Small towns and rural places face numerous barriers to development. In response, the four Regional Rural Development Centers serve as regional and national networks to catalyze, initiate, facilitate, and evaluate research and educational programs that have potential to improve rural economic and social well-being. Such programs focus on developing skills and problem solving processes of individuals in small towns and rural places. This publication profiles the Centers' cooperative programs and those of each Center, focusing on five key issues for the 1990s: (1) improving economic competitiveness and diversification; (2) supporting management and strategic planning for economic investment; (3) creating capacity through leadership; (4) assisting in family and community adjustments to stress and change; and (5) promoting constructive use of the environment. These programs are concerned with economic development, community development, business development, tourism, recycling, natural resource management, attracting retirees, marketing, local public finance, accessing higher education resources, strategic community planning, rural service delivery, public policy education, consumer education, student attitudes toward economic development and outmigration, leadership training, youth leadership, relationship between rural education and rural development, poverty research, health care, youth problems and needs, parenting education, sustainable agriculture, and conservation. Contains photographs. (SV)