Category: Videos

  The year 2020 was a stress test on all our systems, especially childcare. The childcare crisis in rural Minnesota was already serious before the pandemic. During the pandemic, it was no longer possible to ignore how important access to childcare is for the average family and how stressed our childcare system is—especially in rural ...

      Thursday, June 3rd: Examining Health Care Access Access to healthcare services is critical to good health, yet both rural and urban Minnesota residents face a variety of access barriers. When we talk about healthcare, cost is often the focus. But broader accessibility issues remain a challenge. Both rural and urban residents encounter ...

      Thursday, April 29th: Minnesota’s Workforce – Help Wanted, Everywhere Our second Interconnected Conversation focused on the workforce shortage in Minnesota. Panelists discussed the similarities and differences in the workforce shortage between urban and rural Minnesota, how the pandemic affected employment in rural and urban areas differently, and some possible solutions for solving ...

  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 ...

Last year finally brought into sharp focus just how important child care is to maintaining a functioning economy. As we noted in our original report on child care, “A Quiet Crisis,” in nearly 80% of Minnesota families, all parents work, and child care issues are the primary cause of absenteeism among American workers. Child care ...

  As the state begins the work of recovering economically from the pandemic, this historic event has left rural Minnesota with a unique opportunity: a large pool of unemployed workers and a large number of jobs that need filling. In this webinar from January 21, 2021 The Center for Rural Policy & Development presented their ...

Our October 13, 2020, livestream provided highlights on our recent report  “Integrating Rural into the New Reality of Health Care,”  as well as hearing from a panel of experts talking about how rural communities can develop relationships with their healthcare providers and help shape their future for healthcare access. Included on the panel were; Jennifer ...

  The common dialogue among employers and potential employees in Rural Minnesota goes like this; “Yeah, but the wages are so low”….”True, but the cost of living is so low”. This video summarizes our report that analyzes this debate and found that, yes, the lower wages found in Rural Minnesota can go further in meeting ...