The West Virginia Community Development Hub
The team at The Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation invited The Hub’s Executive Director Stephanie Tyree to be a featured guest on their program, Community Connections. Watch the foundation’s Communications Director Jane Powell interview Stephanie about The Hub’s work in communities across the state – and the importance of supporting the development of new leadership amongst West Virginian residents.
Watch the video:
Hope and pride.
Early last year, the Leadership West Virginia Class of 2018 asked ourselves what our state needed most to be successful. As leaders in our communities, more than 55 of us from around the state, we shared the same understanding – West Virginia is an amazing place, but West Virginians don’t always seem to know it.
Each year, Leadership West Virginia works to develop and motivate a cross-section of leaders who will use their talents and abilities to inspire others and foster a new spirit of energy, enthusiasm and vitality throughout the state. As part of the program, class participants are challenged to take on a class project of their choosing that will give back to West Virginia. The class meets throughout the program, independently determines their project and then completes it prior to graduation.
The Leadership West Virginia Class of 2018 loves West Virginia to the core. We love the people, the beauty and the opportunity of our great state. We feel strongly that the narrative of West Virginia should belong to West Virginians, and that West Virginians are smart, resourceful, determined and capable of making West Virginia the best version of itself.
We see the challenges, and we believe we can overcome them. We see the opportunity and we want to inspire West Virginians to embrace it and work toward it. For too long we have dwelled on the rankings and the negative media, but they don’t tell the whole story. It may help their ratings to paint a bleak picture of us from the outside, but on the ground and in our communities there are amazing and inspiring successes happening every day that we want to celebrate.
With this in mind, the Choose West Virginia campaign was born as our class project.
As the first phase in a long-term strategic goal, the #ChooseWV video, social media campaign and website were developed as a method to share what is great about the state we love. In addition to providing resources and information about our state, we want to encourage people near and far to show off why they choose West Virginia so others might benefit from all we have to offer.
Our home is a source of pride and hope. Whether you are West Virginia grown but residing elsewhere, a current West Virginian or a potential West Virginian, we want to remind you that this state is beautiful, its people are strong and have grit to overcome challenges, and its future is what we make it.
We love this state. We welcome you to join us. For work. For family. For life.
We hope, like us, you #ChooseWV.
Follow us on Facebook. View our video and learn more at www.choosewv.com, and please share your West Virginia story with us by using the hashtag #ChooseWV.
You can also learn more about Leadership West Virginia at www.leadershipwv.org.
What does community development look like in action? Here’s a concrete example: inspiring residents of Moorefield and Cowen are hitting the streets through monthly participation in The Hub’s Cultivate WV program workshops. Meeting attendees include motivated residents like local elected officials, teachers, retirees, and so much more.
One of the groups of people regularly showing up are students. Moorefield High School students are working on a very exciting project – a micro-business and outdoor education center in their town. A community development project like this takes effort and planning, not to mention community support. In order to designate the space, to actually build the units, and to establish the partners that will utilize the space, these students are working hard toward gaining community buy-in and securing financial resources.
The students recently received a $50,000 grant to begin this work!
Check out this article, reprinted here with permission from the Moorefield Examiner, to learn more about this youth-led project that’s building up the Moorefield community toward a creative economic future:
The empty lot at the corner of Main and Jefferson streets in Moorefield will soon be a flurry of activity. The long-awaited Hardy County Schools Community Development Project moved one step closer to reality with a $50,000 grant from the West Virginia Department of Education’s Division of Technical Education and the Governor’s Economic Initiatives.
Students from Moorefield High School’s Simulated Workplace representing a number of partners made a presentation in Charleston on Wednesday, Dec. 12. The Economic Projects Impacting Communities or EPIC was a competitive process wherein five student-initiated projects received $50,000 each.
The students from MHS included Ally Loften, Haylee Tompkins, Sydney Gribble, Dalton Sothen and KcKinley Keplinger.
“Ally and Haylee have directed a core group,” MHS Simulated Workplace Advisor Mary Catherine Slack said. “They investigated several economically viable projects. They reached out to various organizations and determined the critical needs.”
What the group found was the Potomac Highlands and Eastern West Virginia has no food hubs – no access for the distribution for small farmers or craft food developers.
“Their vision is for a USDA approved food processing facility where students and members of the community can develop recipes and sell locally produced products,” Slack said.
Hardy County’s project involves transforming the vacant lot into a series of five micro-businesses and an outdoor education center for both community and student use. The site will also include a greenhouse and high tunnel that will augment Hardy County Agricultural Education program.
The list of collaborators include the East Hardy High School Pro-Start program, the South Branch Career and Technical Center, the Rubenstein Center, Hampshire High School and Putnam County Career and Technical Center.
Loften and Tompkins were both proud and excited to bring home “the big check” for $50,000. They, along with others in the group, worked long and hard on the inch-thick grant application.
