RCAP strongly believes that our ability to assist rural communities depends on public policies that enable, rather than hinder, work to bring about positive change. The RCAP network partners with other rural and small community advocates and policy makers [1] to enact and implement policies that effectively foster sustainable development and improve the quality of life of rural communities. Our aim is to impact the policies of government agencies and of coalitions that work on legislation that affects rural communities and people.
To this end, RCAP investigates the complex issues affecting rural communities’ ability to become sustainable. In so doing, we seek to promote public debate at both the local and national levels on how to help rural communities act on issues affecting them.
RCAP works to not only remove barriers for economically disadvantaged people and communities, but also to promote proactive policies and programs to assist their initiatives.
Our efforts in advocacy and public policy allow us to reach beyond our service area to promote social and economic justice.
We solicit ideas and identify issues and concerns from community leaders from the more than 2,000 communities nationwide in which we work each year, as well as from our 200 field staff who assist them. In this manner, we collect information at the grassroots level to provide local snapshots of rural reality and bring together the information to develop regional and national pictures. Our approach allows us to recommend national policy positions that recognize regional and local variances based on a community's perspectives and interests.
Some of the important issues we explore include:
- water and wastewater service affordability
- avoiding privatization of water utilities
- encouraging regionalization of utilities
- current service gaps in rural areas
- data gaps that could inform policy makers of the current situation and potential support required to resolve service gaps
- distribution of financial resources available for communities to initiate self-help efforts
In short, we provide a national voice and advocate for the interests of the people and communities we serve.
Some of our policy partners and links to them are included on the Collaborators [1]page.