Context: Loneliness is a major public health concern in the US with a high prevalence and significant health burden including increased risk of cardiovascular disease, cognitive decline, and death. Current evidence for loneliness interventions is of moderate to low quality and uptake of interventions remains low. Little is known about strategies that are effective and appropriate in rural areas. A community-academic partnership developed the research question: “How do people living in rural communities successfully cope with loneliness?” Objective: Understand how local successful approaches align with known but underutilized evidence-based strategies and translate locally-derived data and standard evidence into testable guidelines for coping with loneliness in rural communities. Study Design: Multi-methods study utilizing cross-sectional surveys and appreciative inquiry interviews. Setting: Six rural counties in the High Plains Research Network of eastern Colorado. Population: Convenience sample of 200 English- and Spanish-speaking adults living in rural northeastern Colorado. Intervention: N/A. Outcome measures: Estimated prevalence of loneliness and associated demographic characteristics; elements of successful strategies to cope with loneliness. Results: Survey participant demographics and reported levels of loneliness and preliminary results from the thematic analysis of data on loneliness coping strategies from interviews will be reported. Conclusions: A community-based participatory research approach was successfully used to identify a health priority, generate a locally relevant research question, and select research methods to explore loneliness. The community-academic partnership aims to co-create and test best practices for loneliness coping strategies for a rural region.