Vol. 12, No. 3
June 2007

Key Points from this Issue

North Carolina is nearly twice as rural as the national average. It has many small towns.
Many rural communities struggle with high rates of child poverty, lack of transportation, economic trouble, poor educational attainment, lack of health care, and other challenges.
Though they have fewer resources, on average NC’s rural child welfare agencies do as well or better than urban agencies in terms of outcomes and process measures.
Successful child welfare practice in a rural context is created in part to the common sense application of basic social work concepts.