SAES-422 Multistate Research Activity Accomplishments Report
Sections
Status: Approved
Basic Information
- Project No. and Title: W3001 : The Great Recession, Its Aftermath, and Patterns of Rural and Small Town Demographic Change
- Period Covered: 10/01/2014 to 09/30/2015
- Date of Report: 08/09/2017
- Annual Meeting Dates: 09/17/2015 to 09/19/2015
Participants
see attached minutes
Accomplishments
During its third annual meeting, the committee organized a mini-conference on Rural Inequalities. Findings were reported on several topics covering demographic trends, income and employment, health care, and housing (see minutes of the annual meeting).
Members published 25 refereed-journal articles on topics related to project objectives. Members also published 15 policy briefs, fact sheets, and research reports aimed at providing stakeholders and policymakers with policy-relevant demographic information (see list of publications).
Members received external funding to extend and build on project-related research: USDA Hatch Act Formula Funds, $90,398, 2015-18, to study gaining and retaining young people in Wisconsin rural communities; Center for Demography of Health and Aging, University of Wisconsin, 2015, $30,244, to study aging and place; Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, $100,000, 2014–2016, to study the impact of human capital and contextual characteristics on health care access and utilization disparities among Hispanics; Minnesota AES grants to study rental housing in rural areas, recreational housing impacts in rural areas, and federal rural housing policy.
Members helped organize and moderate a workshop on Rationalizing Rural Area Classifications sponsored by the National Academies of Science.
During it second year, committee members engaged in significant outreach and research dissemination. Briefings and consultations were made to policymakers and stakeholder groups, including National Center for Frontier Communities, National 4-H Council’s Hispanic Advisory Board, Kansas Rural Opportunities Conference, Kansas Governor's Council of Economic Advisors, State Agriculture and Rural Leaders Legislative Ag Chairs Summit, Michigan Department of Natural Resources Commission, New Hampshire State House and Senate, National Science Foundation, U.S.D.A. Forest Service, Mississippi Water Resources Institute, Delta Council, Delta Leadership Institute, and the Harvard Law School.
Members communicated research findings to the public with numerous interviews through many media outlets, including the New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, and the Boston Globe.
Impacts
- Provided insights to policymakers and stakeholders that are relevant to program implementation, regional and local planning, and economic development to improve community well-being. For example, findings presented to policymakers show that return migrants play a critical role in rural areas in slowing population loss, rejuvenating the population base, generating jobs, and increasing human capital.
- Translated demographic research findings into policy-relevant demographic information for several federal agencies, state and local agencies, and service providers to inform decision-making about key topics, including: the first-ever period of rural population decline; growing rural diversity related to higher birth rates among Hispanics; shifting migration trends; and rural poverty trends.
- Provided decision-makers with key information on the growing rural/urban opioid crisis. For instance, higher abuse among rural adolescents is partly attributable to their greater reliance on emergency room treatment where opioid prescribing is more likely and their less risky attitudes toward substance abuse relative to their urban peers.
- Provided decision-makers with key information on the on fundamental differences in health outcomes in rural areas. For example, there are more barriers to health care access for Hispanics in rural areas that historically had small, but now rapidly growing Hispanic populations.
- Provided information on demographic transformations in U.S. forest regions to administrators and stakeholders concerned with impacts on carbon sequestration and ecosystem services.
- Through participation in a workshop at the National Academies of Sciences, improved policymakers’ understanding of rural data and the role of rural classifications in shaping our understanding of rural conditions and trends.