Rural Families
You are in the Rural Families section of the Casey Foundation Knowledge Center, which offers resources that are either published or funded by the Casey Foundation. Resources include data on families living in rural areas and strategies to promote their economic success.
See also Our Work: Rural Families, an overview of Casey's investment in this issue.
Featured Publications
Rural Family Economic Success Overview
2006
Despite working hard, far too many low-income parents in rural communities find severe obstacles in their path toward financial stability and success. This brochure presents a framework for increasing their economic success by helping them increase income, stabilize financial lives, acquire assets and build wealth. This framework is based on the Foundation’s overall Family Economic Success agenda, adapted to reflect circumstances and conditions found in rural America.
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View the Rural Family Economic Success Practice Briefs Series >>
Strengthening Rural Families: Expanding College and Job-Skills Opportunities in Western Maine
2008
In Franklin County, Maine, a group of local leaders has brought community college classes and jobs skills training to their area, giving residents new opportunities to qualify for good jobs and higher expectations for their futures. It is also providing employers—and prospective employers—with a new supply of well-educated workers.
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Using Local Creativity and Entrepreneurship to Build Family-Supporting Jobs in North Carolina
2008
Residents of the Appalachian region of western North Carolina are redeveloping their economy by building on their age-old tradition of crafts and using it as a springboard to also expand their agricultural and tourism industries. An Asheville nonprofit, Handmade in America, is providing support, inspiration and know-how to help the region build on its strengths.
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RuFES Roundup Newsletter
2007
Across rural America, community leaders and policy makers are working hard to help hard-working rural families get ahead. The RuFES Round-Up newsletter offers these innovators good data, action ideas, and real-life stories – as information, inspiration and motivation – to spark their efforts to advance Rural Family Economic Success (RuFES). The newsletter is distributed by email to alumni of RuFES Action-Learning Institutes and Site Visits. The newsletter also is posted at the Community Strategies Group area of the Aspen Institute’s website.
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Strengthening Rural Families: By the Numbers, Using Data to Drive Action on Behalf of Children and Families
2007
This issue highlights how data collection and analysis can be incorporated into the Casey Foundation’s framework for rural family economic success: Earn It, Keep It, and Grow It. Specifically, this brief portrays how data collection and analysis have underpinned decision-making efforts to improve the well-being of low-income working families in Minnesota.
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View the Rural Family Economic Success Practice Briefs Series >>
Affordable Car Ownership Programs: Transporting Families Toward Financial Stability and Success
2007
This article looks at innovative programs that are helping rural low-income families to acquire affordable, reliable transportation as a strategy to stabilize or improve their employment situation. The need for a car is particularly critical in rural areas, where there usually are no public transportation options, and jobs and fair-priced goods and services are far away. The brief describes a variety of car program approaches and how they help to build family economic success in rural communities.
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View the Rural Family Economic Success Practice Briefs Series >>