The rural community assistance partnership (rcap), in collaboration with its partners, will provide technical, managerial, and financial capacity-building training and technical assistance for…

The Rural Community Assistance Partnership (RCAP), a national non-profit organization, received a $14,300,000 Project Grant award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Surveys, Studies, Investigations, Demonstrations, and Training Grants program (CFDA 66.424). The funding will support RCAP's efforts to provide technical, managerial, and financial capacity-building training and technical assistance to operators, board members, and managers/staff of small tribal/non-tribal community water systems and non-community water systems. The goal is to protect public health, advance equity and environmental justice, revitalize communities, and improve compliance, sustainability, and resiliency, including through enhanced access to infrastructure funding. RCAP will deploy a network of over 350 field staff and partners to deliver in-person and online training, as well as multi-contact, intensive technical assistance to address immediate compliance issues and long-term sustainability. Key activities include lead service line inventories, funding application assistance, risk and resiliency planning, asset management, and affordability program development.

The rural community assistance partnership (rcap), in collaboration with its partners, will provide technical, managerial, and financial capacity-building training and technical assistance for operators, board members, and managers/other staff of tribal/non-tribal small community water systems and transient and non-transient non-community water systems with the objectives of protecting human health, advancing equity and environmental justice, revitalizing communities, and improving compliance, sustainability, and resiliency including through enhanced access to infrastructure funding.activities:through a network of more than 350 field staff and project partners, rcap will provide training in all 50 states, the U.S. Territories, and in tribal communities using in-person and online methods with an emphasis on and preference for in-person services since they are often more hands-on and allow for more networking/relationship building. Rcap will deploy training methods that include: 1) interactive in-person, instructor-led training including learning laboratories; 2) live, instructor-led online training; and 3) webinar offered live and recorded for on-demand viewing. Rcap uses training methods that include blended learning combining self-paced, on-demand materials with live, instructor-led training, hybrid in-person/online training, microlearning (short, on-demand content conveniently consumed); and self-paced elearning. Additionally, rcap's in-depth approach to technical assistance (TA) will focus on addressing the immediate causes of current/potential compliance violations and improve long-term sustainability and resiliency, including access to infrastructure dollars. Rcap will provide multi-contact, intensive TA that will be provided on-site and remotely. For example, the following are some of the activities that will take place during the grant period: lead service line inventories, lead service line replacement strategies, assisting with funding applications, providing input on preliminary engineering reports, developing/updating risk and resiliency assessments and emergency response plans, rate studies, asset management, budgeting and/or fiscal controls, water loss/leak detection, mapping, regionalization facilitation, and affordability/customer assistance programs. Subrecipient:the subaward activities include providing technical, managerial, and financial (TMF) capacity-building training and technical assistance.outcomes:beneficiaries include small public water system managers/staff, operators, and decision makers. Outcomes will include an increase in the knowledge and competency of small system operators, staff, and leadership in the areas of regulatory requirements/operations; planning and responding to threats (natural and man-made); the benefits of collaboration with other systems; improvement in performance for those implementing asset management and utilizing improved rate structures; and more small systems applying for infrastructure funding. This will be measured through the following means: - increased number of small pwss in compliance/making substantial progress toward compliance indicated by reduced enforcement status or in the DCS with compliance assistance types/outcomes and final tmfs; - increased public health protection due to an increased number of communities with lead service line inventories and/or conducting service line replacement; - increased capacity of operators, managers, and boards to diagnose/correct causes for compliance failure and to increase financial sustainability/resiliency shown by average improvement of pre/post test scores; - increased number of small systems working together in all possible forms of utility partnership to improve efficiencies that ultimately assist with regulatory compliance, sustainability, and improved public health; and - number of infrastructure funding applications submitted; infrastructure funding dollar