Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

• Tricia Dyk: Presented Jean Bauer’s legacy and the history, mission, and governance of the Rural Families Speak project
• States provided updates related to progress addressing objectives during year four of the project renewal.
• Bradford Wiles, Kansas State, provided a data collection overview of the current wave of the project, Rural Families Speak about Resilience (2019-2024), which was impacted by the pandemic. Instead of face-to-face interviews, we had to adapt data collection to occur via Zoom with community key informants and using a Qualtrics survey with female caregivers. He provided an overview of data collected from community key informants from 13 states, as well as the pilot test of the Qualtrics survey with female caregivers (approximately 50). We agreed upon edits to make to the survey before data collection resumed.
• Day 2 was dedicated to planning the renewal proposal for our multistate team. Bradford Wiles provided an overview of the current drafted objectives, we brainstormed ideas for data collection to meet the objectives, broke into small groups to expand on the ideas, and then regrouped. Project members volunteered to join the renewal proposal writing group.
• States volunteered to lead papers, presentations, and webinars until the 2024 annual meeting to meet our project objectives.
• We held Executive Board Committee elections for the Vice Chair of Communications & Outreach (Brianna Routh, Montana State University), Student Representative (Loi Lutes, Central Washington University), and an ad hoc position, Vice Chair of Dissemination. The latter position will be ad hoc for one year and then we will vote whether to add the position to the bylaws.
• We reported outcomes and projected impacts with notable achievements described under Accomplishments.

Despite their vulnerability, many individuals and families living in rural areas demonstrate the capacity for resilience in the face of these adverse conditions and events. Resilient individuals, families, and communities can survive, and potentially thrive, through adversity. This project has captured—and continues to capture—the challenges faced by families in rural communities impacted by natural disasters and unprecedented pandemic disruption. It is critical to determine both the unique community needs and resources within rural areas, as well as the best mechanisms for supporting resilient rural families.

This project adds to understanding of the experience and expression of resilience of families living in rural poverty. Through collection of both quantitative and qualitative data we will continue to examine family factors and resources available to them through their communities. The knowledge generated from this project has direct implications for informing family-focused and community level programs intended to foster resilience. 

Although the pandemic affected our team’s data collection plans, we have been proven to be resilient by adapting our data collection strategies to meet each of our objectives and impacts for the current effort, Rural Families Speak about Resilience (2019-2024). Below are notable achievements related to project objectives and impacts.

• Objective 1: To assess community capacity to support resilience in diverse rural low-income families. Working groups have been collaborating on presentations and papers using data from the community profiles and linked community key informants (CKIs) interviews. Graduate research assistants assisted with coding the CKI interviews using MAXQDA to examine community-capacity in five family-serving sectors: food security, community actions, education, direct service NOS, and health care.
• Objective 2: To examine individual and family resilience processes from the perspective of rural low-income mothers. Writing teams consisting of researchers from two or more NC1171states have been examining factors impacting family resilience from the existing data. We developed a Qualtrics survey for rural, low-income mothers across the United States and conducted a pilot test with approximately 50 respondents. We revised the survey and will resume data collection in January.

