Rural Development Library
Enhancing opportunity by building assets and wealth is the most promising strategy to create a future for rural communities and their residents. This library shows the resources we have developed to champion such strategies.
"Assets like businesses and houses bond one to a place and help to build sustainable communities. Individuals and families build an asset base that lifts the veil of poverty and dependence on low-wage work. Communities become stronger and more viable as opportunities and ownership are expanded to a wider group of people."
- Jon Bailey, Director of Rural Research and Analysis Program, Center for Rural Affairs
The Center for Rural Affairs has several resources available on rural development and rural asset and wealth-building. Links are to Adobe Acrobat pdf files or other sites.
| Economic Outcomes of State Investment In the Nebraska Microenterprise Development Act |
This report examines the potential economic outcomes of maintaining the $1.5 million annual appropriation for the Nebraska Microenterprise Development Act, including the potential job creation and effects on income and assets for business owners for one year and five year periods. |
| Trampled Dreams: The Neglected Economy of the Rural Great Plains | Shows that agriculturally based counties of the Midwest are experiencing significantly higher rates of poverty and significantly lower incomes than urban counties of the region. |
| REAP: Harvesting Results | A survey of participants in the Rural Enterprise Assistance Project analyzes whether the Center's REAP project has assisted in building the asset and income levels of participants. |
| Balancing the Scales of Prosperity: Bringing Nebraska's Economic Development Policy into Balance | A study of Nebraska's business tax incentive programs, primarily the Employment and Investment Growth Act (LB 775), and analysis of costs and inequities in terms of resources invested and location of jobs created. Includes policy recommendations for lessoning the gross disparity in state financial support between large corporate business development and small business assistance. |
| Swept Away: Chronic Hardship and Fresh Promise on the Rural Great Plains | Describes the economic conditions of agriculturally-based communities in the six-state region of Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota. It is the update to our 2000 publication, Trampled Dreams. Includes policy recommendations and state-by-state results. |
| Health Care in Rural America |
A two-part series from the Center's August and September 2004 newsletters. Part I looks at the health care status of rural Americans, and Part II discusses possible solutions. |
| 2007 Farm Bill Rural Development White Paper | A look at what the Center for Rural Affairs is proposing for the Rural Development Title of the next farm bill. |
| Strategies to Revitalize Rural America |
A compilation of a special series of articles from the Center for Rural Affairs newsletter, answers the question, "What can we do to reverse decline in agricultural communities?" We outline 7 strategies, ranging from from federal policy to entrepreneurship. |
| Fresh Promises: Highlighting Promising Strategies of the Rural Great Plains and Beyond | A report on examples of good rural development efforts by individuals, communities, and organizations. We include six categories of rural economic and community development that are crucial for viable rural communities, especially those that are agriculturally-based. |
| Building Wealth in Rural Communities: USDA’s Value-Added Producer Grant Program | Examines the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Value-Added Producer Grants Program, which helps to leverage private dollars for critical investments in business enterprises that strengthen struggling rural communities. |
| Building Wealth in Rural Communities: The New Homestead Act and Individual Homestead Accounts | Examines the potential Individual Homestead Accounts have to bring about positive impacts to individual well-being and community welfare – business startups and expansions, job creation, education and skill enhancement, improved housing and greater retirement security. |
| Rural Broadband White Paper | Nebraska’s ban on municipal broadband exacerbates Nebraska’s digital divide says the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, along with the Center for Rural Affairs, Common Cause, Free Press, Media Access Project, the Nebraska Appleseed Center for Law in the Public Interest and the Rural Policy Research Institute. |
