Mapping Our History
The Center has been working nationally for rural Americans since 1973, and we're holding strong in our commitment to policy work and rural advocacy. Take a walk through our timeline to view our policy triumphs and the Center's growth since the very beginning.


WNAX Radio Series
A surprise culmination of all that reflection occurred when we were approached by WNAX, a radio station in Yankton, South Dakota, about partnering with them to produce a series of interviews about the history and work of the Center for Rural Affairs. The end result was a four-week series of radio stories produced by Judy Strattman and aired daily on her regularly scheduled program called “Judy’s Journal.”

Take a listen!

The Center for Rural Affairs in the First 20 Years
A Short Memoir - Mostly More or Less True
The Forces that Led to the Organization of the Center
In 1973, we were employed by the Goldenrod Hills Community Action Agency, a Nebraska non-profit corporation that was federally funded to eliminate poverty in five Northeast Nebraska counties. Don was Deputy Director, Marty was a planner.

Full Text | PDF


25^th Anniversary: Important Lessons We’ve Learned
In 1998, our 25^th anniversary year, we created a newsletter about what we’ve learned over that time. We discuss both issue-oriented programmatic topics as well as organizational topics.

35^th Anniversary: More Important Lessons
To celebrate 35 years of the Center's work is an article series produced for our monthly newsletter,to reflect on where the Center has been and where it is going.


New Center Office Building
The Center for Rural Affairs continues fighting for Rural America from our new Lyons, Nebraska office.

A groundbreaking ceremony on June 6, 2003 kicked off construction of our new office. Moving day was December 22, 2003, accomplished with an outpouring of volunteers from Lyons and our staff and board.