1. Impact 1: Improved knowledge of community-level assets and challenges related to individual and family resilience among rural low-income mothers. The linked community profiles and the CKI interviews (see Objective 1) have provided great insight into community capacity and resilience. For example, one nearly complete paper is examining technology capacity of family-serving organizations to meet rural families’ needs. Other examples include the role of schools in promoting food security and health care access, especially during the pandemic. Our team has presented community insights to a variety of audiences.
2. Impact 2: New and strengthened partnerships with county and state stakeholders and organizations to promote health and resilience among diverse rural low-income families. The webinar continues to bring to us new partnerships and audiences from across the country.
3. Impact 3: Improved understanding of the multilevel factors and processes of resilience among rural, low-income mothers. Our team continues to examine data from previous RFS efforts to identify individual, family, and community resilience factors that continue to be relevant for rural, low-income mothers and their families today. In addition, we have made tremendous progress in developing and piloting an online survey for rural low-income female caregivers across the U.S. We piloted the survey with approximately 50 female caregivers, and after some revisions discussed at this year’s annual meeting, we will resume data collection with nearly 1,000 respondents using Qualtrics services.
4. Impact 4: Development of undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral trained researchers in multimethod data collection, analysis, and dissemination focused on rural, low-income families. Our team prioritizes training students at all levels. We engage student researchers by training and engaging them in the data collection process, mentoring students as co-authors/data analysts on our manuscripts, and guiding them in theses and dissertations. For example, undergraduate researchers assisted with examining past data collection efforts for evidence of family resilience. As another example, two masters-level graduate students have been assisting with pilot testing and updating the Qualtrics family survey, which they will use for their master’s theses.
5. Impact 5: Improved policy considering the multilevel factors associated with the health, well-being, and resilience of rural low-income mothers. The CKI interviews included questions about accessing funding from the CARES Act, and our team continues to track the impacts of SNAP.
6. Impact 6: Inform Extension educators and community partners via presentations, publications, and locally-based criteria to mobilize rural community capacity in a strengths-based manner. Our Relying on Rural Resilience webinars and the corresponding handouts, as well as other outreach presentations, involve translating and disseminating research from RFS; the synergy that has been engaged from the project has informed research projects that help communities.

Short-term Outcomes

Themes emerging from our Community Key Informant (CKI) interviews indicate that technology is extremely beneficial to family serving organizations and that they have relied on social media and text messages to stay connected and serve low-income rural families. Communities have found innovative ways to make broadband work; however, some areas still have significant barriers regarding internet access/cell towers for community members living in rural areas outside of town. The manuscript describing these findings is near submission.

Connecting people to food resources is prominent with schools serving as a key source of food security for families. During the pandemic, pre-existing partnerships with family serving organizations have been strengthened out of necessity to cope with increased demand and new partnerships have developed within communities to leverage limited resources. Another paper using the CKI data is near submission as well; led by Brianna Routh, a multistate writing team is finalizing a paper on resilient rural food systems to submit to Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior.

Outputs

Publications and Presentations

The Rural Families Speak about Resilience team of scholars with both research and Extension appointments have been productive this year addressing the challenges faced by low-income rural families. Collaborative teams have published four journal articles with two additional articles in press, two more in review, and three manuscripts nearing completion for submission. Our team excelled in disseminating our research via 25 juried national and international presentations.

Webinars

We continued our quarterly national webinar series entitled Relying on Rural Resilience: Translating 20+ years of research into practice. Each series installment generates interest from professionals across the country, regularly ranging from 70-160 registrants. Although not all registrants attend the live event (usually 30-60 live participants), all receive the research presentation recording, cited resources, and a newly developed handout that captures action ideas brainstormed by their participating peers. Over the past year, our webinars covered (a) engaging rural Latinx immigrant families in health outreach, (b) connecting rural families in recovery programs, and (c) early care and education needs in rural communities. Presenting researchers can also hear direct feedback on research implications and its transformation to real-world practice. We are developing systematic evaluations of webinars to ensure that the webinars meet the current needs of rural family-serving specialists. 

1. Ontai: Completed the second pilot program of a tele-delivery nutrition education program for parents of young children to a remote, rural tribal community. Collected formative evaluation data to inform potential scalability to additional remote, rural tribal communities.
2. Ontai: Facilitated two rural tribal community advisory board meetings to discuss findings from a pilot tele-delivery of nutrition education to the community. Discussion included translation of the formative evaluation preliminary results and relevant avenues for dissemination.
3. Berry: Time to Talkseeks to empower rural, older adults and their health care providers with information and tools to have effective COC conversations.
4. Berry: Through community-based educational sessions led by Extension, older adults will understand why to engage in COC conversations, learn strategies for starting COC conversations, and build skills through application activities. Additionally, this project includes online education for health care providers. Over 350 rural, older adults were reached.

