Place, Race & Partnership in Downtown Hazleton

February 21, 2024

Check out our conversation with Krista Schneider, PennTAP technical advisor at Penn State Hazleton, about her experiences doing community and economic development work in a dramatically changing and diversifying small Pennsylvania city.

Finding the Unexpected: The Recovery Friendly Workplace Missouri Story

November 9, 2023

Check out our conversation with Doug Swanson, Associate Extension Professional in Labor and Workforce Development at the University of Missouri Extension, about how the Recovery Friendly Workplace Missouri initiative came to be and what engaging with a controversial and emotional public problem looks like on the ground.

Growing Roots of Understanding: How students learn to listen and lead through community-engaged storytelling

October 19, 2023

Watch the recording from our conversation with Katie Chriest, Penn State Sustainability Outreach and Communications for Commonwealth Campuses, about a student-led, community-centered initiative to raise awareness around issues of farmer mental health and stress called "Growing Roots of Understanding."

RCAA Recording: Immigration, Community, and the Economy

September 27, 2023

Check out the recording from the September 2023 Rural Community Action Assembly. Presenters shared their perspectives on labor shortages, population changes, and inclusive approaches to labor force participation.

RCAA Recording: Recovery-Friendly Workplaces for Workforce Development

August 16, 2023

Watch the recording from our August 2023 Rural Community Action Assembly to learn more about inclusive workforce models.

RCAA Recording: Broadband Deployment and Community Readiness

July 19, 2023

Tune into the recording from our July 2023 Rural Community Action Assembly focused on how rural communities are starting to assess their readiness to get and absorb soon-to-be-released federal funding for broadband infrastructure.

Vaccine hesitancy among Latinx: Developing trust for effective community engagement

April 14, 2023

View the recording from our conversation with Maria Luisa Tejada, Penn State Extension Educator, about her experiences working to develop trust for effective community engagement around vaccine hesitancy with Latinx communities in rural and urban places.

The Australian Rabbit Problem and a People Solution

March 15, 2023

Check out our conversation with Michael Reid, a practitioner and director with the Agriculture Victoria Australian government agency, about his experiences seeing how government and community can come together and engage to manage invasive species and other biosecurity threats.

Lessons for Applied Research from a Pracademic

February 22, 2023

Watch the recording from our session with Bev Cigler about her approach to conducting research as a “pracademic,” or practitioner-academic. Bev will draw on decades of experience to share stories from her work with intermunicipal cooperation, public finance, emergency management, and more.

People & pigs: Community engagement in invasive species management

November 17, 2022

View the recording from our conversation with Darren Marhsall, Southern Queensland Landscapes’ pest and community engagement specialist, about his work using community engagement as an essential strategy for feral pig management in Australia.

Community-Driven Science with Tribes in the Upper Great Lakes Region

October 12, 2022

Watch our conversation with UMN PhD candidate and Penn State alumna Maddy Nyblade about her experience conducting research through a collaborative, tribally-driven project in the Great Lakes region.

Bridging the valley of death: Finding creative ways to manage social & environmental challenges

September 22, 2022

Check out our conversation with Lara Fowler about her approach to engaging communities in water dispute resolution, drawing on examples from her work on the West Coast and in the Chesapeake Bay region.

RCAA Recording: Capital Access and Absorption

July 13, 2022

Capital access and absorption — systemic opportunity combined with the capacity and technical expertise to effectively leverage and deploy funds — are vital components of revitalization for rural communities. View the recording from the Rural Community Action Assembly.

RCAA Recording: Regional Workforce Models

June 22, 2022

Regional workforce models — leveraging cross-sector partnerships, employer-informed job training, upskilling and reskilling, along with community outreach through trusted institutions — are an important component of revitalization for rural communities. View the recording from the Rural Community Action Assembly.

RCAA Recording: Digital Equity for Infrastructure, Tech, & Skills

June 8, 2022

Digital equity and inclusion — affordable access to broadband internet, technology and devices, and skills and literacy — are vital components of economic development for rural communities. Review the recording from the Rural Community Action Assembly.

