Center for Rural Engagement: Indiana University Bloomington

Create a brighter future with us

We connect the research, teaching, and service of IU Bloomington faculty, staff, and students with rural Indiana's opportunities and assets to support thriving rural communities through our nationally recognized approach. Join us and create innovative partnerships that improve the lives of Hoosiers.

Learn about our approach

We're building upon strengths, delivering fresh ideas, responding to challenges, and advancing rural research.

Find your focus

Arts and culture, community resilience, education, health, housing, and leadership are our key focus areas.

Get involved

Join the team, partner with us, volunteer, or share a donation. There are many ways to get involved.

Explore resources

Find detailed reports and publications, maps and dashboards, webinars and podcasts, and more.

Uniting real-world learning and service to the state

Sustaining Hoosier Communities is connecting faculty and students with rural communities to support projects that enrich health, prosperity, and vitality.

See how you can get involved

See how rural communities celebrated the eclipse

We supported arts and cultural activities that united residents across the state of Indiana around a historic astronomical event.

Share in the magic

Gain insight into your community

Explore demographics, education, health, and housing information about Indiana counties through the community profile dashboard.

Browse community profiles

Recent news

344Projects launched in 81 counties

3068IU students mobilized to help Hoosier communities

53,616Residents engaged in 90+ communities

Featured resources

See all resources

Webinar

2024 IU Rural Conference Opening Remarks and Keynote Address

This playlist features recordings of the opening remarks and the keynote address from each day of the 2024 IU Rural Conference, which connected leaders from across Indiana, Indiana University Researchers, and colleagues from a variety of fields to explore perspectives on opportunities and needs facing rural Indiana.

Watch the recordings

Publication

Community Arts and Culture Guide

This guide is intended for anyone looking to improve their community by developing quality of place initiatives through arts and culture. Use this guide to create a foundation for cultural development, assess your assets, and move forward with goals to develop arts and culture initiatives.

Read the guide

Publication

Hoosier Housing Ready Toolkit

The toolkit includes housing market data resources, a quality-of-place inventory, a visioning guide, local government zoning and planning information, a tax model to help communities determine the cost and benefit of new housing units, and a site identification guide, among other resources.

Get the toolkit