2024 marks the 40th anniversary of the Rural Communities Resource Center!
Please join the staff and board of the RCRC to celebrate this milestone anniversary at the Yuma Community and Enrichment Center at 421 E. 2nd Avenue this Friday, September 27th at 5:00 pm. If you are not able to make it to the event please stop in for a visit at 204 S. Main Street in Yuma or 252 W. 1st in Akron.
The Rural Communities Resource Center (RCRC) is a non-profit 501(c) 3 organization that began in 1983 and incorporated in 1984. It is a grassroots organization that was founded by young women with small children living in Yuma and Washington counties. They were isolated from each other and from human and supportive services in a remote rural area and they came together to meet a challenge common to rural areas — how to create and maintain services for rural people. As their awareness of community needs grew, they began to develop programs and services to fill critical gaps and to create systems change.
The first project of the RCRC was to fundraise for a birthing bed for the Yuma Hospital. They were successful and were able to purchase and donate the birthing bed as well as have enough funds to decorate the birthing room at the old hospital on S. Main St. The first event they organized was a family workshop in May of 1983 held at the First Presbyterian Church of Yuma. Early programs included the Domestic Violence Program called New Directions and Legal Services.
Over the last 40 years the RCRC has developed and expanded our programs and services according to community need. In 1995 the RCRC opened a center in Akron called Washington County Connections. This was after years of providing services and support in different ways in Akron, including a time of meeting with people in a small room at the top of the Courthouse.
The Resource Center in Yuma is currently located downtown on S. Main St. as it has outgrown several previous locations, including the Cedar Square building behind the Main Event. Resource Center staff note that one of the best things about the current location is that it is nearly in the geographic center of town and a walkable destination for many people. Five full time staff in Yuma and two in Akron provide programs, services, information and a listening ear. Staff in Yuma are Lucie Ebersole, Margo Ebersole, Berenice Marquez, Junice Ramirez, and AmeriCorps postion Aelyn Muñoz; staff in Arkon are Jamie Baker and Claudia Sarmiento with Margo working part time in Akron as well.
The Rural Communities Resource Center has grown and changed to meet the changing needs of the community. Current programs include: food bank, parenting support, youth leadership development, literacy, domestic violence program, past due rent and utility assistance, oral health program, summer food program, connections to health coverage and application assistance, and much more. Some of the most important work the Resource Center does is to connect people to other valuable local organizations and programs.
Current RCRC Executive Director Margo Ebersole has been around the Resource Center since she was a child. Her mother, Lucie Ebersole, and Aunt Charlee McGraw were early volunteers and then staff members.
“Growing up around the Resource Center taught me the importance of the existence of a place where people could go and be heard, find connections, direct services and much more,” Margo said. “Not only the importance but the value of such a place as the Resource Center.”
Ebersole has a favorite story she likes to share about an unusual request for help. A girl came in pushing her bicycle. As she struggled to get it in through the front door staff held the door open to let her get it inside. They could see right away that the front tire was flat and worn and the child had tried to patch it up with gray duct tape.
She spoke up right away and said, “I know you help people here. You helped me and my Mom before and I need help to fix my bike.”
The staff looked at the bike with her as she told them that she was 10 and she used this bike to get to school. She told them how important it was to her and she looked at them, fully confident that they would help her. This is not the kind of thing that can usually be grant funded; it also is not the kind of thing that comes up every day but it was an important need. Situations like this can be solved in a wonderful way — the RCRC staff was able to use locally donated funds to help this 10 year old girl. This kind of situation and 100 others like it show why RCRC needs local community support to be able to provide community support. Unexpected situations come up for people all the time and people may have to choose between repairing a vehicle or paying a bill.
“If you are feeling the strain of the high cost of living you know that your neighbors are as well. People in our community need their community. If you can support the work that the Resource Center is doing you are helping the people in your community make it through a difficult time,” Ebersole said.