Public schools are centers of youth activity for many rural communities.
A qualitative, multicase study approach was used in which rural elementary school principals were interviewed about conditions and factors that contributed to successful youth programs developed with Cooperative Extension. This article presents a brief description of literature and a summary of the study data. Both provide valuable insight into furthering school-Cooperative Extension collaborative efforts. Hale also suggests that a larger proportion of rural children grow up in economically poor communities than do urban children. Many would like to believe that children in rural communities are somehow protected from today's problems.