community & resource development
Many rural residents in the Fort Valley State University Cooperative Extension Program's service area, rank lower than their urban counterparts on conventionally used, measurable indices of quality of life. Proportionately more rural residents than urban are poor. Rural workers experience more unemployment and underemployment, and rural people tend to have fewer years of formal education and more frequently live in substandard housing.These and other problems of rural communities are compounded by several demographic factors including low population density, large geographic expanses, lack of human service-related resources, negative capital flow to urban areas and erosion of the population and tax bases through out migration of rural residents to urban areas.
Activities of the Community Resource Development program are designed to assist in bringing together people and the resources they need to foster social and economic progress.
Specific areas of concern include:
- Small Business Development
- Transportation
- Leadership Development
- Recreation
- Career Awareness
- Housing
- Senior Citizen Programs
- Rural Water and Sanitation
