Success Stories Archive

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 provides training, technical and financial resources and advocacy so rural communities can achieve their goals and visions. For more than 40 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.

Success Stories

Success stories are a compilation of staff written success stories and case studies that highlight our impact in rural communities.

Tuesday, May 26, 2020

Major Market makes triumphant return to Zuni Pueblo

On the Zuni Tribe Reservation in New Mexico, a construction project that was years in the making is near completion. A Zuni family will own and operate Major Market, a local marketplace. About 85 percent complete, the market will open in June “no matter what” according to the owner, Darrell Tsabetsaye.
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Thursday, Apr 30, 2020

RCAC borrower rises to meet COVID-19 challenge

With the nation’s attention largely fixed on how the COVID-19 pandemic affects urban areas, rural America is bracing for its own case wave. Many rural healthcare facilities’ perilous state was already a national story before the current health crisis onset. As COVID-19 began making its way into rural communities, real concerns took shape—there will be no stadiums to convert into treatment centers and no offshore hospital ships. Amidst this looming threat, Rural Community Assistance Corporation (RCAC) borrower Breath of My Heart Birthing Center (BMH) in Espanola, New Mexico, is an example of rural grit and adaptability.
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Thursday, Mar 26, 2020

RCAC brings rate setting expertise to Gooding, Idaho

Like many rural American towns, Gooding Idaho walks a fine line when managing its water and wastewater systems. Gooding’s systems have many of the same needs as a larger city, less the greater number of connections that help spread the costs.
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Tuesday, Feb 25, 2020

RCAC celebrates safe drinking water program accomplishments

Rural Community Assistance Corporation’s (RCAC) Agua4All program staff recently celebrated a major milestone: the first school project under the California State Water Resource Control Board’s Drinking Water for Schools (DWFS) grant. RCAC provided technical assistance to the Round Valley Unified School District in Covelo, California. The DWFS grant is itself a product of RCAC and partners’ advocacy work.
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Saturday, Feb 22, 2020

Palo Verde, Imperial County, California

RCAC’s Loan Fund provided interim financing for system upgrades at the Palo Verde County Water District.
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Success Stories

Major Market makes triumphant return to Zuni Pueblo

RCAC borrower rises to meet COVID-19 challenge

RCAC brings rate setting expertise to Gooding, Idaho

RCAC celebrates safe drinking water program accomplishments

Palo Verde, Imperial County, California