Rural Education & Communities | CYFS | Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families and Schools

Bischoff, Springer develop mental health model with global application

Richard Bischoff, chair of child, youth and family studies (left) and Paul Springer, associate professor, are partnering with international colleagues to apply their mental health model overseas. The model was developed in rural Nebraska communities over the past six years, where it continues to be implemented as a means of addressing rural mental health disparities.

Distance technology and community mobilization are transforming the mental health landscape of rural Nebraska, where the success of CYFS affiliates’ research may soon benefit communities worldwide.

Richard Bischoff, chair of child, youth and family studies, and Paul Springer, associate professor, are partnering with international colleagues to address an issue that they say transcends geography and culture—access to mental health services. Their model, which was developed six years ago in rural Nebraska communities, integrates distance technology and begins by drawing community members around the proverbial table. Full Article

CYFS researcher leads roundtable on science literacy in rural communities

CYFS research associate professor Gina Kunz led a roundtable discussion of how family-school partnerships can bolster science literacy in rural communities as part of a Feb. 19 Big Idea Seminar co-sponsored by CYFS.

Kunz prefaced the discussion by reviewing the structure, goals and key findings underlying family-school partnerships. She also outlined several partnership-based strategies for enhancing children’s awareness and understanding of science. Full Article

Dalla to found first quarterly journal on human trafficking

It’s everywhere – provided you know where to find it.

Years of research have taught CYFS faculty affiliate Rochelle Dalla that the lesson applies both to the shadowy practice of human trafficking and the scattered information surrounding it.

Dalla will aim to assemble research and foster discourse on the issue by founding the recently approved Journal of Human Trafficking, which she cited as the first of its kind. Full Article

CYFS affiliates amass poster awards at Rural Futures Conference

Nine doctoral student affiliates of the Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families and Schools received recognition for their research at the 2013 Rural Futures Conference, earning multiple graduate student poster awards presented Nov. 5 in Lincoln, Neb. Full Article

Coutts researching distance tech delivery of intervention to rural communities

Miles or megabytes? Speed limits or bandwidth? Country roads or fiber optics?

For years, reaching out to families and schools in rural communities has meant long hours of costly travel. This reality has made distance technology an appealing alternative – and the dissertation focus of Michael Coutts, a CYFS doctoral student affiliate. Full Article

CYFS-housed Rural Center hosts national research conference

Brent McBride (center), director of the Child Development Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, participates in a panel discussion during the first day of Connect-Inform-Advance, the 2013 National Conference on Rural Education Research.

The CYFS-housed National Center for Research on Rural Education (R²Ed) generated discussion and disseminated findings about factors influencing the academic success of rural K-12 students when it hosted 150 researchers, practitioners and policymakers at a conference held April 3-4 in Omaha, Neb. Full Article

CYFS-housed center spurs governor’s proclamation of rural education week

With support from the University of Nebraska’s Center for Great Plains Studies and the CYFS-housed National Center for Research on Rural Education (R²Ed), Gov. Dave Heineman has proclaimed April 1-6 as Rural Education Week in the state.

Great Plains director Richard Edwards and R²Ed director Susan Sheridan joined Peter Longo, professor of political science at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, in requesting the proclamation. Its signing sets the stage for two events that will address education in rural communities throughout the Cornhusker State and beyond. Full Article

Mission to Haiti inspires CYFS director

CYFS Director Susan Sheridan stands before the remnants of The Renaissance School in La Montagne, Haiti.

Classrooms missing roofs and walls. Children lacking access to basic education. Teachers using tarp as chalkboards.

And, amidst it all, the indomitable spirit of people working to improve each other’s lives.

CYFS Director Susan Sheridan encountered these dual realities during a recent mission to La Montagne (mawn-TYN’), Haiti, a beautiful but historically poor mountainside community devastated by a 2010 earthquake. Full Article