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?

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.

High unemployment rates, 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. For more than 35 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.

Thursday, Oct 25, 2018

Investment collaborative helps fund Native-owned business

Zuni Indian Reservation, N.M. – Some three decades ago Darrell Tsabetsaye opened a convenience store called Major Market on the Zuni Indian Reservation on the Arizona-northern New Mexico border. Though such stores are fixtures on many street corners, Tsabetsaye’s was neither common nor convenient to establish.
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Thursday, Sep 20, 2018

Operator training and testing collaboration equals an increase in certified staff

Many organizations promote water operator training, assist with operator-in-training or certification, or help those who want to increase their operator certification level. At Rural Community Assistance Corporation (RCAC), we believe this is a very important part of our work.
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Thursday, Aug 30, 2018

502 Direct Loan Packaging Program increases access to home ownership

In February, Daphne Rotolo received some distressing news from a woman she was helping to find better housing. As a homeownership assistant with Housing Resources of Western Colorado, she’s seen and heard about many troublesome living situations. This was among the worst.
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Wednesday, Jul 18, 2018

Second Tribal Housing Excellence Academy cohort graduates

Not long ago, the Hualapai Tribe in northwest Arizona was faced with a waiting list of 84 families that needed homes. The list had been in the making for five years and due to a reduction in Indian Housing Block Grant funds, housing development on the Hualapai Reservation had stalled. But in November 2017, the Hualapai Tribe broke ground on three model homes to be built in the Box Canyon subdivision.
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Agua4All program expands to schools and Tribes across California

More than one million Californians lack access to safe drinking water, a startling statistic in a state with the fifth largest economy in the world. For these Californians—of which one in three is Hispanic and nearly half are adults diagnosed as pre-diabetic—the only alternatives to unsafe water are expensive bottled water or sugary drinks.
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Success Stories

Investment collaborative helps fund Native-owned business

Operator training and testing collaboration equals an increase in certified staff

502 Direct Loan Packaging Program increases access to home ownership

Second Tribal Housing Excellence Academy cohort graduates

Agua4All program expands to schools and Tribes across California