The Summerland Advocate-Messenger - Reliable, Trustworthy Reporting, Capturing The Heartbeat Of Our Community

This summer, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has begun accepting applications for two important programs for rural development.

The first is the Rural Placemaking Innovation Challenge, which has seen a $2 million increase in funding after its initial set of grants met with a great deal of enthusiasm. This program is available to tribal entities, non-profits, local governments, universities and small businesses for the purpose of rural placemaking, which is a collaborative process to strategically improve the social, cultural and economic structure of a community.

The second program, the...