Publications 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 partners with underserved 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.

News & Publications

Tuesday, Dec 20, 2016

Posted in: Network News

Network News December 2016

In this issue: A Photographic Chronicle of America’s Working Poor—Smithsonian journeyed from Maine to California to update a landmark study of American life – Just north of Sacramento is a tiny settlement that residents call La Tijera, The Scissors, because two roads come together there at a sharp angle.
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Monday, Dec 19, 2016

Posted in: Self-Help Builder News

Self-Help Builder December 2016

In this issue: Policy update: income banding—another perspective; A Photographic Chronicle of America’s Working Poor; Dear Sher addresses some of the recent changes to Handbook 3550-1; and RCAC is hiring a Rural Development Specialist in housing.
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Wednesday, Nov 16, 2016

Posted in: Network News

Network News November 2016

In the quarter ending Sept. 30, 2016, Rural Community Assistance Corporation (RCAC) closed 13 loans totaling nearly $2 million to assist rural communities in Alaska, California, Colorado, New Mexico and Washington.
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Tuesday, Oct 25, 2016

Posted in: Network News

Network News October 2016

Elk City is similar to many small, isolated, rural towns in the West where residents mostly rely on themselves. With so few residents, it’s fallen upon Elk City to organize to a volunteer fire department, emergency medical services and, in recent years, an all-volunteer water management team. Now, the town’s most pressing need is to improve its wastewater treatment.
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Monday, Sep 26, 2016

Posted in: Network News

Network News Sept. 2016

All children get stomachaches, Melanie Whelchel thought when her 3-year-old son Jessen suffered yet another one in 2013. At the time, she blamed a virus, although Jessen had been vomiting. Even an X-ray of a lump on Jessen’s abdomen indicated harmless constipation. But during one feverish middle-of-the-night attack, with Jessen curled up in agony, a frantic Whelchel rushed him to an emergency room in Chico, where they live.
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News & Publications

Network News December 2016

Self-Help Builder December 2016

Network News November 2016

Network News October 2016

Network News Sept. 2016