News from rural America.

New rural hospitals are becoming a reality in Wyoming and Kansas, a person who once served time in San Quentin has launched a media project at California prisons, and a Colorado church is having a 'Rocky Mountain high.'

TRANSCRIPT

For the Daily Yonder and Public News Service, this is the news from rural America.

An alarming number of rural hospitals are closing, but Pinedale, Wyoming, population 2,000, is celebrating a new 10-bed facility.

Carrie DeWitt leads the Sublette County Health Foundation.

Whether it's a pregnant mother that needs help or a car accident or a trauma, by improving health care, I think we improve everybody's chances of survival.

Since 2010, a cash crunch and a declining rural population have forced nearly 150 hospitals at a distance from cities to close or convert to smaller operations.

That's why workers at Missouri's Freeman Health System got emotional when President Paul LeBaker announced construction of a new 50-bed hospital and emergency room just across the state line in Kansas.

I don't think I've ever been more moved in my career.

When we made the announcement, they cried, they cheered, they hugged me.

They were so thrilled to have an emergency room.

A new effort in a rural California prison is helping incarcerated women reclaim their voice through journalism.

Anya Sepian explains.

Jesse Vasquez was incarcerated for nearly two decades, but his life changed after he started editing the long-running San Quentin News.

Now an activist, he wants to make that opportunity available to others, including those in rural prisons which generally have fewer resources.

I wanted to expand the opportunities that we had at San Quentin of having a media center, having a newspaper, having a magazine, having a film program.

I wanted to expand that to other prisons.

Vasquez is the executive director of The Pollen Initiative, a prison journalism non-profit.

They just opened a media center at the Central California Women's Facility near Chowchilla, the first in a California women's prison.

Women haven't had a media center, they haven't had a prison newspaper, they haven't had an outlet, they haven't had a voice.

Along with covering the realities inside, the journalists also hope to build connections with the world outside.

I'm Anya Sepian.

A Colorado artist bought a church in rural San Luis Valley on a wing and a prayer.

Now she's building a creative community.

Madeline Elborn was committed to making it as a working artist in tiny Monta Vista.

And Serendipity, an empty Baptist church, stepped in.

Now she's scheduling studio time, exhibitions, workshops on art and journalism, podcast recordings and performances.

There are so many ways to be an artist and you can be a great artist anywhere.

You don't have to be in a big city.

Elborn wants the church project to be an intergenerational space for families and community members.

And it's open weekly for what they call Sunday School, free art workshops or creative time.

Art is this catalyst to bring people together, whether you call yourself an artist or not.

For the Daily Yonder and Public News Service, I'm Roz Brown.

For more rural stories, visit dailyyonder.com.