“Mr. Burch said he was surprised the application was completely done by high school students,” Tompkins said. “He had to take it home to read it.”
“We included anything we could think of that we thought would help us get the grant,” Loften said.
Clinton Burch is executive director of the Governor’s Economic Initiative, which partnered with the WVDE to challenge simulated workplace companies across the state to participate in the grant competition. The other winners were in Wetzel, Gilmer, Roane and Putnam counties.
In addition to the EPIC grant, the project has already received funding from the US Department of Agriculture, the Environmental Protection Agency and the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection. The Hardy County Commission and the town of Moorefield provided letters of support.
In addition to Slack, MHS Principal Patrick McGregor, Hardy County Schools Superintendent Sheena VanMeter and Secondary Curriculum and CTE Specialist Brad Simmons worked with the students on the project.
The EPIC project must be completed over the next two years and will require participation from local businesses and other organizations.
While Loften and Tompkins are seniors, there are underclassmen who are part of the team and will make sure the project is done. “I wish it could be finished before I graduate,” Loften said.
Clarksburg native and Stonewood resident Amanda Workman, director of community engagement with the West Virginia Community Development Hub, has a strong passion for the communities in West Virginia and works hard to see them improve.
“It’s important to me to make it a better state and make it somewhere our kids are going to stay. I want to grow old here, too. You can do a lot of talking, (but) you’ve got to get out and do.”
As director of the hub, Workman works with different communities across the state as a community coach, guiding them to programs and projects that can help them improve internally.
She also focuses on community engagement and how individuals in communities can become involved with moving their towns and cities forward. She has been in her position for five years and said she couldn’t picture doing anything else.
Workman lived in several states for about a 10-year period, none of which she said felt like home…
BY EMMA PEPPER, DIRECTOR OF STRATEGIC NETWORK COMMUNICATIONS, THE HUB
Jan Rader, Chief of the Huntington Fire Department – and the first woman to reach the rank of chief for a career department in the State of West Virginia – recently took to the famous TED stage for a talk titled, “In the opioid crisis, here’s what it takes to save a life.”
On her TED speaker page, Chief Rader is described as a “humanitarian warrior” and noted for being one of TIME Magazine’s “100 Most Influential People in the World” in 2018 as well as for her appearances in the Academy-award nominated documentary Heroin(e), directed by West Virginia filmmaker Elaine McMillion Sheldon and released in 2017.
Congratulations to Chief Rader, her innovative teamwork has catapulted her community’s story onto an international stage known as being a place for “ideas worth spreading.”
She spoke at the TEDWomen 2018 conference.
Watch Chief Rader’s TED Talk »
BY SATHIYAN SIVAKUMARAN, HUBCAP VISTA, THE HUB
Passion for helping to improve the lives of residents is the first step to getting communities onto a positive trajectory. In the case of Hinton, Sandy Turner stands out for her dedication to restoring Camp Summers and her involvement in civic organizations. Sandy is the Director of Camp Summers, and she was presented with the “Spirit of Hinton” award in December 2018 by Hinton’s Mayor Joe Blankenship.
In an article about the award in the Register-Herald, Sandy said:
“Our community has restored the camp, not Sandy Turner. My wish is that any child, who wants to go to camp, can enjoy a quality, safe camping experience while making memories that will last a lifetime… Once they are at camp, the kids can play and interact with other children while experiencing character education, team building and learning leadership skills. Part of the charm of Camp Summers is that it allows kids and adults to be ‘unplugged from the world’ in our rustic setting.”
To read more about this dedicated community volunteer and the amazing work she has done for Hinton, check out Sandy’s story in the Register-Herald »
A few more photos of Sandy and community members at work!
Mercer Street Historic District in Princeton
Creating and supporting a thriving business-friendly community takes a lot of time, effort, and a 360 degree approach.
In Princeton, multiple community groups, along with members of the The Hub’s Communities of Achievement Program (HubCAP) team have been working together to attract and support new and existing businesses in many different ways. And their hard work and creativity is paying off with multiple new businesses.
Princeton has been making their community a fun, creative, inviting place to live for years, with their events, artwork, and creative spaces attracting people to the area to who support existing and new businesses in the area.
For an in-depth look at Princeton’s efforts, check out this recent post over on the Princeton Renaissance Project site.
The team has also been hosting regular gatherings for the Grassroots District merchants, and this last one was a special edition where they invited all Mercer Street merchants as well as special guest Barbara Wyckoff to give a talk about best business practices, and identify business needs in order to target efforts to assist them. The goal was to continue to unite the downtown business community & empower the merchants with support. The support started with a new business, Bucha Brewhouse & Bistro, who provided a wonderful meal.
Community leader Lori McKinney said, “It was a great night, we provided peer to peer support; ways we could support and cross pollinate; cooperative marketing, open houses and more.”