Zawadi Connection: Penn State in Kenya

March 22, 2022

Review the recording from our conversation with Janelle Larson, Associate Professor of Ag Economics at Penn State Berks, about her community engagement work with international partners in Kenya.

The Water for Agriculture Project: Building the Evidence Base for Engagement Research and Practice

February 24, 2022

Review our conversation with Extension Educator Walt Whitmer and collaborators about insights from a five-year collaborative research and engagement project designed to expand the evidence base for the research and practice of community-led stakeholder engagement.

Working at the Intersection of People and Forests

January 26, 2022

Watch the recording from our conversation with Allyson Muth about her approach to engaging private landowners in forest stewardship learning and decision-making.

Recording available: "More Than Just the Numbers! Data Engagement Tools for Local and Regional Leaders”

January 19, 2022

Hear about several data tools developed to help you engage with your local and regional population, quality of life, economic, and agricultural information.

Community Engagement with the PSU Mon Valley LaunchBox

November 9, 2021

Watch the recording from our conversation with Eric Ewell about the community engagement work of the PSU Mon Valley LaunchBox.

From the Outside In: Stories of Urban Community Field Work

October 4, 2021

Check out our conversation with Summer 2021 Community Development Interns Olivia Chau, Skylar McCullough, and Rachel Zimmerman and Penn State Extension program coordinator Suzanne Weltman about their community-engaged applied research in Philadelphia, PA.

The everyday politics of food, place, people, and research

September 8, 2021

Watch our conversation with Justine Lindemann about her community-engaged research with Black urban growers in Cleveland, Ohio.

RCAA Recording: Equitable Entrepreneurial Ecosystems, Tourism, and Seasonality

July 15, 2021

This assembly was an examination of the role that equity plays in sustaining entrepreneurial ecosystems, tourism, and revitalization. View the recording from the Rural Community Action Assembly.

RCAA Recording: Community Foundations, CDFIs, and Regional Revitalization

June 30, 2021

This assembly examined community capital ecosystems for regional revitalization, with an emphasis on the impact of partnerships between philanthropy, mission-based lenders, and local leaders on quality of life, job and population growth, and attracting external capital to a region. Watch the recording from the RCAA event.

RCAA Recording: Health-Care Workforce Pipelines, Apprenticeships, and Community Health Worker Models

May 20, 2021

This assembly examined rural workforce demand and supply, talent recruitment, a medical assistant apprenticeship model in Washington state, and community health worker models. Watch the recording from the Rural Community Action Assembly.

Urban Extension: Community Engagement in Philadelphia

May 6, 2021

Watch the recording from our conversation with John Byrnes, Extension Educator in Philadelphia County, about his experiences with community-engaged applied research with Philadelphia communities.

Community-Engagement Research and Teaching with Immigrant Farmworkers

April 13, 2021

View the recording from our conversation with Kathy Sexsmith about her experiences with community-engaged research and teaching with immigrant farmworker communities

Entrepreneurship and Innovation: Changing the Culture in the College of Ag Sciences

March 18, 2021

Review our conversation with Dan Azzara about his experience working with the PSU College of Agricultural Science's Entrepreneurship and Innovation (E&I) program.

RCAA Recording: Outdoor and Small-Town Tourism, Entrepreneurship, and Economic Development

November 19, 2020

This assembly examined the roles that peer learning networks, intermediaries, and community development finance institutions play in leveraging regional and local tourism for small business development and an equitable rural recovery. View the Rural Community Action Assembly event recording.

RCAA Recording: Place-Based Partnerships for Capital and Regional Investment Strategies

October 15, 2020

This assembly featured an in-depth discussion of cross-sector collaborations among community foundations, community banks, hospitals and health systems, and colleges and universities focused on leveraging local assets to make investments into small businesses, broadband infrastructure, and other economic development projects. View the Rural Community Action Assembly event recording.