Building Regional Strength: A Call to Action
Insights and recommendations to build healthy, thriving rural & Indigenous regions.
Rural Knowledge Center
Rural Resources, Insights, and Collaborations by Aspen CSG and Partners
Report
Report
DECREASING FLOOD RISK IN THE MIDWEST WITH REGIONAL COLLABORATIONS
Headwaters Economics
A regional approach to flood risk can help communities pool resources and implement effective solutions. Five case studies offer lessons.
Tool
SIX WAYS TO INSPIRE MOMENTUM IN YOUR SMALL TOWN
Rural Revival
Rural Revival shares list of six things that will help you build momentum, cast vision, and get people excited.
Report
Moving Mindsets: How to Shape a Strategy
Frameworks
Want to change hearts and minds? Shift policy? Bring about structural change? It starts with knowing what mindsets are—and aren’t—and what it takes to shift them.
Blog
THE “RIPPLE EFFECT” OF INVESTING IN RURAL AMERICA
Local Initiatives Support Corporation
Projects may not touch the numbers of people or generate the returns of urban investments, but their effects are every bit as important, and ripple far and wide through the small, intricately connected networks of rural life.
Tool
LOCAL WORKFORCE LEADERSHIP ACADEMY PARTNERS
Aspen Institute Workforce Leadership Academies
Workforce Leadership Academies bring together leaders from across local workforce ecosystems into a Fellowship community to deepen networks, strengthen systems leadership skills, apply race equity and systems change frameworks to leaders’ work, and deepen understanding of effective strategies and programs.
Tool
RURAL LEADERSHIP, RURAL HEALTH: WHAT WE’RE LEARNING
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Investing in rural leadership is key to resolving complex health issues and advancing health equity.
Tool
ASPEN INSTITUTE FOOD & SOCIETY PROGRAM
Aspen Institute Food & Society
Food & Society at the Aspen Institute brings together leaders from across the food system—public health experts, policymakers, researchers, farmers,...
Tool
REGIONAL RURAL DEVELOPMENT CENTERS
USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture
The NIFA Regional Rural Development Centers link the research and educational outreach capacity of the nation’s public universities with communities, local decision-makers, entrepreneurs, families, and farmers and ranchers to help address a wide range of development issues.
Blog
ADDING CAPACITY HELPS COMMUNITIES THRIVE
Northern Forest Center
The reality is that most local leaders don’t need a lesson, they just need a hand. Reflections on community capacity from the Northern Forest Center.
Blog
RURAL COMMUNITY BUILDING BEST PRACTICES
West Virginia Community Development Hub
The Hub identified six best practices that drive successful community building efforts in rural cities and towns across the state.
Blog
ACCELERATING RURAL PROSPERITY THROUGH REGIONAL COLLABORATION
National League of Cities
Findings from the chapter on collaborative development, authored by Brian Dabson and Christiana K. McFarland, in the book “Investing in Rural Prosperity”.
Report
ACCESS TO CAPITAL AND CREDIT IN NATIVE COMMUNITIES
The University of Arizona Native Nations Institute
This report from Native Nations Institute tells a story of American Indians’, Alaska Natives’, and Native Hawaiians’ determination, progress, and hope for improved financial access and economic stability—and of their desire to build Native Communities that prosper for generations to come.