, Bruce Behringer

Journal of Appalachian Health

A description is presented of the four-step process used by the Appalachian Regional Commission to develop a new Recovery to Work initiative. The Commission identified, defined, and described issues facing individuals who complete substance abuse disorder treatment and who seek reentry into the workforce. Key elements were identified for resources and supports to develop and maintain community-based substance abuse recovery ecosystems. The steps included conceptualization, data collection, analysis, and review to formulate recommendations for program and policy development. The full process of development was accomplished in twelve months.

“I Have A Job... But You Can’T Make A Living”: How County Economic Context Shapes Residents’ Livelihood Strategies, Marybeth J. Mattingly, Jessica A. Carson

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

This study explores how rural residents’ livelihood strategies are shaped by community economic and population characteristics. We use qualitative data from interviews and focus groups with low-income residents and social service providers (N=85 participants) in two rural New England counties to understand livelihood strategies within rural places. We then employ quantitative data to understand how these strategies are shaped by local historical labor markets and demographic characteristics. Although one county attracts wealthy retirees, with corresponding work opportunities in the service sector, and the other is remote and losing population, low-income workers in both places are struggling to make ends meet. …

"We're All Aging": A Discourse Analysis Of Older Adults Aging Experiences In Humboldt County, Kaitlyn Dawn Boyes

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Age is a ubiquitous concept. One minute we are counting down the days until our birthday and the next minute we are ignoring the fact our birthdays exist. Society’s aging population is rapidly growing and is expected to double nearly double by 2050, this increase in population has led to a shift in treatment and attitudes towards both those who are aging and aging itself. There is currently a gap in the literature on aging experiences coming from those experiencing it; rather those in medical professions often dictate these experiences. To help fill those gaps this thesis explores how older …

Piscataquis Thriving In Place Collaborative Year 1 Evaluation Report, University Of Maine Center On Aging

Maine Center on Aging Education and Training

The Piscataquis Thriving in Place Collaboration's mission is to improve regional services and supports that help adults with chronic health conditions remain in their homes avoid unnecessary hospitalization. The following report presents evaluation results from Year 1 of the Piscataquis Thriving in Place Collaborative gained through survey work and Ripple Effects Mapping. sessions conducted with project workgroups. Project outcomes during the first year were diverse, but can be roughly categorized into the areas of increased knowledge of community needs among collaborative members, increased knowledge of available resources to support thriving in place, and expansion of services and supports in response …

Water Poverty In Disadvantaged Communities In California, Alyssa J. Galik

Seaver College Research And Scholarly Achievement Symposium

California, the eighth largest economy in the world, has nearly one million residents that lack daily access to clean drinking water, yet it recently became the first state in the US to declare water a human right through the passage of 2013 Assembly Bill 685. The majority of water quality violations take place in the rural San Joaquin Valley in unincorporated, low-income communities, which have difficulties accessing clean, drinking water due to issues including quality, affordability, and physical availability. The role of community participation in improving water poverty has been studied extensively in developing countries but its impact is infrequently …

La Vida Es Un Conflicto, Pero Hay Que Llevar Soluciones: La Resolución De Conflicto En Comunidades Rurales De San Ramón Nicaragua A Través De Facilitadores Judiciales Rurales Y Mediación, Marlee Raible

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In rural parts of Nicaragua historically there has not been a lot of access to the justice system. Conflicts have been going unresolved for years leading to a high amount of violence as people take justice into their own hands. The recent implementation of the Rural Judicial Facilitators Program (RJFP) is an effort to provide access to justice directly in rural communities. These facilitators are trained to use mediation as their principal method to resolve conflict.

This study exposes perceptions of mediation and the RJFP from community members, facilitators, and judiciaries. It discusses the key role of the facilitator in …

Food Webs And Food Sovereignty: Research Agenda For Sustainability, Charles A. Francis, Michelle Miller, Molly Anderson, Nancy Creamer, Michelle Wander, Jacob Park, Thomas Green, Brent Mccown

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Future food production will be constrained by the scarcity of fossil fuel and fresh water as well as increasing intensity and unpredictability of weather events and climate changes. The assurance of food security and equity for many consumers is complicated by concentration of ownership of land and other production resources, as well as a global corporate food systems model that is driven by profit at the expense of people and the environment. To assess potential alternatives to the contemporary global food chain, well focused research is needed on local food production and food webs where small- and midscale family farms …

Report On The Agriculture & Nature Based Tourism Study Tour : United States Of America, United Kingdom & Germany, 28th August 99 To 17th September 99, Theo Nabben, Adriana Svenson

Research Reports

The focus of the study tour to United States, United Kingdom and Germany was agricultural and nature based. Six recurring themes were identified on tour as keys to a vibrant economy in the south west of Western Australia. This report is divided into each of these themes and provides an insight into lessons learnt while overseas, and how these might be adapted to Australia. The themes identified were:

• Agri-tourism,
• Marketing
• Restructuring rural Communities - Building on natural resource management
• Land use planning
• Developing improved linkages with higher education
• Leadership

Vermont Revisited, William Jay Smith

New England Journal of Public Policy

Vermont Revisited, William Jay Smith's sweet-bitter memoir of Pownal, Vermont, captures the political and social minutiae of a small, rural New England town in transition which continued to preoccupy itself in almost conspiratorial drama with its own parochial agendas, denying, even if not oblivious of, the changes at its doorstep. Yet Smith's observations of the machinations that were grist for the mill of the small-town intrigues are tinged with a sadness, with an awareness of an old order dying, of old values under siege, of a new order intruding itself — less private, more depriving if perhaps more equitable, and …

Observations On The Future Of South Dakota Agriculture And Rural Communities, Mark Edelman

Economics Staff Paper Series

A short clarification of the current problems facing agriculture and rural communities in South Dakota, the options faced by community leaders, and the policy alternatives faced by national decision-makers in assisting rural communities.

Mitchellville Personal Observation And Experiences, Cloene Biggs Jr.

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.