These resources have been created by RTC:Rural to support people with disabilities living in rural America, their families, service providers, policy makers, and advocates.
Newsletter
The RTC:Rural #RuralDisability eNewsletter is sent once or twice a month, and includes new resources, upcoming events, and news in the fields of disability, rural studies, vocational rehabilitation and employment, independent living, and health and wellness.
Resource Collections
Rural Disability Resource Library
This website was created to be an easily accessible and searchable set of resources for people with disabilities, their families, and service providers. It contains fact sheets, how-to guides, information about conducting workshops, web resources, and much more!
ScholarWorks is an open-access collection that showcases and preserves published and unpublished works by University of Montana faculty, students, and staff, including RTC:Rural and the Rural Institute staff. Topics include Early Childhood, Education, Employment, Health & Wellness, and Independent Living & Community Participation.
Disability Counts is a collection of online tools and resources that provide accessible data about disability in rural areas and communities across the U.S. These resources include the Disability Data Lookup Tool , the Disability in America Map Series, and our Guide to Accessing Disability Data.
Disability in America Map Series
Explore our Geography and Rural Disability research in these national maps. The maps in our Disability in America Map Series show rates of disability for every county in the U.S. There are maps on many topics, including veterans, poverty, employment, and rural-urban classifications. There are also maps for different kinds of impairments, including: hearing, seeing, mobility, cognitive, self-care, and Independent Living.
Online tools are a great (and under used) way to boost the success of rural Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) programs and their clients. The Telecom Toolbox website is full of resources for job seekers and service providers to help people with disabilities use online career development tools to find employment.
Toolkits
Toolkit for Operating a Rural Transportation Voucher Program
The Toolkit for Operating a Rural Transportation Voucher Program provides a model that describes how to bring together community members and resources to develop and operate a transportation system for people with disabilities in rural areas.
Advocacy Skill Building Toolkit
This toolkit is a guide for conducting interactive and engaging workshops to facilitate the development of advocacy skills of emerging Independent Living leaders and youth with disabilities. It includes a facilitator guide, activities, worksheets and discussion topics.
Rural Options at Discharge – Model of Active Planning (ROADMAP) Project Products
This project created and tested an enhanced discharge and rural transition support program that facilitates patients’ transitions from in-patient hospitalization back home to a small town or rural community. Project manuals and other documents are available to encourage replication of the model.
Community Activated Living Well (COALW)
COALW is a set of guidelines designed to help plan and implement Living Well with a Disability. It includes ideas, agendas and procedures that community members can use to organize and conduct Living Well with a Disability.
Programs
The Healthy Community Living program is about all people having opportunities to live well and participate fully in their communities. The program is composed of two separate peer-led Independent Living skills workshops: Community Living Skills and Living Well in the Community, and will be available Oct. 15, 2019.
Living and Working Well with a Disability
The Living Well and Working Well with a Disability programs are evidence-based, peer-led health promotion workshops provided by organizations that serve people with disabilities.
Other Information
What makes an area rural? It depends on the definition you use. This page lays out the various definitions of rural used by different agencies, and the pros and cons of each one.
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