September 27, 2007

 

Community Plan Presentations

A summary chart of all communities and the goals/outcomes they seek may be found in here:  Blueprint overview.xls

 

Ansted

Key Strategies

• Wealth Retention
• Housing Development
• Recreational Asset Development – tourism and marketing
• Capacity
• Health Services
• Business Development/Job Creation

Process used to engage residents

•    Existing group that represents all stakeholder groups in the community

•    high school group to do a survey for us

•    rotary and lion’s club

How do plans leverage each other?

•    We know our assets

•    We hope to go to a tourism based economy

 

 

Fairmont Southside Neighborhood

Process used

• Held neighborhood meetings
• AIA livable communities study
• Existing conditions study in our neighborhood
• Blueprint communities activities

  Collected data on existing conditions on all properties in the neighborhood

• Produced a map

 

Goals and Objectives

Goal is to attract public and private investment

Four objectives

•    Improve the livability

•    Promote economic development

•    Improve appearance of the neighborhood (this is how the whole project started)

•    Promote preservation of historic properties (teach others in the neighborhood how to do that)

 

Named champions to lead each of these goal areas

 

In conversation with Main Street Fairmont Program to integrate Southside into that structure

 

Blueprint community signs in all the businesses. 

How did you get so many businesses to support it?

Our panel was strategically placed throughout the neighborhood. We used doorhangers. 

 

Gilmer County

We had an existing plan and we revised that plan

Did some additional mapping of college students

Incorporated beliefs from the survey we did

Goal is to be a cultural community

Original plan was too grandiose and needed too many resources to implement

Relocated businesses out of the flood plain

Curbs broken, needs some refurbishment

•    Housing was our primary goal

•    Build on folk festival and heritage to refurbish

•    Work with recreation center and county commission to refurbish bathrooms, barns

•    Tourism, get people into town, build up crafts and culture

 

How do you see the college as an asset to help with your development goals? They are vitally interested in folk festival, working with us on housing, and they are on the economic development team

 

We have people who have attended all kinds of training which has helped build the leadership capacity in our community

 

McDowell County

Process made us look from within, and realize the resources are right before our eyes

We’ve been at the very bottom and we want to change that

Goals:

•    Economic independence

•    Capacity to build for our future

•    Quality of life and safe and healthy living environment (upgrading parks and recreational facilities)

•    Desirable quality of life

•    Pro-family systems with integrated service for children and families

•    Access to health insurance and prevention programs

 

We wanted to focus on green spaces. We have 35 green spaces that are underutilized.

 

We want to be inclusive in the leadership

We want all Mcdowell countyians prepared for employment

We want a strong economic base

 

Already accessed grants to put plan in the hands of citizens

Hire a recreational director, promoting spaces that are already there

 

Mullens

Coal and railroad boom, decline of coal and a recent flood have created a lot of challenges

Process used:

 

• 120 people came to the town meeting (pot-luck and bluegrass music)
• All day work session

 

Our goals:

• Beautification
• Housing (Focus on unoccupied housing, focus on repairing and buying homes, Habitat for humanity)
• Youth programs (4 h chapter, family storytelling, skateboard project)
• Business development (classes for businesses and entrepreneurs)

Split into four teams and developed action steps and selected co-chair people (blueprint community member and community member).  Each team will meet on a monthly basis and then we will meet altogether on a quarterly basis.

How are schools in that area?  We have excellent schools.  

 

Ritchie County

Digital storytelling presentation

The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round

Improving communities is cyclical needs to be constantly revisted

We must focus goals for improvement not on ourselves but our grandchildren

Effective community development team must have the right people on the bus

At the top of the list was forming a CDC

Established Ritchie Progress Alliance -  coordinates, monitors and motivates

Engaged in asset mapping, visioning, donate your vision campaign,

Strengthen partner organizations

Projects: 

• Tourism plan
• retiree attraction plan
• community service plan for students
• communication tools development
• housing
• telemedicine
• broadband access

 

 

Salem

All facets of the community have been involved with blueprint communities team

historic with modern amenities

Projects include:

 

• Citywide street paving project
• Marquis sign at city hall
• Paint and clean up the park on main street
• housing rehabilitation and demolition project
• attract new businesses to downtown
• increase cultural and recreational assets
• entrance to Fort Mason
• Playground equipment
• develop nature classroom
• hunter and instructional safety for local youth
• increase social capital
• multi-disciplanary collaborative structure to keep on-going

 

Before blueprint we all worked independently, now we are collaborating much more.

 

Shinnston

A "21st century" mayberry

engaging the community

• community survey
• town meetings
• WV small business development center survey

Visioning

Seven thematic focus areas

 

• improvie the health and well-being of the residents
• increase skils and knowledge to engage in community development
• improve communication between key stakeholders

Sprecific objectives

• Form strategic alliances among city government, citizen activities commttee, shinnston area development association

Blueprint is an umbrella organizations

Our prioritized goals:

 

• increase access to health resources
• continue civic engagement
• blueprint on city website to hold our team accountable
• home for our community band

• develop senior housing to be recognized as a retirement community
• sidewalk project
• main street program

 

St. Albans

Our decision was to put together one goal and involve the whole community

Promote better lines of communication between all the stakeholders

We had turf battles, cynicism, and apathy

We needed to develop trust in our community

That was a foundation

We were able to do that

What we did to establish social capital

Needed to engage lots of people

We wanted to communicate to everybody in the community, the special events that would be taking place in October

First Thursday of month we meet, and third Thursday we convene a community meeting (50 people have participated).  People believed in what we can accomplish.

Took on a project to produce a supplement to the newspaper with events in the community, had a circulation of 51000 and did not cost us anything

We are distributing 3000 copies through elementary schools to let people know about October events

People didn't know what was going on

People realized they weren't planning ahead enough. 

