LIHWAP World Water Week Aug 25, 2021

Wednesday August 25, 2021, 2:00—3:30PM (ET)
Illuminating the Work of the Rural Community Development Program and its Efforts to Address Water and Waste water Needs in Low-Income, Rural Communities

Join this session to learn more about the Rural Community Development(RCD)program. RCD is the nation’s only federal program—through Regional Training and Technical Assistance grants and Tribal Training and Technical Assistance grants—that builds community capacity to support water and wastewater systems in the nation’s unincorporated areas and lowest-income communities, including tribal and persistent poverty areas. During this session, you will learn how RCD grantees are addressing water needs in rural  and tribal communities. You will also learn more about partnerships between RCD and CSBG grantees and how RCD grantees and LIHWAP grantees can work collaboratively to support access to quality water and waste water services for our nation’s most vulnerable communities.

Please register here for Wednesday's session .

   Host:

Lynda Perez

Director, Division of Community Discretionary and Demonstration Programs (DCDDP)

Lynda Perez is the director of the Division of Community Discretionary and Demonstration Programs (DCDDP) which administers five discretionary grant programs: Affordable Housing and Supportive Services Demonstration (AHSSD), Community Economic Development (CED), Diaper Distribution Demonstration and Research Pilot (DDDRP), Medical-Legal Partnerships Plus (MLP+), and Rural Community Development (RCD).

View full bio on Lynda Perez

Speakers:

Brian Bennon

Director

Brian Bennon is the Director of the National Tribal Water Systems Department at the Inter Tribal Council of Arizona, Inc. (ITCA).  

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Sarah Buck

Senior Director

Sarah Buck is the Senior Director of Programs in Rural Community Action Partnership (RCAP).

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Maria Dadgar

Executive Director

Maria Dadgar is the Executive Director in Inter Tribal Council of Arizona (ITCA).

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Tommy Ricks

Director

Tommy Ricks is the Director of Environmental Services in Southern Rural Community Assistance Partnership Communities Unlimited.

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Ted Stiger

Senior Director

Ted Stiger is the Senior Director of Government Relations & Policy in Rural Community Action Partnership (RCAP).

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Moderator:

Liz Kuoppala

Liz Kuoppala

Executive Director

Liz currently works as executive director at MAHUBE-OTWA Community Action Partnership in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota.

View full bio on Liz Kuoppala

Materials:

The Recording for The Presentation on Aug 25, 2021, Wednesday (YouTube video)

The Rural Community Development (RCD) Program Overview (PDF)

The Rural Community Development (RCD) World Water Week (Blog)

The Rural Community Development (RCD) Rural Community Assistance Partnership Water and Wastewater Program Presentation (PDF)

 

Videos of CED/RCD In Action:

Improving New Boston, Ohio’s Ancient Combined Sewer System (YouTube video)
Great Lakes Community Action Partnership (GLCAP) assisted the Village of New Boston, Ohio with obtaining funding and developing the expertise needed to improve its sewer system. The Rural Community Development Program (RCD) helped the community decrease the inflow of excess water into the sewer system, remove combined sewer overflow violations and work toward EPA compliance, and engage in negotiations to obtain principal forgiveness and low interest loans to manage fines associated with non-compliance.

Extending Sewer Service to over 30 Households in Magnolia Mississippi, Population 2,000 (YouTube Video)
With an RCD grant, Communities Unlimited, Inc. provided technical assistance to help the City of Magnolia, Mississippi, extend sewer service to the North Street area that the city annexed. About 34 households were connected to the sanitary sewer system with this extension project, which helped with not only environmental health and sanitation but residents’ overall quality of life and value of their properties.

Inter-Tribal Council Training Certification for the Colorado River Indian Tribes to Ensure the Health of the River (YouTube Video)
For the Colorado River Indian Tribes, located along the Colorado River on the Arizona-Colorado state border, “the health of the people depends on the health of the river.” With RCD funding, the Inter-Tribal Council of Arizona helped the tribe establish a water system on the reservation and implemented the tribal operator training and certification program, which uniquely meets the tribe’s need for sustained career development opportunities in the water and wastewater field.

Technical Assistance Brings Reliable Public Drinking Water to Hobson Village, Virginia (YouTube Video)
Due to unsafe drinking water with extremely high levels of fluoride, residents of Hobson Village, Virginia, could not rely on their community’s water source. In 2017, with and RCD grant, the Southeast Rural Community Assistance Project (SERCAP) provided the technical assistance needed to help the community understand the options available to them for connecting ot safe water, leverage funding for construction, and guide the community through a large project to finally connect safe water to the Village.