The Center for Rural Policy and Development partnered with Minnesota State University, Mankato – Center for Rural Behavioral Health to survey and interview rural mental health providers to identify barriers in recruiting and retaining workers. Through the survey it has become apparent that the mental healthcare workforce shortage is being aggravated by a handful of ...

EXCERPT: “The Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) launched a $1.9 million test pilot that aims to improve public transportation needs across western and southern rural Minnesota. If the test pilot goes well, it could be expanded state-wide and improved upon. ‘This is a huge step forward for rural transit agencies to provide trip planning and ...

EXCERPT: “There’s great excitement as Alissa Kretsch hides purple hearts around the playroom in her home day care. Kretsch has been a child care provider in New Ulm for more than a decade and runs the business from her home. Her services are in demand, and it’s only getting busier. ‘I get calls like at least ...

EXCERPT: “According to a July 2022 report by Feeding America, rural counties make up 63% of all U.S counties but represent 87% of counties with food-insecurity rates in the top 10%. That means counties with the highest rates of food insecurity are disproportionately rural. ‘In North Dakota, 95% of the land area in the state is ...

EXCERPT: “Hibbing is something of a rarity when it comes to electricity. Since 2021, most of the city’s power has been generated by burning wood chips and mulch — up to 9,000 tons a month — largely from a local pallet manufacturer. The plant allows the small municipal utility to support northeastern Minnesota’s logging industry ...

EXCERPT: “Paul Bunyan Communications has been awarded a $10 million U.S. Department of Agriculture grant to expand its fiber optic broadband services to portions of Hubbard, Itasca and St. Louis Counties. The USDA grant will cover about 75% of the expansion costs with the cooperative investing the remainder to expand its all-fiber optic to approximately 3,500 ...

On Tuesday, February 14th, 2:30-4:00pm, the Center for Rural Policy and Development and the Minnesota State University, Mankato – Center for Rural Behavioral Health provided an overview of their new report on the rural mental health workforce and had an in-depth discussion with panelists directly involved in rural mental health. Panelists Included: Thad Shunkwiler, LMFT, LPCC, ...

The Center for Rural Policy and Development partnered with Sourcewell to produce short videos discussing our most recent research. In Part 3, Kelly Asche discusses the historically low unemployment rates as well as the drop in the number of people participating in the labor force during the pandemic, and how this has impacted job vacancies.

By Marnie Werner, VP, Research As I work on our research projects, it often seems like all the topics I write about are gloomy and doom-filled. And they are usually. Here at the Center, we tend to write about problems—problems that need fixing—because the only way problems get fixed is if we know about them ...

  A report in partnership with the Center for Rural Behavioral Health, Minnesota State University, Mankato. Marnie Werner, Vice President, Research, Center for Rural Policy & Development Thad Shunkweiler, LMFT, LPCC, Associate Professor and Director, Center for Rural Behavioral Health, Minnesota State University Mankato Tracie Rutherford Self, Ph.D, Assistant Professor, Center for Rural Behavioral Health, ...