Grant Writing

For this reporting period, members submitted or received funding from 12 grants that either supported RFSR data collection and outreach or were informed by the RFS project. Grant proposals were submitted to the USDA Southern Region Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance, Florida Extension Foundation, USDA NIFA Rural Health and Safety Education, Tobacco Control, Montana State University Extension, the Mississippi State Department of Health, and AES. Notably, Bradford Wiles received $32,000 from his AES to support family data collection and support graduate research assistants to meet Objective 2.

1. USDA Southern Region Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance – Bridge funding (Radunovich PI; University of Tennessee lead institution: $149,914). Awarded 10/1/23-9/30/24 for Supporting agricultural mental health in Florida: SAgE Network Bridge Funding.
2. Florida Extension Immunization Education and Community Action Program, The Extension Foundation (PI: O’Neal)
3. Rural HEALTH 3: Managing Multiple Chronic Conditions, USDA NIFA Rural Health and Safety Education Program (PI/PD: O’Neal)
4. Veteran Rural Health Resource Center Grant (Radunovich PI; $467,851). Awarded 8/21-7/26 for The health and mental health needs of rural veterans and their families.
5. USDA/NIFA (O’Neal PI; $349,381). Awarded 9/1/21-8/31/23 for Rural Health 2: Advancing rural health equity and community action to prevent COVID-19
6. Kansas State Agricultural Experiment Station to Bradford Wiles to collect RFSR family data: $32k
7. Oregon Agricultural Experiment Station (OAES) Project NC1171: Interactions of individual, family, community, and policy contexts on the mental and physical health of diverse rural, low-income families. United States Department of Agriculture via College of Public Health and Human Sciences, Oregon State University. $2,000. PI: Chandler.
8. Contreras, D. (PI), Eschbach, C., Williams, E., Persing-Wethington, N., Tiret, H., and Tucker, R. Rural Health and Safety Education (RHSE). National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture. Project title: Preventing Opioid Misuse by Empowering Michigan Rural Adults to Manage Pain Through Sleep, Mindfulness, and Tai Chi Education (9/1/23 to 8/31/26), Amount: $349,999.83. (unfunded).
9. Pylate, L. (PI), McCafferry, L., Allman, K., & Smith, S. Mississippi State Department of Health, Office of Tobacco Control. Project title: Mississippi Tobacco Free Coalition of Attala, Leake, Choctaw, Montgomery, Webster, Panola, Pontotoc, and Lafayette. (July 1, 2023 – June 30, 2024). Awarded: $241,500
10. Routh, B., Bass, T., Weaver, K, Miller, K, & Finch K. (2023- Awarded $8,000) Local Food Systems Retreat, Montana State University Extension Internal Needs Assessment Mini Grant
11. Mile, M., Routh, B. Tarabochia, D. Tomayko, E. & Botner, B. (2023-27, Not awarded, $1,000,000) Metabolomic Analysis to Identify Influential Nutrition and Physical Activity Behaviors in Rural Montanan Families, Collaborative, USDA AFRI
12. Pylate, L. (PI), McCafferry, L., Allman, K., & Smith, S. Mississippi State Department of Health, Office of Tobacco Control. Project title: Mississippi Tobacco Free Coalition of Attala, Leake, Choctaw, Montgomery, Webster, Panola, Pontotoc, and Lafayette. (July 1, 2023 – June 30, 2024). Awarded: $241,500

 Activities

• Monthly Executive Board Meetings via Zoom
• Monthly all member meetings via Zoom to provide team members opportunity to share data collection and dissemination updates.
• An active Webinar Planning Committee continues to offer webinars translating 20+ years of research findings from the project into training/discussion opportunities for family professionals across the country. Three successful webinars were held in 2022-2023. The webinar team continues to collect evaluation data and they strategized approaches to collecting more systematic evaluation data to continue to improve the impact of the webinars.
• Regularly scheduled subgroup meetings for article/presentation/grant authorship
• Graduate students trained in literature review, analyzing quantitative and qualitative data, survey development, and presentation skills.
• Team members have been actively engaged in research-based outreach activities preparing family professionals to support resilience in low-income rural families in their community contexts.

