Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development

 

 

Archive for Completed Projects

Ecosystem Services on Working Lands in the Northeast U.S.

NERCRD provided advisory support to this effort, which was conducted by Alicia F. Coleman and Mario Reinaldo Machado and commissioned by the Association of Northeast Extension Directors and the Northeastern Regional Association of State Agricultural Experiment Station Directors. Coleman and Machado assessed over 1,300 ecosystem service provisioning programs and policies across the U.S. Northeast. The […]

The AgriCluster Resilience and Expansion Project

Beginning in 2020, NERCRD invested in this project with the approval of its Board of Directors. The AgriCluster Retention and Expansion (ACRE) Program is a strategic planning program for farmer-led marketing and environmental projects by the Thomas A. Lyson Center for Civic Agriculture and Food Systems, which is affiliated with Cornell University. ACRE provides training […]

Northeast Impact Indicators Learning Circle (2015-2016)

Extension Educators in all program areas are frequently asked to document the impacts of their programming in order to justify ongoing financial support. Community and Economic Development (CED) Extension professionals lack unified methods by which to measure their impacts and a consistent set of indicators. This problem is compounded in the Northeast by the small […]

Enhancing the Viability of Underserved Small Farms and Rural Communities Using Insights from Emerging Network Science

The NERCRD brought together partners including Delaware State University, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, and Tennessee State University for a competitive USDA capacity building grant. This project will provide the opportunity to expand networks for small farmers in Tennessee, Maryland, Delaware and Pennsylvania. This project team has produced a substantial training manual for Extension Educators […]

National Agricultural and Rural Development Policy Center (NARDeP)

The National Agricultural & Rural Development Policy Center was organized by the Regional Rural Development Centers to provide information about the increasingly contentious and complex agricultural and rural development U.S. policy issues, primarily in the form of briefs authored by national experts. Signature areas included energy and the environment, food systems development, and self-employment and […]

Linking Health Care Reform and Economic Development in the Agriculture Sector

Researchers and Extension professionals engaged with this project explored how health insurance decisions affect farm and ranch families. Activities included interviewing farmers, hosting webinars, analyzing policy impacts, and developing tools for professionals who work with farm families.

Strengthening Economic Resilience in Appalachian Communities

The economies of many counties and sub-regions in the Appalachian Region have historically depended on a few dominant industries, such as mining or manufacturing. In recent years, Appalachian coal production—particularly in the Central Appalachian coal basin—has plummeted. Coal companies have gone bankrupt, resulting in job losses with devastating effects on families, communities, counties, and states. […]

AMS Grant Writing Workshops and Technical Assistance (AMSTA)

Launched in 2014, this project funded by USDA Agricultural Marketing Service and National Institutes of Food and Agriculture shared knowledge through in-person grant writing workshops and additional tools and materials provided through the AMSTA website. In Phase I, 137 state trainings focusing on effective grant-writing practices, with an emphasis on USDA’s Farmers Market and Local […]

Regional Economic Development as a New Theoretical Framework

This project led by Indiana University sought to build models and analytical tools that will enable policy makers and practitioners to craft development strategies and policies tailored to a region’s characteristics and capacities. The research team expanded theory about regional economic development to include more comprehensive data and a diverse array of academic disciplines, and […]

Enhancing Rural Economic Opportunities, Community Resilience, and Entrepreneurship

The quality of rural life is affected by the migration of people into and out of rural communities, the evolution of agriculture and industry, local social organization, and public policy. During the course of this multi-year, multi-state project, the team of researchers from land-grant universities across the U.S. examined the forces that shape rural communities […]
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