Rural Resources
Search & Find Rural Resources
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
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.
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.
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."
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.
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.
United for ALICE
Data and resources to help learn more about Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed (ALICE) populations in Texas.
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.
Energy Stories
A collection of case studies from across the U.S. focused on how communities are adapting to energy and climate challenges.
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.
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.
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.
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!
People & Places: Texas Census Institute Data Dashboard
This Dashboard presents Texas Census estimates of undercounting-related variables for Texas and its counties.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Just Transition Fund
Just Transition Fund is on a mission to create opportunity for the communities hardest hit by coal’s decline.
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.
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.
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.
Texas Demographic Center
The Texas Demographic Center (TDC) functions as a focal point for the distribution of Census Bureau information for Texas.
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.
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.
Rural America Placemaking Toolkit
The Rural America Placemaking Toolkit includes a variety of resources, including placemaking activities, projects, and success stories across rural America
Urban Texans’ Perceptions of Rural People
Report summarizing findings from a 2021 survey on how urban Texans perceive rural people and places.
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.