 Teaching

1. Barnett: Included articles /data from the project in a graduate course (Child & Family Policy)
2. Chandler: Two undergraduate students and one graduate student read RFSH transcripts to identify individual, family, and community resilience and pilot tested the Qualtrics family survey
3. Dyk: Included proposal/articles /data from the project in a graduate course Research Design course in Community and Leadership Development
4. Sano: Utilized RFS cases as educational materials in an undergraduate class (Families in Poverty)

 Training

1. Chandler & Cancel-Tirado (committee members): OSU doctoral student used the RFS data for her preliminary exam and will propose to use the data for her dissertation
2. Greder: Williams, E., Greder, K., Kim, D., Bao, J., H. Dan Karami, N.* (2023). Navigating health and well-being during COVID-19: Experiences of Latinx immigrant mothers in rural midwestern communities. Family Relations, 72(4) DOI: 10.1111/fare.12884. **Received the 2023 NCFR Families and Health Section Outstanding Doctoral Student New Professional Paper Award.
3. Routh: 1 dietetic Masters student writing final project with CKI data on food systems.
4. Routh: 2 students attended RFS annual meeting for professional development
5. Routh: 1 RD student project: Shapiro, E.*, Routh, B., Tomayko, E. (2023) Montana Food Access Resource List. MSU Extension and MT Partnership to End Childhood Hunger (MT-PECH).
6. Sano: Facilitated RFSR webinars
7. Sano: 3 undergraduate students conducted qualitative study titled, “Access to healthcare in rural low-income communities”
8. Sano: 2 graduate students analyzed ACA study data.
9. Wiles: supervised two KSU GRAs on this project

Published Articles

1. Bao, J., & Greder, K. (2022). Economic pressure and parent acculturative stress: Effects on rural midwestern low-income Latinx child behaviors. Journal of Family and Economic Issues. doi:1007/s10834-022-09841-4.
2. Foluso, A.*, Routh, B., Schure, M., & Koltz, D. (2023) Kinship navigator program: A review of caregiver characteristics and outcomes. Family in Society.
3. Seitz, H., Gardner, A. J., & Pylate, L. B. P. (2023). Formative research to Inform college health communication campaigns about COVID-19 prevention behaviors. Health Promotion Practice, 15248399231160768.
4. Williams, E., Greder, K., Kim, D., Bao, J., H. Dan Karami, N.* (2023). Navigating health and well-being during COVID-19: Experiences of Latinx immigrant mothers in rural midwestern communities. Family Relations, 72(4) DOI: 10.1111/fare.12884. **Received the 2023 NCFR Families and Health Section Outstanding Doctoral Student New Professional Paper Award.

 Journal Publications in Press

1. Doudna, K., & Greder, K. (In Press, Accepted October 11, 2023). Maternal depressive symptoms and parenting alliance as mediators between household food insecurity and child behavior among rural Latino immigrant families. Cogent Social Sciences.
2. Sano, Y., Berry, A., & Sneed, C. T. (in press). Extension’s role in addressing child, youth, and family well-being in rural communities. In M. R. de Guzman, & H. Hatton-Bowers (Eds.) The role of the social sciences in Extension. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

 Publications under Review

1. Fenton, M. S., Radunovich, H. L., Ontai, L., & Sano, Y. (Under review). Does a co-parent relationship serve as a protective factor against maternal depressive symptoms for rural, low-income children? Submitted to Child & Youth Care Forum.
2. K., Zhang, D., Peng, C., & Oswald, R. F. (Under Review). We are a team: The power of co-parent communication and teamwork on rural low-income mothers’ mental health. Submitted to Journal of Rural Mental Health.

