Rural, frontier, and geographically isolated communities face unique challenges associated with ensuring that they are equal partners in capacity-building and prevention planning processes at the state and local level despite barriers that can inhibit participation. By their nature, rural, frontier, and geographically isolated communities and…

The planning of a community-based accident prevention program in a rural Queensland (Australia) community is described. The process involved the establishment of a local steering committee, data collection, presentation of findings, determination of priorities, review of the evidence, description of target group, exploration of problem and…

The village center model is designed to eliminate fragmented social service delivery problems in rural areas. The Whole Village Project at Plymouth, New Hampshire, offers interagency collaboration, local control and leadership, and increased client access to family and child services. Alternative strategies are outlined for development of similar…

To restructure and strengthen special education services, Montana has supported growth of its Comprehensive System of Personnel Development (CSPD) Council at the state level and has initiated councils in its five special-education regions. Montana's organizational structure for CSPD and the systems approach used for state and regional strategic…

This paper reports on the Contact Children's Mobile, a program developed in 1987 to provide educational and social enrichment opportunities for children from birth to 12 years who live in a large remote region surrounding Wanaaring, Australia. Two teachers travel an average of 800 kilometers weekly to make home visits or hold daylong educational…

In Kentucky, one of the six participating Appalachian Rural Systemic Initiative (ARSI) states, the Teacher Partner concept soon gave rise to the Regional Teacher Partners (RTPs). This complementary project, known as the "Master Teacher Project," was designed after the Teacher Partner model but with one key difference. This paper…

This is the story of Barbara Shoemaker and her work as an Appalachian Rural Systemic Initiative (ARSI) Teacher Partner in Oneida, Tennessee. It is the story of what she values and the experiences that shaped her approach to education. In particular it is about what she learned from her experience with the Appalachian Rural Systemic Initiative, and…

Many of the people who live in Knott County today are direct descendants of the early settlers of the region. Today the people of Knott County share an identity that is grounded in the place they and their ancestors called home. Perhaps the public endeavor in which the influence of place is most evident is education. In Knott County education has…