Structure for new planning process? After this we will see how we can finish the workshops.

 

Williamson

 Current conditons:

• Limited middle to moderate income housng
• 120 blighted areas
• high obesity
• unemployment above national average

How we pulled together the community

 

• held community meetings
• public presentations
• media coverage
• daily newspaper coverage

Core needs

• middle to moderate income housing
• health awareness
• youth to Leaders a partnership with southern west virginia community college
• job opporturnieis
• promote tourism
• marketing plan

 

 

Lunch Keynote Speaker: Sandra Mikush,

Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation 

• Newspaper Supplement
• Preserve Community Character
• Strengtheing Partner Organizations
• Community Activities
• Affordable Housing
• Citizen Driven Strategic Planning
• Forming a Peer Assistance Network for Blueprint Communities
• Rural Medicine
• Strategies for Development of Retail Businesses Downtown
• Walking Programs
• Forming a Community Development Corporation
• Revitalization and Beautification
• Generational leadership
• Vacant Properties
• Main Street Program

 

Large Group Reflections on Participant Open Discussions

For resources on how to conduct an open space session click here

 

Ideas, resources that we think we can take back to our community

• Learned how to do a newspaper supplement
• Establishing Junior Blueprint Committees to engage youth in the process
• How to transfer knowledge from the older leaders to the up and coming leaders through generational storytelling
• One to one mentoring with older and younger leaders
• Persuade legislature and Municipal League to give tools to work with vacant properties
• Organizational self-assessment to assist collaboration (structure, goals, meeting times, etc.)
• Engage young people over the Internet
• Peer support, organize electronic contact for using each other's specialities
• Other Sources of support -- AIA=livable community; WVU=First Impressions; WVU=Community Deisgn, Landscape Architect Support; WVDO=Main Street
• PAN - Physical Activity and Nutrition; West Virginia On The Move; health promotions specialist, Bureau of Public Health (Chuck Thayer)
• Standards of Excellence (CDP) and Mission WV source of help for building organizational capacity
• Looking for techical assistance and starting a 501c3 organization
• Creating a Festival Corridor -- coordinate festivals with surrounding communities; share marketing
• Sustainable Communities Leadership Program

 

View You Tube Video Music of Coal

 

Introduction to How to Use a Wiki

To create your own Wiki  go to PBWiki

 

Participants met in their teams to share what they learned in Participant Open Discussions they attended.  Each community was asked to identify one or two ideas that they are taking back to their communties. 

 

McDowell

• Transfer of leadership to youth; involving youth on boards and commissions

 

St Albans

• Add community activities director
• Establish a Junior Blueprient Committee
• Downtown business recruitment

 

Mullens

• Rental Connection
• Housing
• More public meetings to report
• Comprehensive survey
• Newspaper supplement
• List of vacant housing and recommendations

 

Williamson

• Newspaper supplement
• Bring First Impressions to our community
• Create a Wiki for calendar of events and monthly meeting minutes
• Survey Civic Association
• Expore creating a CDC
• Hire activities director
• Move forward on recommendations for recruiting private developers for blighted property removal

 

Fairmont-Southside

•  Form an activities subcommittee to coordinate volunteers and publicize existing activities

 

Ansted

• Coach for affortable housing resource identification

 

Gilmer

• Work with Glenville State College to develop strategy for affordable housing
• Streetscape project

 

Salem

• Hire someone to fix parking and vacant properties

 

Ritchie County

• Affordable housing connect with investors

 

 

Next steps for implementing plan and resources needed

McDowell

Team meets with agencies

document printed for our strategic plan

Set up a Wiki page to have people offer responses to the plan

Come up with funding for printing our strategic plan

 

St. Albans

Continue communications project, increase our social capital

December supplement

Focus on calendar of events in October, also focus on home ownership

November we will attend a realtors reception

Need to do a housing assessment, possibly interns from colleges

mapping assessment

FHLB financing, also local banks, and two nonprofit banks

promotion:  newspaper, radio, churches

 

Shinnston

Develop a vacant property list

Contact the Assessors office on Monday

Blueprint team members who will do the research so that we can prepare this list

Need funding to prepare and disseminate the list

Use coffee shop team about vision for properties

Newspaper supplement

Gather information from our orgs about their meeting dates and upcoming events and how they would fit into our goals

Add that information to our webpage

 

Ritchie County

Coaching and facilitation and time for discussion for next steps

 

Ansted

First Door housng, identified available properties, do a site assessment (need funding for this)

Acquire properties (funding huge)

Who will own the project

Need coaching for funding sources

Capacity -- who else do we need on the team

Need to find away to retain wealth to support housing project

 

Gilmer

grow our team, Community meeting on October 18th

Public meetings

Find team to create west virginia conference (need resources for that)

meet with our college president because they are forming a housing development corporation (how to if we are going to do that on our own

branding and marketing resources needed

Would like to find a way to have museum and river travel again

 

Fairmont

Set a follow-up meeting

Establish by-laws for our group

Establish understanding with main Street Fairmont for sustaining our group

Set up public meeting schedule

Set up and unveil Wiki

Revolving loan fund

Compile a comprehensive list of all businesses

Look at WV Housing Settlement fund

Look into AmeriCorps program

Fundraising strategies

Learn more about the Wiki

 

Williamson

Newspaper supplement

Wiki

Blighted properties

Hire a condultant to pay attention to the details

Need more coachng

Increase our team size

We have Southern in our part of the world

USDA

West Virginia Housing

local civic groups -- bring them in

 

Mullens

Celebration in our community

Continue subcommittees over the next month

Wiki site

Jr. Blueprint, come up with Youth Activities list

marketing materials

Signage

Wiki site

skate park in community