Celebrating Rural Health

Posted by Sarah Levin-Lederer on November 15th, 2024 Posted in: Blog
Tags: Focused Outreach, rural health

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NNLM, including R7, is celebrating rural health with a month-long webinar series focused on rural resources, programs and partners finishing off on National Rural Health Day, Thursday November 21, 2024.

Below, learn more about the resources and work that NNLM R7 is doing around rural health and how we’re learning from our rural partners. And then join us November 21 for a Rural Health Resources Webinar.

Focused Outreach

Focused Outreach is a way for R7 to connect with new partners and reconnect with existing partners to hear about the health needs of their communities, the health information seeking behaviors and barriers to accessing health information online. Participating partners sit down with R7 staff for a semi-structured interview, often in their community, library, hospital, school or office.

These semi-structured interviews, combined with available health data, give us a snapshot of what’s going on in our region.

Learn more about Focused Outreach.

See what we learned in past Focused Outreach years with these posts from the blog archive:

• Northern Vermont (2022-23)
• Berkshire County, MA (2022-23)
• Sullivan and Cheshire Counties, NH (2023-24)
• Litchfield County, CT (2023-24)

Several Focused Outreach participants have also shared their work with member spotlights.

• Jill Tarabula-Essex and Hamilton Counties, NY (2021-22)
• Nancy Holmquist-Aroostook County, ME (2021-22)
• Brenda Stanley-Northern VT (2022-23)

This year, we’re connecting with partners in Chenango, Otsego, and Delaware Counties, NY and Rhode Island. Stay tuned to hear more!

Regional and National Conferences

In 2024, we had the opportunity to learn from partners by attending rural focused regional and national conferences.

In September, the Association of Rural and Small Libraries held their conference in Springfield, MA, which meant we had the opportunity to present and staff a table. It was great to share what NLM and NNLM has to offer rural libraries and to hear from partners across the Network who are already engaged with their region.

And in early November, I had the opportunity to connect with public health, community-based organization and healthcare provider partners at the New England Rural Health Association Conference in Groton, CT.

NNLM Programming and Resources

R6 and R7 combined to highlight NLM and NNLM rural resources for Public Libraries online this month in “Rural Health Matters: Addressing the Unique Challenges of America’s Rural Communities.”

Some resource highlights from around NNLM include:

• Rural Health Series: Webinars and guest speakers throughout the month of November.
• Past recorded NNLM classes that focused on Rural Health
• NNLM Reading Club focused on rural health with their three book selections that also include supporting materials and discussion guides.
• And introducing the new NNLM Rural Health Resource Guide