Tag: rural

Blog post: 988 usage 2018-2023

By Marnie Werner, Vice President of Research & Operations In a report we released last February, we talked about an important tool in the work on suicide prevention, 988. The suicide prevention phone number changed in 2022 from its former ten-digit 800 number to the easy-to-remember three digits. As part of our discussion on suicide ...

Interconnected: Minnesota’s Housing Crisis

The Center for Rural Policy & Development and the Citizens League hosted another conversation in their Interconnected series on Wednesday, May 22, 2024. This online conversation covered the housing crisis and challenges across Minnesota – from substantial racial disparities in homeownership to innovative housing solutions, how are communities and organizations across the state working to ...

An update to Rural Urban Continuum Codes

The USDA – ERS has released the new Rural-Urban Continuum Codes for each county. Kelly Asche, Senior Research April 2024 People love classifications—the ability to split things into separate, distinct groups makes them easier to measure, providing some clarity when creating policy. Although we agree that most classifications aren’t perfect, we also don’t give enough ...
Farm field with clouds

Census of Agriculture – Lots of variation across Minnesota

The recent Census of Agriculture shows that ag in rural Minnesota isn’t monolithic. Kelly Asche, Senior Researcher April 2024 A topic that is frequently discussed among rural residents, particularly in agricultural areas, is how much farming has changed over the last 50 years. The technology being used, the crops that now dominate the landscape, and ...
Hands holding a family cut out from paper

The power of community

Marnie Werner Vice President of Research & Operations   My dad once told me his boss had a sign on his door that read: “Are you part of the problem or part of the solution?” When I first started at the Center in 2000, I think rural Minnesota was at a crossroads of sorts. The ...
Happy girl looking out over a beach.

The Suicide Epidemic in Rural Minnesota: How we got here and how we move forward

  A report in partnership with the Center for Rural Behavioral Health, Minnesota State University, Mankato. As suicide rates race upward, rural residents struggle with a lack of services, information, and answers. Marnie Werner, VP Research, Center for Rural Policy & Development & Tracie Rutherford Self, Ph.D., Minnesota State University Mankato February 2024 Click here ...

Closing the wage gap

Is it realistic for rural areas to close the wage gap? Probably not. By: Kelly Asche, Senior Researcher Most of rural Minnesota is discussing ways to grow the labor force. Increasing the affordable housing stock and childcare capacity are two primary strategies being discussed at the legislature. One of the underlying issues that makes these ...

Interconnected: An update on Minnesota’s child care challenges

The Center for Rural Policy & Development and the Citizens League are excited to continue our discussions on topics important to both rural and urban audiences. In February 2021, the Center for Rural Policy & Development released a report looking at the state of child care in Greater Minnesota. That report examined why it’s harder to ...