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Rural Resources

Search & Find Rural Resources

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Did You Know? There’s a Podcast for Texas Counties.

The Texas Association of Counties hosts a podcast for Texas Counties that's full of news, information, and resources. The wide variety of topics is both useful and interesting. A few recent examples explore: Youth Leadership, Elections, Urban-Rural Partnership, and more

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Texas Association of Counties
  • #People & Places
Media
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CDFIs Transform Rural Economies. We Just Need to Get Them There.

A budding success story in East Texas offers lessons for other underserved rural regions, philanthropies interested in rural revitalization, and CDFIs pursuing pathways to better engage and serve rural communities.

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Stanford Social Innovation Review
  • #Capacity Building
  • #People & Places
Data & Tools
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2-1-1 Texas: Local Information & Referral

Data dashboard compiling high-level, summary information about calls made to Texas 2-1-1, a statewide resource hotline that connects Texans to critical, community-based services like housing, healthcare, mental health support, food assistance, and more.

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United Ways of Texas
  • #Capacity Building
  • #Community Development
  • #Health
  • #People & Places
Events
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Texas Tribune Rural Symposium

Join Texas Rural Funders and the Texas Tribune for "Small Towns, Big Possibilities. A Symposium on the Future of Rural Texas." 

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Texas Tribune
  • #People & Places
Media
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Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibit Coming to 7 Rural Texas Communities

A new traveling exhibit from the Smithsonian, "Crossroads: Change in Rural America," will soon roll through seven rural Lone Star communities starting in August.

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My San Antonio
  • #People & Places
TRF Reports
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Planting Seeds of Prosperity: How CDFIs can Transform Rural Texas

This new resource from Texas Rural Funders offers an introduction to Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI). It includes an overview of how they care serve as a financial tool, examples of how TX Rural Funders members are collaborating with them and a directory of CDFIs in Texas.

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Texas Rural Funders
  • #Capacity Building
  • #People & Places
  • #Philanthropy
Data & Tools
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United for ALICE

Data and resources to help learn more about Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed (ALICE) populations in Texas.

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United Ways of Texas
  • #Community Development
  • #People & Places
  • #Workforce & Economic Development
Partners
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The Congregational Collective for Mental Wellbeing

The Congregational Collective exists to equip congregations to become community leaders in mental health and wellness by partnering to build support systems, networks and ministry tools that include educational resources, training, and a network of relationships.

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H.E.Butt Foundation
  • #Health
  • #People & Places
Media
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Energy Stories

A collection of case studies from across the U.S. focused on how communities are adapting to energy and climate challenges.

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Energy Foundation
  • #Energy & Environment
  • #People & Places
Data & Tools
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Economics: Comptroller Regional Economic Report

The Texas Comptroller's Regional Reports provide an overview of population, income, jobs, wages and education trends in each of Texas' 12 economic regions including a statewide overview.

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Texas Comptroller
  • #People & Places
Data & Tools
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Senior Food Security: Texas Panhandle Resources

The Mary E. Bivins Foundation created this resource on hunger and food insecurity among older adults living in the Texas Panhandle to find resources by county, including congregate meals, food pantries, and home-delivered meals.

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Bivins Foundation
  • #Agriculture & Food
  • #People & Places
Data & Tools
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Thrive Rural Resource Center

This resource center from Aspen Institute Community Strategies Group brings together rural experts, advocates, and residents to tell a comprehensive story of what it takes for rural America to thrive today and into the future.

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Aspen Institute
  • #People & Places
Media
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Stream: Texas Demographic Conference

The Texas Demographic Conference is an annual meeting providing updates of demographic and socioeconomic data available for Texans. Watch the highlights!

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Texas Demographic Center
  • #People & Places
Data & Tools
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People & Places: Texas Census Institute Data Dashboard

This Dashboard presents Texas Census estimates of undercounting-related variables for Texas and its counties.

