The rural community assistance partnership, INC. (rcap) will work with its six regional partners: communities unlimited, great lakes community action partnership, midwest assistance program, rcap…

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) awarded a $5,000,000 Project Grant under the Technical Assistance for Treatment Works (CFDA 66.446) program to the Rural Community Assistance Partnership, Inc. (RCAP). RCAP will utilize this 3-year grant to provide in-person and remote training and technical assistance to small, rural, and tribal communities across the U.S., territories, and tribal lands. The goal is to improve the compliance and long-term financial sustainability of publicly owned treatment works and onsite/decentralized wastewater systems through capacity building, infrastructure funding assistance, and ensuring effective system management. RCAP will leverage its network of over 300 technical assistance providers to deliver more than 240 multi-visit projects, with each receiving an average of 80-100 hours of support. The expected outcomes include increased personnel knowledge and skills to develop and manage competitive funding for clean water infrastructure projects, ultimately leading to more sustainable solutions for rural communities.

The rural community assistance partnership, INC. (rcap) will work with its six regional partners: communities unlimited, great lakes community action partnership, midwest assistance program, rcap solutions, rural community assistance corporation, and southeast rural community assistance project, collectively, 'rcap,' and its strategic external project partners: the university of illinois, the national onsite wastewater recycling association and water finance assistance to assist small publicly owned treatment works, onsite/decentralized wastewater systems and other clean water state revolving fund -eligible projects and the communities they serve. Their objective is to improve compliance and long-term financial sustainability through the leveraging of infrastructure funds and improving public and environmental health and water quality. Rcap will provide in-person and remote training and technical assistance to existing publicly owned treatment works and collection systems as well as those small, rural, and tribal communities served by onsite/decentralized wastewater systems. Training will be provided via a blended learning approach that will include face-to-face training, instructor-led online training, webinars, web-accessible self-paced modules, and anywhere/anytime resources. This project will serve communities most in need across the US, the US territories, and tribal lands. Activities:rcap will provide multi-contact, in-depth technical assistance and training through more than 300 technical assistance providers (taps) working in every state, U.S. Territories, and tribal lands. The type, topic, and location of training and TA activities will include a range of managerial and financial capacity-building strategies to help communities and systems through all stages of the project development continuum, including pre-planning and pre-development, application assistance, meeting grant/loan terms and conditions, and implementation and construction monitoring as well as helping to ensure that they are set up to pay back loans fully and on time.subrecipient:subrecipients will each use their funding for typical costs associated with TA and training such as salaries, fringe, travel, and normal operating expenses.outcomes:anticipated deliverables and expected outcomes will include an increased number of small, rural, and tribal systems and communities receiving TA and training to increase capacity to apply for, receive, successfully implement, and sustainably manage cwsrf/other infrastructure funds (including community-driven planning processes) for clean water protection so that more people in rural, small, and tribal communities have enduring, sustainable and climate-resilient clean water infrastructure solutions. Rcap will conduct 240 multi-visit TA projects across most states, the U.S. Territories, and tribal lands serving all 10 EPA regions. Each on-site TA project will receive an average of 80-100 hours of rcap staff support. Some project types may require additional time and resources to achieve success. Expected outcomes will result in additional small, rural, and tribal community personnel with the knowledge and skills to develop and sustainably manage future competitive funding for needed clean water infrastructure.