Life starts at home: Exploring how housing impacts participation for people with disabilities

Modern perspectives of disability focus on the impact of the environment on the participation and independence of people with disabilities. The interaction between a person and their surroundings can either support or inhibit their functional needs to live independently and participate in the community (World Health Organization). RTC:Rural research on housing and ecology indicates that increasing the availability of accessible and usable housing is a significant step toward building greater community participation and independent living for all. Accessibility and usability issues within the home can present barriers to daily living that negatively impact an individual’s ability to participate in their community. Increased energy spent on overcoming these barriers in the home may reduce available time and energy for activities outside the home, such as employment or social engagement, especially as a person might experience even further barriers in the community

ACA and Medicaid Expansion Associated with Increased Insurance Coverage for Rural Americans with Disabilities

This fact sheet explores insurance rate changes associated with the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and Medicaid expansion on insurance coverage for rural and urban people with and without disabilities. Following the implementation of the ACA, rural people with disabilities had the greatest gains in insurance coverage. Rural people with disabilities in Medicaid expansion states saw a 10.7% increase in insurance coverage, compared to a 5.3% increase for those in non-expansion states. The loss of the ACA and Medicaid expansion could hurt rural people with disabilities more than their urban counterparts, or those without disabilities

Employment disparity grows for rural Americans with disability

Employment rates have increased since the recession, but these gains haven’t reached all communities across the country, nor has everyone benefited from these gains. While overall employment rates have improved, employment for people with disabilities in rural areas has decreased. This fact sheet uses the recently released (December 2018) American Community Survey 5-year estimates to explore changes in employment rates for people with and without disabilities across the nine divisions of the United States, and for metropolitan, micropolitan, and non-core counties. This marks the first time longitudinal trends in ACS data can be explored across the rural-urban continuum using comparable definitions of disability

Use of Online Career Development Tools by Vocational Rehabilitation Professionals

Online career development refers to using online resources such as social media and job boards for finding employment and advancing careers. Social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter allow users to connect with potential employers and advertise their strengths to a diverse audience. Online job boards connect employers and job seekers based on specific interests, skills and locations. Unfortunately, the same online tools that can help people find employment and advance their careers can also limit opportunities if the job seeker’s online presence is unprofessional or absent (Brown & Vaughn, 2011)

America at a glance: COVID-19 and disability in rural areas

To learn more about COVID-19 impacts on rural people with disabilities, we conducted a survey in late April/early May to explore rural and urban differences in COVID-19 health risks, adherence to public health recommendations, and trust in different information sources. We focused on people with disabilities because they often experience higher rates of secondary health conditions that place them at heightened risk of COVID-19 complications. Summary findings: Rural respondents reported higher rates of COVID-19 health risk factors, but less adherence to public health recommendations. Overall, individuals with health risk factors reported adopting fewer public health recommendations than individuals without health risk factors. Service providers and Dr. Anthony Fauci were the most trusted sources of information about COVID-19 for both rural and urban respondents

One-on-One Delivery of Living Well with a Disability

The RTC: Rural conducted a research project on health management support for rural Americans. The approach used individually-focused programs, one of which included selected content from the Living Well with a Disability (LWD) health promotion program. The project noted that transportation and limited access to group-based programs in rural areas may act as barriers for participation in health promotion programs. Findings suggest the traditional 10- week LWD group-based program is the recommended practice, but a shorter LWD program delivered one-on-one with a consumer may be an option in rural areas

Building Community-Based Models for Climate Resilient Agriculture and Fisheries Across Landscapes within the Municipality of Ivisan, Capiz

A recent Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report states that climate change is unequivocal and its immediate impact is the modification of the worlds’ biophysical and natural systems resulting to changes in interspecies dynamics, movement of range, altered abundance, and shift in seasonal activities in various ecosystems. Agriculture will be the hardest hit sector globally as its productivity is primarily based on the integrity of agro-ecosystems. Adverse impacts to agriculture will have direct impacts on livelihoods, food security, and nutrition in rural areas. Climate resilient or smart agriculture (CRA/CSA), as a climate change response, provides an option for resource poor farmers in rural areas through its three- tiered objectives, which are: (a) increasing agriculture productivity and income in a sustainable, environmentally sound manner; (b) building capacity of households and food systems to adapt to climate change; and (c) reducing emissions of Greenhouse Gases (GHG’s) while increasing carbon sequestration of agro-ecosystems. Healthy landscapes support food security, livelihoods, and ecosystem functions (helping build resilience). Global knowledge and experience on CRA/CSA is already vast. IIRR believes that its greater adoption by small-holder farmers, especially in the Philippine context, could be facilitated and accelerated, if and when, interventions are coordinated and done through community-based approaches. Communitybased participatory adaptation will be facilitated if interventions are undertaken through multiscalar and multisectoral approaches, with public and private actors converging their services at community and sub-national levels

Climate Smart Agriculture: Models for Empowering Women Livestock Producers

The brief documents the experience of the International Institute of Rural Reconstruction (IIRR) and its farmer co-operator in implementing the Native Pigs Initiative in Guinayangan Climate-Smart Village in Quezon Province, Philippines. The main objective of the project is to develop an evidence-base for sustainable outscaling of climate-resilient agricultural practices to enhance livelihood, resilience, and adaptive capacities particularly in the livestock sector. CCAFS and the Department of Agriculture, through its Bureau of Agricultural Research, supported this initiative to demonstrate that small livestock are a socially relevant and economically profitable project for the poor

Towards a Portfolio of Climate Resilient Technological Options: Community level participatory adaptive research

Farmers in the Philippines are already being challenged by climate change. This is often manifested by climate variability (too much rain, periods of drought, extreme weather, etc.). Household livelihoods, income and nutritional well-being are affected adversely. The impacts of climate change are often unique to specific locations and tend to differ considerably, even from community to community. Solutions need to be derived locally and in partnership with local communities and local governments. Both livelihood and climate risks need to be addressed (for different socio-cultural contexts and agro-ecologies). Community-level participatory action help develop adaptive capacities of local communities to address current and future climate risks. Farmers need a range of options that they can choose from. This publication chronicles lessons from the field from the Municipality of Guinayangan, Quezon. This work has been supported by the Department of Agriculture through the Bureau of Agricultural Research (BAR) and the Systems-Wide Climate Change Office (SWCCO) under the Adaptation and Mitigation Initiative in Agriculture (AMIA) Program and CCAFS Southeast Asia

Agroforestry for a Changing Climate

The brief tackles the role of agroforestry in achieving food and nutritional security, climate change mitigation and environmental resilience. The publication is based on the small agroforestry project in Guinayangan Climate-Smart Village in Quezon Province, Philippines implemented by the International Institute of Rural Reconstruction and CCAFS Southeast Asia