Epicenter Competitors

Community Roots Charter School is a rigorous learning community where education is embedded in meaningful real-world contexts and children are deliberately taught to see the connections between school and the world. Community Roots students will meet or exceed the New York State standards and be prepared to excel in the 21st century by becoming independent thinkers and working productively within a diverse group of learners. At Community Roots, students learn to combine curiosity with appropriate application, which leads to deep understanding and the confidence to become who they want to be.

Missouri Community Action Network (Missouri CAN) is the statewide association for Missouri's 19 Community Action Agencies, Allies and Supporters united to end poverty. Community Action helps people and changes lives in all 114 Missouri counties and the City of St. Louis. Community Action serves more than 250,000 low-income Missourians annually in each county through local, community-based solutions. As the statewide association, Missouri CAN strengthens the Community Action Network through education, training and advocacy for low-income families they serve. Missouri CAN is a nonpartisan, nongovernmental, nonprofit organization.

The term RC&D refers to the USDA’s Resource Conservation and Development (RC&D) Program. RC&D was created by a provision of the Food and Agriculture Act of 1962. The RC&D Program is based on the assumption that local citizens can develop and carry out an action-oriented plan for the social, economic and environmental enrichment of their communities. Congress provides about $60 million annually to USDA to assist the RC&D program. In turn, USDA provides assistance as needed to help facilitate the local Council’s goals and objectives. Although most of the USDA agencies assist in the RC&D Program, the USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service has the responsibility for administration of the program.