Community Development

Community development is an important part of the project, and in conjunction with local agencies and community organizations, RAIN is developing E Commerce solutions and is coordinating online town forums. RAIN has become a satellite of the federally-funded National Electronic Commerce Resource Center program, and is providing training to small businesses in Southern California who are interested in learning how to do business with the federal government, and have an interest in developing an online presence for their company.

For rural small business efforts, this can link them to a national and a global marketplace, and in turn, create more jobs for local residents, circulating additional dollars into the local economy. RAIN's community development efforts have also brought State Senator, County Supervisor, and State agencies online for town forums, or to make live presentations to the communities, to open the door to discussing and resolving issues that the communities are working to resolve - school safety, youth programs, health access, Internet access, telecommuting, and more. These community chats serve as a dynamic interactive forum bringing elected representatives more closely in touch with their constituents, and providing the citizens with access to their representatives - many of whom would otherwise never have found an opportunity to express their hopes and their concerns for their community. These unincorporated communities do not have a city hall.

Their lives are impacted on by County-level decisions, and in many cases it is a four-hour round-trip drive for a citizen to reach their representatives office. Likewise, the representatives have been driving these long distances for live meetings. RAIN's technology is helping these people learn to share their concerns and brainstorm on solutions - all from the convenience of a desk top computer, and minimizing the danger and costs of the long drives they would have previously been required to undertake to meet with each other