Rural Visions was formed in the 1980s to provide the leadership and become a rallying flag for volunteerism in rural Mendocino County. Its first efforts focused on the 900 square mile area in the isolated region of northern Mendocino County around Laytonville. Predominantly populated by the rural poor—loggers, hippies, Native Americans and ranchers, the accident injury rate was extremely high. There had been no doctor in this area since 1920, no nurses, no ambulance service, no sheriff, minimal fire service, no senior services and no newspaper. The area was federally designated as a medically underserved and manpower shortage area. 

The fund-raising efforts and volunteer focus of Rural Visions helped provide these missing services during the 1980s. For this, President Reagan gave it a Volunteer Action Award and President Bush honored Rural Visions with the 237th of the Thousand Points of Light awards. California Governors Dukmejian and Wilson have honored it as have the State and Federal Senates and Legislatures. 

As a catalyst for community building, Rural Visions is meeting the needs of the 1990s by sponsoring two projects to further its goal to serve human change in a rural setting: Sojourn, a community building magazine written by the women of Mendocino County and the radio show, The Business Hour: Conversations with the Corporate Medicine Man. Each venue offers to share depth and breadth of its materials and insights to the global community through a developed Internet presence, tapes, videos, educational projects, mentor programs and more. Through these educational channels, Rural Visions spreads both inspiration and a connecting link between communities for practical demonstrations of a spontaneous and global paradigm shift.