About the Rural Community Action Network

National coverage, local reach

The Rural Community Action Network is the collective name for the 38 Rural Community Action Network members throughout England, their eight regional bodies and their national umbrella, ACRE. Rural Community Action Network members are charitable local development agencies, generally based at county level, which support and enable initiatives in rural communities.

RCAN collectively:

• employs approximately 1,000 staff with a variety of specialist skills
• engages in 1,300 different partnerships, including working with 58 different higher tier local authorities
• has over 12,000 fee-paying members and
• reaches 40,000 grass roots contacts and organisations in the 11,000 rural communities across England. 
  

Members of the Rural Community Action Network have a strong ethos of working with each other to provide comprehensive links across geographical areas and between grass roots activity and national advocacy.  

The aims of the Rural Community Action Network are to:

• Support community-led action and strong local governance
• Increase the long-term sustainability of local community life
• Influence policies and services, particularly to achieve equity for rural communities.

We do this with a passion for social inclusion, and high standards throughout the network.

Read more about The Rural Community Action Network  here

• East Midlands
• West Midlands
• East of England
• North East
• North West
• South East
• South West
• Yorkshire and the Humber