Kingwood among six W.Va. communities to complete training
Newsroom@DominionPost.com
Kingwood’s Blueprint Community team was among 65 people who gathered virtually last month to celebrate the graduation of six West Virginia teams from the Blueprint Communities program.
This is a program of the Federal Homue Loan Bank of Pittsburgh, administered in the Mountain State by The Hub.
Communities graduating were Kingwood (Preston County); Lewis County; Meadow River Valley region (Greenbrier County); Monticello neighborhood of Clarksburg (Harrison County); New Martinsville (Wetzel County); and Parsons (Tucker County).
These teams are now officially designated as Blueprint Communities through the Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh.
This means they’ve invested the sweat equity to build their skill sets in key community and economic development areas and created plans for their future. Now they are eligible for new opportunities and resources.
Over the course of the year-long program, the teams collaborated with their communities to prepare a vision for the future and develop the stepping stones for how to get there. During this past year they gained knowledge and skills, connecting to resources to ensure success and outlining their strategies for how to accomplish their goals.
“The most important thing is the support of the residents of the community. Without their buy-in and support, our plans would fail.” Martin Howe, of Monticello, said.
Teams connected to expertise on topics relating to their projects that would build their capacity to achieve their goals. Training titles included team building for success, grant writing, getting downtown development-ready, promotional marketing for businesses, public space arts initiatives, school renovation, housing opportunities and creative fundraising.
The community teams have already raised more than $100,000 in grants and donations towards their initiatives and have torn down three dilapidated buildings to make way for future projects.
“Until you get involved in programs like this, you don’t know all of the resources that are available to us in West Virginia,” Sandy Hunt, of New Martinsville, said.
Communities have been awarded opportunities such as the Fulcrum Program, which connects teams with WVU graduate students for design projects; assistance with dilapidated buildings through the WVU BAD Buildings program; and Mills Group LLC’s pro-bono conceptual architectural services.
“This is proof a small community can make big things happen,” said Preston County Economic Development Director Robbie Baylor, of Kingwood.
The Hub’s Executive Director Stephanie Tyree told the teams at graduation “It is most inspiring to hear you talk about how the keys to success are partnerships, continuous engagement, identifying resources and continually showing up for your communities.”
Among those who attended the graduation were U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin; President and CEO of Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh Winthrop Watson; and representatives from U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, Congressman David McKinley, Congresswoman Carol Miller and Congressman Alex Mooney.
TWEET@DominionPostWV
