DAVIS, Calif., Nov. 17, 2022 – USDA Rural Development State Director Maria Gallegos Herrera today announced that USDA is awarding $4 million in cooperative agreements to 17 organizations including Rural Community Assistance Corporation (RCAC) in California under the Rural Placemaking Innovation Challenge (RPIC). Placemaking is a collaborative planning and technical assistance process that helps leaders from rural communities create quality places where people will want to live, work, visit and learn.
“We are proud to announce these partnerships through RPIC that further uplift and empower the experts of any rural communities - local leaders,” said Gallegos Herrera. “These funds should serve as a key for these communities to unlock more resources and opportunities, and we look forward to seeing future successes and improvements in these communities, driven by these investments, and supported by trusted partners like RCAC.”
The assistance will help the organizations support people who have been unserved or underserved and live in socially vulnerable communities, Tribal communities, and rural areas.
RCAC will use a $227,000 cooperative agreement to provide planning support, technical assistance, and training to the communities of Clearlake and Fort Jones in California and Mora, New Mexico. RCAC's goal is to improve the social, physical, and economic well-being of each community. The expected result of this project is to build the capacity of each community by planning for and implementing placemaking projects and providing training to community leaders and entrepreneurs to manage the identified projects.
Partnering organizations will provide technical assistance to help people apply for and get access to government resources for projects to spur economic growth and attract jobs.
The organizations will work directly with people in rural communities to develop plans that will ensure people have access to high-speed internet in their homes, are able to live in affordable housing, have access to safe and reliable transportation to go to school and work, and more. This assistance will support the communities for up to two years.
For more information about the program, visit www.rd.usda.gov/rpic. To access a placemaking toolkit and additional resources, visit: Rural Placemaking | Rural Development (usda.gov). To subscribe to USDA Rural Development updates, visit GovDelivery subscriber page.