Return to Thrive Rural Network Resource Center
Health & Wellbeing
Rural places are challenging a legacy of barriers to individual and community health — inadequate health care access, environmental issues, inadequate housing, and limited access to healthy food choices.
The prosperity of a community is tied directly to the health and wellbeing of its members.
Communities can thrive by elevating local expertise to ensure that everyone has what they need to build healthy lives, like access to health care, clean drinking water, safe spaces, and nutritious food.
Rural leaders are identifying issues and finding innovative solutions that help their communities and regions. Partnering with these leaders and designing policies and practices to support them can help their efforts go further.
Health Research & RESOURCES
Maternal health in rural America
National Rural Health Association
This NRHA white paper notes the lack of access to rural obstetric care as a known and growing concern. It supports a multifactorial approach to workforce, local access, regional care models, and social drivers of health to provide obstetric services in rural areas.
Collaborative Strategies for Rural Health & Economic Prosperity
Insights and recommendations to do rural development and rural health differently—moving collectively toward equitable rural development with projects grounded in place and a people-centered vision of community impact.
Toward Racial Equity & Rural Prosperity
ChangeLab Solutions
Explore a suite of resources created by ChangeLab Solutions designed to help community organizations, policymakers, and other changemakers advance racial equity and rural prosperity.
Using Networks To Build Collaborative & Equitable Food Systems
This brief focuses on local food systems as vehicles for collaboration and racial equity among multiple stakeholders and networks.
Resources to Advance Rural Prosperity & Racial Equity
ChangeLab Solutions
Resilience and ingenuity are hallmarks of rural communities, stemming from their unique cultural and social histories. Given the diversity and varied strengths in rural places, policy solutions need to be tailored to the conditions and lived experiences of people in those communities.
Safe Drinking Water: Rural Economic Justice Case Study
This short case study has insights on what will it take for rural communities to drive their own clean water solutions and breaks down the structural challenges that keep rural communities from accessing clean water solutions.
Native Nation Building: It Helps Rural America Thrive
Native nations and rural communities, working side-by-side and together, can strengthen the potential for thriving rural regions.
HEALTH and Wellbeing IN ACTION
Healing the Menominee Reservation
The Praxis Project
In a video from The Praxis Project, learn how Menikanaehkem uses a range of initiatives to heal their community and address social and environmental justice issues.
Advancing Rural Health Equity Through Partnerships, Data, And Finance
Partners for Rural Transformation
Partnerships and data-driven strategies are essential for addressing health disparities in rural America. Learn more from an event hosted by the Partners for Rural Transformation and the Urban Institute.
Ensuring Health Equity for our Rural LGBTQ+ Neighbors
National Rural Health Association
NRHA’s report on rural LGBTQ+ health equity discusses the need for inclusive and affirming health care in rural areas, highlighting challenges like discrimination and lack of specialized care. It emphasizes education and support systems for health care providers to improve access and quality of care for rural LGBTQ+ communities.
How Poor Water Access Dilutes Quality of Life in Rural Areas
ChangeLab Solutions
Rural communities struggle with water access due to an array of factors such as poor infrastructure and high costs. To ensure equitable access and improve health outcomes, explore solutions ranging from better legislation and targeted funding to community engagement in water board elections.
Building on a Legacy of Community Resilience in Sunflower County, Mississippi
Brookings Institution
In a podcast episode, Brookings Senior Fellow Tony Pipa visits two towns in Sunflower County, Mississippi, to hear how local leaders and homecomers—those returning to their rural hometowns—describe their efforts to build communities where people want to live. They highlight the role of beauty and leisure in achieving their visions.
Promoting Health Equity in Rural Communities
ChangeLab Solutions
Health equity in rural areas demands acknowledgment of racial diversity and past injustices. Engaging communities and building local partnerships are key when developing policy to address disparities in rural health. ChangeLab Solutions discusses lessons they have learned that can benefit policymakers and partners seeking to address health equity.
Weaving Health Equity and Rural Development Through Data
Learnings, insights, and resources to better understand where progress is needed on weaving health equity and rural development and what wins we all can celebrate.