Cooperative behaviors among private investors, local entities and a county can create significant efficiencies and resources to achieve a countywide vision. A county willing to take on this leadership role can provide technology and creates incentives for cooperation, supports opportunistic action, and regulates a balance between private sector…

This paper explores how rural communities with limited financial resources and technical expertise can have a useful Web page along with the ability for community and business leaders to maintain this presence. The tools to be employed are not new to the Web, but they may be considered "cutting edge" when it comes to a rural community's…

The document has 3 goals (1) to examine the distribution of economic benefits of industrial development as reflected by the concept of competition in human ecology; (2) to provide an empirical test of the ecological model, and (3) to relate the findings to public policy. Two Illinois study areas were identified. First, as an experimental region,…

In the past, rural America often relied on Washington for policy responses to its challenges, but federal policy has been slow to adapt to the broad changes taking place in so many rural communities. New approaches to rural policy have taken root in some states. Georgia's OneGeorgia Authority will oversee a series of economic development programs…

The Illinois Rural Recreation Development Project seeks to develop diversified funding and community partnerships for long-term recreation services in rural areas. The project relies on professionally trained recreation directors and citizen support and participation in planning. (SK)

The relationship between prior and present socioeconomic status and 10 symptoms of social and psychological stress were examined for mobility effects. The analysis was confined to a 5-year, intragenerational mobility panel from 2 Illinois regions--Putnam County and segments of 3 other adjacent counties in north-central Illinois, and a portion of…

This theme issue includes 13 articles that discuss rural library concerns in Illinois. Topics addressed include strengthening library services; rural trends and their impact on libraries; partnerships; Cooperative Extension Service revitalization; financing; economic development; resource sharing in school libraries; and public libraries and user…

In 1980, the Office of Continuing Education and Public Service at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign acquired a W. K. Kellogg Foundation grant to establish a 4-year model Community Information and Education Service (CIES). Working with the university's Cooperative Extension Service and five community colleges, CIES initially focused on…

Presents papers from Illinois State Library and Shawnee Library System's "Libraries on the MOVE" conference focusing on how libraries can impact economic/cultural climate of an area. Topics addressed included information services of rural libraries; marketing; rural library development; library law; information access; interagency…

Compares traits and attitudes of two Illinois farming communities with populations characterized as "German yeoman" and "Yankee entrepreneur." Discusses how community characteristics shape responses to social and economic changes and affect the course of economic development. (SV)

The Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs (IIRA) started at Western Illinois University in 1989. An outgrowth of the population declines and economic stagnation during the early 1980s, it provides a comprehensive program of applied research, technical assistance, policy evaluation, and educational outreach to community leaders and residents in…

Helping low-income families in rural areas find gainful employment and achieve economic self-sufficiency is an ongoing policy concern. The Rural Welfare-to-Work Strategies demonstration is using rigorous experimental designs to build knowledge about how to help low-income families in rural areas strive toward sustained employment and…

In order to determine the effect of rural industrial development in an historically rural area of Illinois, a stratified area probability sample survey of 781 household heads in an area experiencing limited industrial development and of 315 household heads in an area lacking industrial development was conducted in 1966. The results of this survey…

One viable economic development option for rural areas is the creation of business incubators--facilities that aid in the early stages of growth of an enterprise by providing rental space, services, and business assistance. Business incubators promote community development by diversifying the economic base, enhancing the community's image as a…

A project for developing an effective vocationally-oriented educational program to utilize the capabilities of economically and socially handicapped rural youth was divided into five major phases: (1) an in-depth study of the characteristics of a cross section of families in which the model educational program was tried, (2) an in-depth study of…