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U.S. Census Bureau
  • #People & Places
Data & Tools
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Rural America at a Glance 2023

The 2023 edition of Rural America at a Glance examines rural population and migration trends, poverty, housing insecurity, unemployment, and clean energy jobs. It finds that rural employment levels and annual growth rates have nearly returned to levels seen prior to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

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USDA
  • #People & Places
Media
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Commentary: When We Listen to People Carefully, the False Dichotomy of Rural and Urban America Evaporates

The rural/urban divide is too simplistic to apply to real lives, says a researcher who studies political and social divisions.

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Daily Yonder
  • #People & Places
Media
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The Amenity Trap: How High-Amenity Communities Can Avoid Being Loved to Death

More than ever, people are visiting and moving to places with inspiring natural amenities. Yet rapidly growing outdoor recreation economies can also come with serious drawbacks.

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Headwaters Economics
  • #Energy & Environment
  • #People & Places
Media
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Texas Likely Will Spend Billions Fixing its Water Systems. Will It Reach These Forgotten Colonias? 

An estimated 500,000 people live in thousands of colonias along the Texas-Mexico border. Largely built between the 1950s and 1980s, these communities have been promised water — but it has never come.

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Texas Tribune
  • #Energy & Environment
  • #People & Places
Media
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Texas Water Markets Review

Freshwater resources in Texas are facing unprecedented pressures. Increasing competition between water users, coupled with increasingly variable supplies, is giving rise to water scarcity across the state.

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The Nature Conservancy
  • #Energy & Environment
  • #People & Places
Partners
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Just Transition Fund

Just Transition Fund is on a mission to create opportunity for the communities hardest hit by coal’s decline.

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Just Transition Fund
  • #People & Places
  • #Workforce & Economic Development
Partners
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Lead for America

Lead For America exists to ensure that our nation's most dynamic and diverse talent is working on their communities' toughest challenges.

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Lead for America
  • #People & Places
Partners
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Baylor Collaborative for Hunger and Poverty

The Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty employs strategies to end hunger that take into account proximity, the dignity of all people, and the need to test new strategies for old problems.

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Baylor Collaborative for Hunger and Poverty
  • #Agriculture & Food
  • #People & Places
Partners
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Texas Energy Poverty Research Institute

TEPRI brings together diverse stakeholders from across the state and country to spearhead impactful research initiatives, build solutions-oriented coalitions, pilot innovative energy solutions, and champion lasting change for Texas energy.

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Texas Energy Poverty Research Institute
  • #Energy
  • #People & Places
Partners
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Texas Demographic Center

The Texas Demographic Center (TDC) functions as a focal point for the distribution of Census Bureau information for Texas.

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Texas Demographic Center
  • #People & Places
Data & Tools
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Reenvisioning Rural America

Tool for rural residents, policymakers, and investors to see the diversity of rural America and to better invest in its full potential.

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Urban Institute
  • #People & Places
Data & Tools
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Federal Resources for Rural America

The American Rescue Plan provides new and expanded opportunities for rural America. Aspen CSG is collecting links and resources explaining federal opportunities for rural people and places.

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Aspen Institute
  • #Broadband
  • #People & Places
  • #Workforce & Economic Development
Data & Tools
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Rural America Placemaking Toolkit

The Rural America Placemaking Toolkit includes a variety of resources, including placemaking activities, projects, and success stories across rural America

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Rural Placemaking
  • #People & Places
Data & Tools
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Urban Texans’ Perceptions of Rural People

Report summarizing findings from a 2021 survey on how urban Texans perceive rural people and places.

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Sam Houston State University
  • #People & Places
Data & Tools
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A Closer Look at Rural Populations: Multistate Research Monitors Changes and Issues Affecting Rural Areas

Report from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture identifying solutions for rural community resilience and environmental sustainability.

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National Institute of Food and Agriculture
  • #Agriculture & Food
  • #Health
  • #People & Places