Back in January, President and CEO of the Center for Rural Policy and Development, Julie Tesch, had a conversation with Scott McMahon, the Executive Director of the Greater MN Partnership on the upcoming legislative session. In this episode, Julie brought Scott back on for a mid-legislative session review. So far, this session has lived up ...
By Marnie Werner, VP Research I’ve been talking a lot about child care in the last month, and in those presentations, I’ve been telling people how the two biggest barriers to attracting workers in rural areas is a lack of child care and a lack of housing. This week, instead of child care, I ...
Across the state, an army of younger senior citizens use their own private vehicles to serve as volunteer drivers, providing an essential service to the elderly and disabled in rural communities where public transit can be sporadic or non-existent. According to the transit providers who coordinate these rides to grocery stores, clinics, and other ...
Monday, March 29th: Childcare – A Complex Crisis Our first Interconnected Conversation focused on the childcare crisis in Minnesota. Panelists discussed the similarities and differences in childcare between urban and rural Minnesota, what potential business models may be a part of the solution and how the childcare crisis relates to other parts of ...
By Whitney Oachs, Research intern In 2018, CRPD reported that across Minnesota, the “opioid crisis” is much more than just opioids. At the time, statistics indicated that Minnesota isn’t facing an opioid crisis so much as an addiction crisis, and the drug of choice—for many—is meth. Though this report was published almost three years ago, ...
This episode is a discussion with Marnie Werner who just published a new research report looking into rural child care. In this interview we speak about the current lack of availability of child care slots , the challenges center based care face in rural Minnesota, and some of the community-level solutions that has Marnie excited. ...
By Marnie Werner, Vice President, Research & Operations A lack of reliable child care was the single biggest problem for employees in America before the pandemic. Now, as parents head back to work, they will be looking for child care, whether it’s with their old provider or a new one, and that will drive up ...
On this week’s episode, Julie talks with Rhonda Otteson, Minnesota Coalition for the Homeless, about homelessness in rural Minnesota. It’s easy to overlook since homelessness doesn’t always look the way we think it should. Rhonda and Julie discuss the many hidden factors that put people at risk for homelessness, why the housing situation in Greater ...
By Whitney Oachs, CRPD research intern Last summer the Center for Rural Policy reported a “sea change in engagement” after racial justice protests were held in rural communities across the state following the death of George Floyd. Though more attention has been paid to these protests in urban environments, towns as small as Grand Marais ...
