NORTHAMPTON – A grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture will help a locally based nonprofit buy equipment to aid education in rural areas.

The Collaborative for Educational Services is one of 81 projects nationwide to receive Distance Learning and Telecommunication grants totaling $23.4 million from the federal agency, according to a press release from the office of U.S. Rep. James P. McGovern, D-Worcester.

The collaborative, which is based in Northampton and works with 23 sites in western Massachusetts and northeastern Maine, was awarded $337,356. The grants help rural communities connect teachers and medical providers with resources that would normally be too far away to reach.

The grant will go toward the purchase of video conference equipment for the schools and a tribal site that work with the collaborative, including K-12 public schools in Hampshire County, according to the release. The collaborative works with schools in rural communities to develop programs, train teachers and provide alternative learning programs.

The money will help create a teleconferencing hub, said Kathryn Levesque, director of communications for the collaborative. One benefit of the technology will be helping teachers access professional development resources, which often physically take place far away from the rural communities where the teachers live and are thus rarely accessible.

It will also bring a modern way of learning to students who otherwise would not have access to it.

“Kids are more frequently getting content education in the classroom through virtual means,” Levesque said. “Think about kids being able to access lectures in the classroom, videotaped content – those things are available in wired areas but harder to get if you’re not wired.”

And though modern technology has become a crucial aspect of education in many areas, Levesque said the students the collaborative works with often do not have easy internet access – at home or in school.

“In the Valley it’s pretty good, but in some of the more rural areas of Massachusetts, it can be pretty tough,” she said. “They don’t have the signal. They don’t have the connectivity.”

Jack Evans can be reached at jackevan@indiana.edu.