 Publications in Preparation

1. *Delgado, H., Mojica, C., Chandler, K. D., Cancel-Tirado, D., Sano, Y., & Greder, K. (In preparation). Rural, low-income Latina mothers’ depressive symptoms and family nutrition and physical activity environment.
2. Routh, B., Greder, K., Reina, A., Dyk, P., & Katras, M. (In Preparation 2023) Barriers and enablers to health for low-income rural mothers.
3. Routh, B., Pylate. L, Feeney, S., Contreras, D., Intagliata, M.*, Wiles, B., Cancel-Tirado, D., Greder, K., & Sano, Y. (In preparation). Resilient rural food systems. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior.

Juried National and International Presentations

1. Arreola, H., Big Eagle, T., Morris, J., Kaur, P., & Sano, Y. &. (April, 2023). Fighting to thrive: Overcoming healthcare barriers with resilience. Poster presentation at the annual research showcase at Washington State University, Vancouver, WA.
2. Big Eagle, Sano, Y., Arreola, H., Morris, J., & Kaur, P. (October, 2022). “We do what we have to make do”: Agency and access to healthcare in rural Communities. Oral presentation at the annual meeting of Co-Occurring Disorders and Treatment conference, Yakima, WA.
3. Chandler, K. D., & Cancel-Tirado, D. (2023, February). Rural Families Speak about Resilience: A family science-public health collaboration [Presentation]. College of Public Health and Human Sciences Research Seminar, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR.
4. Greder, K., Bao, J., & Cancel-Tirado, D. (2022, December). Role of acculturative stress in relationship between maternal depression and rural Midwest Latino children’s behaviors [Poster]. Society for Research in Child Development Special Topic Meeting: Construction of the ‘Other’: Development, Consequences, and Applied Implications of Prejudice and Discrimination, December, Rio Grande, Puerto Rico.
5. Greder, K., Bao, J., & Cancel-Tirado, D. (2022, December). Role of acculturative stress in relationship between maternal depression and rural Midwest Latino children’s behaviors [Poster]. Society for Research in Child Development Special Topic Meeting: Construction of the ‘Other’: Development, Consequences, and Applied Implications of Prejudice and Discrimination, December, Rio Grande, Puerto Rico.
6. Intagliata, M., Routh, B., Pylate, L., Feeney, S., Contreras, D., Wiles, B., Cancel-Tirado, D., Greder, K., & Sano, Y. (2023) Education and Rural Food Systems Resilience. National Council on Family Relations.
7. Mader, B., Buys, D., Washburn, L., Vincent, J., O’Neal, L. J., & Burton, D. (2023, May). Exploring the intersection of Cooperative Extension and public health [Panel]. National Health Outreach Conference, Ithaca, NY.
8. O’Neal, L. J. (2023, May). Workshops to promote health equity in rural communities [Poster Presentation]. National Rural Health Association Health Equity Conference, San Diego, CA.
9. O’Neal, L. J., Berg, A.C., Still Brown, C., & Hosig, K. (2023, May). Cooperative Extension Systems (CES) and Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) Programs: Community engagement and partnerships to advance health equity [Panel]. National Health Outreach Conference, Ithaca, NY.
10. O’Neal, L. J., & Griffin, K. (2023, May). Live COVID SMART: Developing a chronic disease prevention and management telehealth education program to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 in rural communities [Paper Presentation]. National Health Outreach Conference, Ithaca, NY.
11. O’Neal, L. J., Jackson, R., & Edwards, A. (2023, March). Assessing community-level response to COVID-19: Perspectives of rural African Americans during a global pandemic [Paper Presentation]. Southern Sociological Society Annual Meeting, Myrtle Beach, SC.
12. O’Neal, L. J., & Vilaro, M. (2023, May). Is Cooperative Extension built for telehealth? Assessing systems-level factors influencing implementation of telehealth via Cooperative Extension in rural communities [Paper Presentation]. National Health Outreach Conference, Ithaca, NY.
13. Pylate, L. B. P., Hardman, A. M., Elmore-Staton, L., Downey, L. H., & Wilmoth, J. D. (2022, November). Family support in recovery from alcohol and other drugs: Reflections of helpful and unhelpful behaviors. [Poster presentation]. National Council on Family Relations Annual Conference, Minneapolis, MN.
14. Radunovich, H. L., Rossi, M., Parisi, M., Parker, J.***, & Younker, T. (2023, November). Understanding the health and mental health needs of rural veterans, and how Extension can help. Presentation for the National Council on Family Relations Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL.
15. Radunovich, H. L. & Parker, J.*** (2023, September). How are rural veterans doing? What rural veterans have to say about their needs and access to care. Presentation for the National Association for Rural Mental Health Annual Conference, Pittsburgh, PA.
16. Radunovich, H. L. (2023, June). Understanding the needs of military and veteran families: What FACS and FCS Extension educators need to know. Presentation for the AAFCS annual conference, Baltimore, MD.
17. Routh, B., Feeney, S., Wiles, B., Intagliata, M., Cancel-Tirado, D., Contreras, D., Pylate, L., Sano, Y., & Greder, K. (2023, July). Resilient rural food access [Poster]. Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior’s Annual Conference, Washington D.C.
18. Routh, B., Feeney, S., Wiles, B., Intagliata, M., Cancel-Tirado, D., Contreras, D., Pylate, L., Sano, Y., & Greder, K. (2023, July). Resilient rural food access. Poster presentation at the 2023 Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior’s Annual Conference, Washington D.C.
19. Routh, B., Intagliata, M., Contreras, D. A., Feeney, S., Pylate, L., & Wiles, B. B. (2023). There has got to be a way: Pandemic food insecurity relief processes and partnerships among rural schools and community organizations. National Council on Family Relations.
20. Sano, Y., Berry, A., & Sneed, C. (November, 2022). Extension’s role in promoting food security and nutrition in rural communities. Paper presentation at the annual meeting of National Council on Family Relations, Minneapolis, MN.
21. Sano, Y., Big Eagle, T., Morris, J., Arreola, H., & Dyk, P. H. (2023). Remember this, our favorite town: Agency and access to healthcare in rural communities. National Council on Family Relations annual meeting. Orlando, FL.
22. Wiles, B. B., Dyk, P.H., Pylate, L., & Sano, Y. (2023). I see the states across this big nation: Policy implications for conducting multi-state, rural community research among 17 land-grant universities. National Council on Family Relations.
23. Wiles, B., Kluste, A., Blodgett, R., & Dyk, P.H. (2022, November). Remain in light: Resilience processes in rural communities during the pandemic [Poster]. National Council on Family Relations annual meeting. Minneapolis, MN.

