Publications

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How Far Would You Drive for Fresh Food? How Some Rural New Hampshire Residents Navigate a Dismal Food Landscape
February 8, 2011
Lack of access to food stores with healthy and affordable food is one of the central obstacles to eradicating hunger in America. Approximately 23.5 million Americans live more than a mile from a supermarket, which makes accessing healthy food more challenging. Among low income populations, especially those with young children and limited transportation, this distance can severely limit access to…
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No Place Like Home: Place and Community Identity Among North Country Youth
January 19, 2011
This brief explores the link between rural youths’ identification with their community, their self-esteem, and their future plans. The panel study of New Hampshire’s Coos County youth offers a snapshot into the dynamics of a population that is developing its identity in a region that is undergoing an identity transformation of its own. Place identity may be influential in how individuals think of…
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Pittsfield Listens: Strong Schools, Strong Community
January 15, 2011
In December of 2010, the Pittsfield School District received a one-year planning grant from the Nellie Mae Education Foundation to support the transformation of our middle high school from a traditional school to a student-centered learning environment. The School District has recognized that the Pittsfield Schools, particularly the Middle High School, need to improve learning outcomes for all…
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More Than One in Ten American Households Relies on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance
December 14, 2010
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is one of the most responsive federal programs to economic downturns, as evidence by the increases in SNAP use between 2007 and 2009. Nationally, more than one in ten households relies on SNAP benefits, and the rate is even higher in rural areas, with more than 13 percent of households reporting use. This brief examines the trends in SNAP use…
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Hard Times Made Harder: Struggling Caregivers and Child Neglect
November 29, 2010
Poverty is only one of many challenges tied to a report of child neglect. The analysis in this brief finds that neglected children whose caregivers struggle with substance abuse and mental health problems are at significant risk for out-of-home placement. Risk factors for out-of-home placement for neglected children are discussed, as well as a multifaceted approach to services to prevent neglect…
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The Unequal Distribution of Child Poverty: Highest Rates among Young Blacks and Children of Single Mothers in Rural America
October 25, 2010
Measuring by race, place, and family, this brief highlights poverty rates for two rural groups--young black children and children of single mothers--who each face rates around 50%.
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Capital Markets, CDFIs, and Organizational Credit Risk
October 13, 2010
Can Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) get unlimited amounts of low cost, unsecured, short- and long-term funding from the capital markets based on their organizational credit risk? Can they get pricing, flexibility, and procedural parity with for-profit corporations of equivalent credit risk?
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Teachers Matter: Feelings of School Connectedness and Positive Youth Development among Coös County Youth
October 11, 2010
Students who feel positively about their education, have a sense of belonging in school, and maintain good relationships with students and staff generally feel connected to their schools. In fact, 63 percent of Coös youth report feeling this way.
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Wives as Breadwinners: Wives' Share of Family Earnings Hits Historic High during the Second Year of the Great Recession
October 4, 2010
In the second year of the recession, wives' contributions to family earnings leapt again, jumping two percentage points from 45 percent in 2008 to 47 percent in 2009. This rise marks the largest single-year increase in 15 years. This is not due to an increase in their earnings but rather to a decrease in husband’s employment, as the economy disproportionately shed male-dominated jobs during…
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Young Child Poverty in 2009: Rural Poverty Rate Jumps to Nearly 29 Percent in Second Year of Recession
September 28, 2010
The U.S. Census Bureau's release of its American Community Survey data in September 2010 illustrated some expected changes in poverty rates in 2009, the second year of the Great Recession. For young children under age 6, living in poverty is especially difficult, given the long-term effects on health and education. Every region of the country except the West saw increases in rural young…
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Do Scientists Agree about Climate Change? Public Perceptions from a New Hampshire Survey
July 13, 2010
This report, a collaboration of the Carsey Institute, the UNH Survey Center, and the UNH Office of Sustainability, is the first of a new initiative that will track public perceptions about climate change as they change over time. Questions related to climate change were asked as part of New Hampshire's Granite State Poll, which surveyed 512 New Hampshire residents in April 2010.
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Understanding Very High Rates of Young Child Poverty in the South
July 1, 2010
It is widely known that the South is home to some of the places with the highest rates of child poverty. To address the many challenges poor families face there, policy makers and community leaders need to understand the complex factors that converge in this region of the United States. This brief presents an analysis of national and state-by-state data to help readers understand high child…
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Older Americans Working More, Retiring Less
July 1, 2010
This Carsey brief finds that the percentage of Americans age 65 and older remaining in the labor force continues to grow steadily in urban, suburban, and rural areas. In 2009, 22 percent of older men and 13 percent of older women were still working compared to 17 percent of men and 9 percent of women in 1995. Moreover, increasing percentages of older workers hold full-time, full-year jobs.
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Is New Hampshire's Climate Warming?
July 1, 2010
This Carsey brief looks at temperature anomalies across New Hampshire and shows that not only is the state warmer than it has been in the past, but it is also warming faster than much of the planet. Sociologist Lawrence Hamilton, research associate professor Cameron Wake, and former NH state climatologist Barry Keim analyzed over 100 years of temperatures across the state to produce this data for…
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How Yoopers See the Future of their Communities: Why Residents Leave or Stay in Michigan's Upper Peninsula
July 1, 2010
According to a Community and Environment in Rural America survey, Michigan's Upper Peninsula residents, often called "Yoopers," said that ties to community and the area's natural beauty were significant factors for those who planned on staying in this rural area, which comprises about a third of Michigan's land mass but only 4 percent of its population. Those planning on…
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What's At Stake?: Community Conversations on the Benefits and Risks of Expanded Gambling in New Hampshire
April 20, 2010
The two primary goals for the What’s At Stake project were to: gather broad citizen input to inform the policy question of whether or not to expand legalized gambling in NH (on behalf of the Governor‘s Commission) and demonstrate a different way of soliciting such input, beyond the traditional forms of public hearings and opinion polls (recognizing that both play an important role in the policy-…
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Homeless Teens and Young Adults in New Hampshire (co-publication with the Children's Alliance of New Hampshire)
April 7, 2010
More than 1,000 adolescents and young adults in New Hampshire are homeless, and their numbers are growing. The brief, co-published with the Children's Alliance of New Hampshire, provides an estimate of homeless youth in New Hampshire calculated from national and state data and describes the needs of homeless youth based on interviews and a survey of providers of homeless services in the…
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Youth Opinions Matter: Retaining Human Capital in Coös County
April 1, 2010
As Coös County youth age, their attachment to their communities may deteriorate. This brief presents new data from the Coös Youth Study. This research indicates efforts to keep young people in Coös may benefit from efforts to show students that their views matter to adults in their communities.
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Working Parents and Workplace Flexibility in New Hampshire
April 1, 2010
This report, a joint effort between the Carsey Institute, UNH Cooperative Extension, and New Hampshire Employment Security, looks at working parents and their job flexibility and the importance it has for families trying to achieve a work-life balance.
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What's for Dinner? Finding and Affording Healthy Foods in New Hampshire Communities
April 1, 2010
Access to healthy food is becoming increasingly difficult for some households in the Granite State, as grocery stores relocate or consolidate, leaving some residents to depend on convenience stores for basic groceries. This brief looks at recent data on food deserts in New Hampshire.