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Success Stories

A mother and three daughters pose around a dining room table. There are lace curtains and blue wall in the background and some dishes on the table in the foreground.

“This is Home” – A Family Finds Their Forever Home in Calais, Maine

One of the first rooms Heather Gagne and her daughters began redecorating in their new home is the dining room, shown in the top photo. They have been busy repainting and making other updates. Raising a family in coastal Machias, Maine may sound lovely, but for Heather Gagne recent years proved stressful. There were few housing options in the Downeast community, and Heather was glad to find a rental home to…
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Use the filters below to find additional stories about how our programs have helped rural communities across the nation.

Search Results: 893 Stories
Jeanna Dolezal outside her home

Homeowner at Crossroads, Utilizes Home Repair Funding

Homeownership helps families and individuals build savings over time; however, keeping your home in good repair can still be a financial hardship for homeowners.  USDA Rural Development’s Home Repair Loan and Grant Program can assist rural homeowners with these needed… [Read More]
Colorado
Home Repair
Rose and Crown Apothecary offers a variety of herbal products created from plants native to the Pacific Northwest.

Entrepreneur Training Helps Herbal Hobbyist Create a Rural Business

Sarah Butte wanted to use her background in sustainable horticulture to start a business creating herbal products from garden-grown and foraged plants. She created a CSA and then sold her products through a natural medicine clinic, but she never earned enough for… [Read More]
Oregon
Small Business
Sherry Parker poses for a photo by the construction of her new home in Northern Calirfornia. Parker lost her home during the devastation of the Camp Fire in 2018. (USDA Courtesy Photo)

Rural Development helps family find home after Camp Fire

Sherry Parker was single mother to three children when devastation rained down. California’s Camp Fire, the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California’s history, and the most expensive natural disaster in the world in 2018 in terms of insured losses, devoured their… [Read More]
California
Homeownership
Amelia Smith is building her own home through the Mutual Self-Help Housing Program.

I Built a Future With My Own Hands

Amelia Smith is building her first home through the USDA Rural Development's Mutual Self-Help program in collaboration with Six County Association of Governments (SEAULG), which improves local government coordination of mutually beneficial programs where she lives in Sevier,… [Read More]
Utah
Homeownership
A picture of Amber and her family in front of the house they built

The Home that Friends Built

As a single mother of two, Amber W. works as a youth counselor, a YMCA fitness instructor, and a dance instructor for children and adults with disabilities in Helena, Mont.  Amber had long dreamed of becoming a homeowner and, in 2021, her vision came to fruition through a… [Read More]
Montana
Homeownership
The Astoria Co-op installed rooftop solar panels to offset its energy use.

Rural Co-op Shines a Light on the Benefits of Solar Energy

Sustainability has been a fundamental tenant of the food cooperative movement since it began, and not only in terms of selling organic, sustainably-harvested food. Co-ops around the country are also turning to renewable energy. For the Astoria Co-op on the Oregon coast, that… [Read More]
Oregon
CooperativesRenewable EnergySolar Energy
Straw Bale Homes More Than a Dirt-Cheap Option

Straw Bale Homes More Than a Dirt-Cheap Option

In Moab, Utah, Community Rebuilds literally takes dirt-cheap sustainable, highly energy-efficient materials to build affordable homes. With assistance from USDA Rural Development’s Mutual Self-Help program, individuals can apply to build a natural self-help home. After a… [Read More]
Utah
Homeownership
The Trenton Volunteer Fire Department's new firehouse was dedicated in October 2020. USDA Rural Development invested $1 million into the new facility.

USDA Rural Development and Trenton VFD Team for Continued Success

People driving through the town of Trenton, North Carolina, are seeing a new building right off the downtown area.With the assistance of $1 million in grants from USDA Rural Development the town’s new fire station was officially opened with a ribbon-cutting ceremony in October… [Read More]
North Carolina
Community Facilities
Solar Array

Practicing Sustainability on the Eastern Edge of Glacier National Park

In 2017, after years of planning, Sanford and Claire Stone realized their dream and broke ground on Park Cabin Company in Babb, Mont., an unincorporated farming and ranching community in Glacier County. Their modern cabins are located on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation and… [Read More]
Montana
BusinessREAPSolar Energy
USDA provided a grant 0f $31,500 to assist in purchasing and outfit of a new rescue boat for Scuffleton. The town will use the boat to assist in water rescue in its home county and the surrounding areas.

Scuffleton & USDA RD work to keep NC Waterways Safe

The Scuffleton Rural Fire Services Inc. is taking steps to assure they are ready for the next water emergency effecting their area with the purchase of an aluminum rescue boat. Through a partnership with USDA Rural Development the fire department received a $31 thousand grant… [Read More]
North Carolina
Community Facilities

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