Community Questions & Resources

RCAC’s programs and services deliver solutions to complex community needs. Our local presence allows us to develop partnerships with communities to identify needs, set goals, and select the best options to meet those goals. RCAC and our partners provide the tools to create change and growth, but the communities chart their own course. Collaboration, plus community effort will equal community change. How can we help you?

RCAC’s Loan Fund is a financial resource for rural communities. The Loan Fund fills financing gaps and serves in unconventional markets. We offer loans for affordable housing development, environmental infrastructure, community facilities and small businesses in rural locations.

Decent housing, safe drinking water, education, financing, jobs, community facilities, leadership, families are the many facets to RCAC's work.

RCAC expands the knowledge base of the rural public through education and training. Our training expertise is in technical, financial, and administrative issues that affect rural communities. We take great pride in our professional trainer team's capacity and effectiveness. Our trainers maximize audience participation to keep trainings relevant and memorable.

RCAC's news and publications are a compilation of timely news, announcements and accomplishments produced for the rural development world.

Sub-standard housing and poverty are commonplace in low-income rural communities. Many of these communities also face daunting challenges to access safe, clean drinking water and to develop other vital infrastructure. These issues are often overlooked in policy because rural communities lack the resources, training or social networks that are found in urban areas. Learn how you can advocate for the under-served population in the West.

Founded in 1978, RCAC is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that partners with rural and Indigenous communities to achieve their vision and well being through technical assistance, training, financial resources and advocacy. For more than 45 years, our dedicated staff and active board, coupled with our key values: leadership, collaboration, commitment, quality and integrity, have helped effect positive change in rural communities across the West. Learn more about who we are and how we operate.

Community Questions & Resources

Are weather and climate events threatening your community?

Do you have leadership in place?

Do you have Elder & Youth input?

Does your community have a vision of what relocation looks like?

Does your community experience erosion?

What is an erosion? The potential for erosion exists wherever land and water connect. Erosion, as part of a natural process, does not become a problem until it starts to affect something of intrinsic or quantifiable value. In the past, communities simply moved away from erosion sites as necessary. As communities became tied to the land through infrastructure development, it became more difficult to move away from erosion sites, and residents have tried to combat erosion on their own until the problem grew so severe that external assistance was needed. – U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Alaska District Study Findings and Technical Report, 2009

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