The Appalachian Regional Development Act of 1965, which formally established ARC to help strengthen economic growth in the region, was signed into law 58 years ago today! Since then, we have invested more than $4.5 billion in approximately 29,000 economic development projects across all 13 Appalachian states.

Despite this progress, there’s more work to be done, which is why we’re excited to award up to $145 million this year through ARISE, INSPIRE, and POWER! Explore our current funding opportunities and help us build on economic growth and progress in the Appalachian Region.

Learn more here.

Pennsylvania Organization for Women in Early Recovery

Since 1991, the Pennsylvania Organization for Women in Early Recovery (POWER) has offered tailored treatment and support services to women in recovery. An ARC INSPIRE grant helped them enhance treatments, expand support offerings, and widen their service area to help even more women sustain recovery and enter the workforce

The National Center for Farmworker Health highlights ten different promising practices and discusses lessons learned from each.  The website for a national nonprofit has a broader library of resources and tools.

  The National Rural Health Resource Center centers hospitals designated as Critical Access in a guide to planning, implementing, evaluating, and sustaining an effective telehealth program.

  An interactive map from the federal National Telecommunications and Information Administration shows how broadband infrastructure may impact local economies.  Using county-level data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the map provides a percentage of households with a broadband subscription as well as data on employment, wages and income, poverty, home values, population change and migration, educational attainment, and gross domestic product.

An archived recording of the March 1 presentation that previews grants we expect to be funded this year.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently released a proposed rule that would require the disclosure of certain ownership, managerial, and other information regarding Medicare skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) and Medicaid nursing facilities. CMS believes that greater transparency about nursing home owners and operators can help CMS and other regulators hold these parties more accountable for the quality of care they furnish. Recent research from the WWAMI Rural Health Research Center looked at quality of SNFs serving rural Medicare beneficiaries and included an overview of SNF characteristics including ownership status. Comments are due by April 14, 2023.

HRSA Rural Center of Excellence on Substance Use Disorders offers an incentive to help defray previous training costs of $750 to each qualifying provider who obtained a DATA Waiver. To qualify, providers must be practicing in an HRSA-designated rural county in Vermont, Maine, New Hampshire, or Northern New York. To apply for the $750 payment, providers should contact cora@uvm.edu.

  As of April 1, states will resume eligibility reviews for enrollees in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), also known as unwinding the Medicaid continuous coverage requirement. This chart details the expected first month for each state/territory’s unwinding-related renewals, as well as the anticipated effective date for the first terminations of enrollees’ Medicaid coverage.  The Georgetown University Center for Children and Families maintains a 50-State Unwinding Tracker that compiles information found on state websites, including links to how enrollees can update their contact information and communication materials and toolkits for partners.  Nearly a quarter of individuals under age 65 who live in rural areas are covered by Medicaid.

The Single Family Housing Guaranteed Loan Program (SFHGLP) is pleased to announce a two year extension of guidance originally published on April 29, 2022 which makes non-U.S. citizens with valid Social Security Numbers (SSN) and work authorization, as evidenced by documentation such as an Employment Authorization Document (EAD), Form I-766, temporarily eligible to apply for assistance. This extension expires on May 2, 2025.

Please note, applicant(s) must meet all other criteria set forth in 7 CFR Part 3555 and Handbook 1-3555.

Thank you for supporting the Single-Family Housing Guaranteed Loan Program!

Help Resources

Rural Development Help Desk:

For GUS system, outage or functionality assistance

Email: RD.HD@USDA.GOV

Important Links:

SFHGLP Lending Partner Webpage: https://www.rd.usda.gov/page/sfh-guaranteed-lender

SFHGLP Webpage:https://www.rd.usda.gov/programs-services/single-family-housing-guaranteed-loan-program

USDA LINC Training and Resource Library:

https://www.rd.usda.gov/programs-services/lenders/usda-linc-training-resource-library

Procedure Notices: https://www.rd.usda.gov/resources/directives/procedures-notices