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.:Resource Guides:Rural Issues-Major Issues.
Nonprofit Career Resource Guides
Rural Issues
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Major Issues
The majority of the topics included in these resources guides are issues facing rural America. The overriding issues are:
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Rural Development
- Livable Rural Communities
- Economic Development
- Workforce Development
- Telecommunications/Transportation
- Public Policy
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Agriculture
- Land use
- Water issues
- Urban Sprawl
- Conservation
- Immigrant Workers
- Family vs. corporate farms
- Natural disasters
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Health Care
- Facilities, Providers, Cost
- Mental and Physical Health
- Telemedicine
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Social Welfare
- Women's Issues
- Elderly
- Homelessness
- Poverty
- Housing
- Minority Populations
- Alcohol and Drugs
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Education
- Attracting Teachers
- Resources
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Environmental
- Land use
- Water, land and forest issues
- Recycling
- Hazardous materials |
Many of the challenges facing rural communities lie in the scarcity of businesses that are located in sparsely populated areas, lack of public transportation, limited manpower and a small voice in government at all levels. There are two ends to the continuum; those areas dealing
with urban sprawl and land use issues to those on the frontier where there is no change, no growth and limited resources. There is hope however, as issues facing rural communities were recently brought to the forefront by the announcement by the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services Secretary, Tommy G. Thompson, that there will be a series of new steps and the availability of $46 million in grant funding to improve healthcare and social services for Americans living in rural areas. He identified these five key areas:
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Improving access to services, including looking at rural communities as something unique and independent and not from the urban suburban view.
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Strengthening rural families
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Supporting rural economic development
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Improving coordination among state, local and tribal governments
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Conducting more and better research to inform local and federal policy-makers about the needs of rural communities. |
More information on this and additional efforts by this agency can be found at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services website news release section, http://www.hhs.gov/news
Did you know? There are over 3.11 million miles of rural highways in the U.S. or 78.8% of all roads!
Patrick Lewis, Executive Director for Habitat for Humanity in Casper, Wyo. feels the three main challenges facing rural non-profit providers are the distances between communities and providers, the lack of resources within agencies and communities, and inexperienced board
members.
These are just the issues and challenges facing the United States. These same issues and challenges are much greater on the global scale. They are often intensified by political unrest, cultural conflict and restrictions, difficult geographies and terrain, and extremely scare
resources.
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