There will be many more merchants gatherings to come, and the team invites all to join.
In order to promote the available, usable spaces in the community, the HubCAP team is partnering with the Grassroots District, Princeton Renaissance Project, and two local businesses to host their next Developer’s Tour on Nov. 27th. The goal is attract new investors and entrepreneurs in the neighborhood by featuring some exciting projects that are underway, and showcase some spaces that are ripe for development.
Join the Developer’s Tour:
Conference attendees via The Alliance for the Economic Development of Southern West Virginia Facebook page
Connection was the name of the game during the two-day, sold-out Small Communities, Big Ideas conference hosted by the Alliance for the Economic Development for Southern West Virginia, the West Virginia Community Development Hub and Coalfield Development Corp.
“This conference was all about celebrating southern West Virginia’s successes, lifting each other up and embracing it,” said Sara Payne Scarbro, associate vice president for external engagement at the Marshall University Research Corp. and chairwoman of the Alliance’s operations council. “And to start having the conversation like, ‘Maybe this program in Bluefield that’s working, maybe I can take it to Gilbert. Or how can we scale it across the region?’ It’s that connecting pieces and to start the collaboration.”
The conference took place Monday and Tuesday at the Bridge Valley Community and Technical School in South Charleston. More than 200 West Virginians participated, including panelists, learning about everything from community revitalization to addiction to broadband internet…
The High Rocks Education Corporation’s Ukulele Band poses before a performance at the Pocahontas County Opera House. Photo via High Rocks Education Corporation Facebook page
FROM THE HUB
The Alliance for the Economic Development for Southern West Virginia (Alliance), the WV Community Development Hub and Coalfield Development recognized six community programs at the Small Communities, Big Solutions Conference in South Charleston last week.
The Power of Performance Awards recognize individuals, organizations, or employers who have put people to work, revitalized communities, or changed lives. The recipients were the nominees that received the top scores in each of these three categories. The nominations were scored by an independent panel of judges.
The Revitalizing Communities Award was presented to Vicki Webb with the Community Transformation Project in Raleigh County, which works with children of all ages helping them grow their STEM skills. The second recipient was Ashland Scenic Campground in McDowell County, the largest ATV lodging facility in the Hatfield-McCoy Trail System, which contributes to the local economy and introduced more than 10,000 out-of-state guests to West Virginia last year.
“Some of the dominant themes that emerged from our conference were the need to prepare people, especially young people, for the workforce, and the need to encourage the entrepreneurial spirit in order to grow our economy,” said Brandon Dennison, Chief Executive Officer for Coalfield Development. “These recipients are shining examples of how both can revitalize communities.”
The Putting People to Work Award was presented to Tammy Jordan with Fruits of Labor in Greenbrier and Fayette Counties, which has developed a comprehensive training-to-employment program with the goal of improving the lives of at-risk youth and adults in recovery. Also honored was Judy Moore, with the West Virginia Hive Network in Raleigh County, who connects small businesses and entrepreneurs with resources and expertise to help them grow and prosper.
“Connecting people who want to work with training and opportunities is often the first step to changing a life,” said Sara Payne Scarbro, chair of the Alliance’s Operations Council. “Programs like Fruits of Labor and the West Virginia Hive Network are valuable resources for those who are just starting out or who need a fresh start.”
The Changing Lives Award was presented to Sarah Riley with High Rocks Educational Corporation in Pocahontas County, who has created valuable partnerships with AmeriCorps, the WV School of Osteopathic Medicine and the National Science Foundation to help make higher education more accessible for hundreds of underserved students in Southern West Virginia. Also honored in this category was the Healthy Grandfamilies Project in Kanawha County, which provides support to grandparent-headed households that has resulted in improved health and the ability to cope with the demands of parenting later in life.
“There are so many deserving organizations doing so many innovative things to change lives around the state,” Stephanie Tyree, West Virginia Community Development Hub’s executive director said. “By honoring programs like the High Rocks Educational Corporation and the Healthy Grandfamilies Project, we can encourage others who feel compelled to do something similar in their communities to make a difference.”
The Small Communities, Big Solutions Conference took place October 22-23 at BridgeValley’s Advanced Technology Center in South Charleston.
BY DAVE LAVENDER FOR THE HERALD DISPATCH
Justin McElroy knows podcasting.
In fact, few people on the planet have recorded more podcasts in the short history of the streaming medium.
While the Huntington resident could be content with simply keeping up the creative stable of his contributions to the McElroy family podcasts (“My Brother, My Brother and Me,” “Sawbones,” and “The Adventure Zone”), he also wants to share the power of the trending audio medium here in the Tri-State.
A week ago, McElroy dropped into the new CoWorks space at 1005 Fifth Ave. (on the first floor of Chase Bank) to present a “Podcasting 101” lunch-time lecture and to unveil the new Podcasting Studio he has set up at CoWorks and that is now open to the public…