Live Webinars held as part of the Rural Families Speak about Resilience Series

(Lead facilitator: Brianna Routh; planners/facilitators: Barnett, Chandler, Dyk, Ontai, Sano, and other project members)

1. Greder K, Garcia Fine R, (2023) Engaging rural Latinx immigrant families in health outreach. Relying on Rural Resilience Webinar. Routh, B Facilitator [Webinar] RRR: Latinx Family Outreach | Rural Families Speak
2. Pylate, L. Boyd, M. (2023) Connecting Rural Families in Recovery Programs. Relying on Rural Resilience Webinar. Routh, B. Facilitator [Webinar]
3. Wiles, B. (2023) This must be the place: Examples of rural community approaches to meeting early care and education needs. Relying on Rural Resilience Webinar. Routh, B Facilitator [Webinar] RRR: Early Child Care | Rural Families Speak

 Other Outreach

1. O’Neal, L. J. (March 2023). Advancing Rural Health Equity through Cooperative Extension. Project ECHO Webinar Series, Florida Rural Health Association. https://vimeo.com/803629802
2. Routh, B. (2023) Local Food Systems at Montana State University Extension. MSU President’s Bus Tour Across Montana. [Invited speaker]
3. Routh, B., Finch, K, & Decker, K. (2023) Engaging Kids in the Kitchen. http://store.msuextension.org/publications/HomeHealthandFamily/MT202303HR.pdf