In support of Section 1006 of the American Rescue Plan and USDA’s commitment to advance equitable access to USDA program and services, the Office of Customer Experience, or OCX, spent the past year working to improve the support provided to USDA’s community-based partners who work to connect economically distressed and/or underserved communities with USDA programs and services, specifically American Rescue Plan Technical Assistance Investment Program (ARPTAI) cooperators. The culmination of this work is USDA CARES, an initiative dedicated to Create, Assist, Rebuild, Empower and Strengthen our communities and customer relationships. USDA CARES is comprised of a series of resources that directly address cooperators’ needs.
