ORANGE — A Worcester-based organization dedicating to fostering personal and public self-reliance has partnered with the Orange Economic Development Industrial Corporation (OEDIC) to support the small business community and promote sustainable economic development.

RCAP Solutions has tapped Elyse Oliver, an Economic Recovery Corps fellow, to manage the project that aims to advance the OEDIC’s Economic Development Plan by piloting the newly developed Rural Infrastructure Strengths Evaluation (RISE). The OEDIC is the economic development agency charged with leading commercial and industrial development initiatives for Orange.

“The Orange EDIC looks forward to collaborating with Elyse and RCAP Solutions,” OEDIC Executive Director Mikael Pyrtel said in a statement. “The combined approach through community engagement, rural ecosystem analysis, and infrastructure assessment can feed into economic development planning and are all critical elements to help shift the narrative in rural communities over the long term. We can also use feedback from Elyse’s experience to recruit future talent and potentially develop a fellowship program.”

In Orange, RISE work will include demographic and economic data analysis, community surveying, interviewing municipal staff, and participatory asset mapping to identify development opportunities aligned with community priorities. At the conclusion of the project, OEDIC is expected to gain an equitable development strategy for growing community assets and economic, commercial, and industrial goals.

RISE is one of several pilots RCAP Solutions will lead over the next 2½ years in communities in Massachusetts, Maine and Vermont. It is part of RCAP Solutions’ wider effort to tackle challenges faced by small rural communities concerning infrastructure development and economic sustainability. RISE highlights the link between economic development and the urgent needs in communities of all sizes, including workforce development, entrepreneurial ecosystem building, housing, childcare, climate resiliency, broadband, and access to capital.

“RCAP Solutions has successfully diagnosed challenges and supported locally-driven solutions for rural water and wastewater systems for decades,” Sarah Buck, RCAP Solutions’ new project director, said in a statement. “With the RISE’s asset-based process, we can do so more holistically across all areas of community development need in the future so rural communities across the Northeast and U.S. Caribbean can truly thrive. We are so grateful for Orange to be the first rural community willing to partner with us on this exciting pilot.”

For more information on how communities in Franklin County can bring RISE to their community, please contact Oliver at eoliver@rcapsolutions.org. Visit www.economicrecoverycorps.org for more information about the national Economic Recovery Corps Fellowship, which makes this partnership possible.

Reach Domenic Poli at: dpoli@recorder.com or 413-930-4120.