FARGO – Strengthen ND has announced a partnership with the Human Flourishing Lab to study and promote hope across North Dakota.

“It is a tremendous opportunity to work alongside subject-matter experts and North Dakotans to spur greater learnings about our communities, culture and possibilities,” said Megan Langley, executive director of Strengthen ND.

She explained North Dakota, like many rural states, has experienced steady and substantial increases in mental illness and substance use disorders over the past decade. Deaths attributable to suicide, drug overdose and alcoholic liver disease have lowered the state’s life expectancy. In addition, long-term rural outmigration has dissolved the family and social bonds that characterized many communities, while geographic isolation, lack of infrastructure and inequitable access to services create difficulties in addressing these issues.

Amidst these challenges, Strengthen ND and the Human Flourishing Lab are striving to understand the impact of hope, especially for North Dakota’s rural, indigenous, and New American communities, including: how hopeful are North Dakotans across different cultural, ethnic and geographic groups; what gives them hope; how does hope spread; and what can communities do to foster hope?

The project will be led by psychologist Clay Routledge, vice president of Research and director of the Human Flourishing Lab at the Archbridge Institute, a nonpartisan, independent public policy think tank based in Washington, D.C. He previously was a professor at North Dakota State University for 15 years.

“North Dakota is a microcosm of rural and small-town America. The changes and challenges that North Dakotans are facing are happening across the country. The lessons we learn in North Dakota will apply beyond its borders,” Routledge said.