Community Benefits

RAIN is providing a community development program, funded in part by the USDA Rural Utility Service, for nine rural communities in the tri-county region of San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura.

Communities to be served include: Shandon, Oceano, and Nipomo (San Luis Obispo); Guadalupe, Casmalia, and Cuyama Valley (Santa Barbara); Oak View, Sespe, and Piru (Ventura).

RAIN has built-out its local dial Internet infrastructure to serve all of these communities with low cost local dial Internet access with USDA Rural Utility Service support. Agency partners can also receive free or low cost bandwidth for their internal Internet access needs.

Each community receives strategic RAIN and USDA-funded equipment :

A health clinic telemedicine computer.
A health clinic public access kiosk.
A school or community center public access computer.
A Technology Master Family computer.
Routers and modems as needed for connectivity.

Each community receives RAIN and USDA-funded support :

Technical training and project coordination.
Web site development by a local Youth Tech Corps.
Formation of Community Technology Advisory Councils.
Distance learning programming for classroom, home and library use.
Telehealth programming that promotes community wellness.
Telemedicine training to link rural and urban doctors into a wellness network.

Selected Communities also receive :

Wiring, computers, and hubs for a community center local area network in 3 locations.
Access to a mobile Internet bus traveling to their town for training sessions.
Community Wellness Visioning Sessions to improve the quality of rural life.

All community residents can receive :

An opportunity to improve their technology literacy with hands-on training.
A chance to qualify for loaner equipment for home use during the training cycle.
Low cost support to foster a small business presence online.
Opportunities to chat with elected representatives online.
Valuable telehealth family wellness resources.
Access to a Smithsonian Innovation Network award-winning distance learning program.

RAIN Rural Community Network 1-800-889-2823

www.rain.org/dlt dlt@rain.org