The West Virginia Community Development Hub (The Hub) is thrilled to be accepting applications for the new Community and Business Resilience Initiative (CBRI) program hosted as part of the ACT Now (Appalachian Climate Technologies) Coalition. CBRI will promote the growth of a West Virginia climate technology cluster through working with communities and local businesses to provide multi-layered community-based programs, small business trainings, and technical assistance to help create sustainability practices, green business strategies, and economic resilience readiness plans.
CBRI takes a three-prong approach to serve as the foundation for successful economic diversification:
- People (leadership and business development),
- Planning (strategic and community resilience plans), and
- Places (community and downtown development)
The Hub will be grounding the CBRI work in community resilience program planning by launching Accelerate WV. As part of the program, The Hub is supporting more than a dozen towns with professional coaching services to build up communities and economies. More than 100 small and large-scale community resilience projects will advance during this time and 16 communities will prepare Economic Resilience Plans.
Accelerate WV is a long-term planning program that works with a defined set of local leaders to set actionable Economic Resilience Plans for local development, complete pre-development for at least one substantial green building development project to revitalize the local business district, and access private and federal funding. Programs will engage local, regional and national technical experts for planning, implementation, and funding support, increasing the expertise of community leaders and building sustained partnerships for long-term development. ACT Now project partners will support the work by connecting communities with sustainable mine land development, workforce development, and energy efficiency services for local buildings. The Accelerate WV program supports community leaders who are looking to make a lasting impact on the economic well-being and quality of life for their fellow residents.
Eligible applicants are any county, city municipality, neighborhood, community or nonprofit organization located in the 21 County ACT NOW region of southern WV, which includes the following counties:
Boone, Cabell, Clay, Fayette, Greenbrier, Kanawha, Lincoln, Logan, Mason, McDowell, Mercer, Mingo, Monroe, Nicholas, Pocahontas, Putnam, Raleigh, Summers, Wayne, Webster, Wyoming
Teams must have at least 7-10 members and must include:
- One local government official
- One member of an EDA/RPDC
- One member of a locally-based organization, and
- One local business owner.
Strong team diversity includes cross-sector partnerships (e.g., local elected officials, representatives from nonprofits, community development organizations, city or local government representatives, real estate professionals, property/building owners). A maximum of two representatives from a given organization are allowed to participate on a team. Each team member will be required to sign a letter of commitment prior to the final selection announcement.
Keep these characteristics in mind when recruiting team members:
- Highly motivated to work to revitalize the community
- Have different skills that are useful for planning and program implementation
- Diverse in age, gender, race, and time spent/lived in the community
The Individuals willingness to fully participate in the training and events before they are included in this application.
- March 1st Application goes live
- March 10th (12pm-1pm) Informational webinar *recommended, not required
- March 31st Deadline to submit team application
- April 24th – May 5th Community site visits for semi-finalists
- May 2023 Final community selection announcement
- August 3rd – 4th Group session #1 (location TBD)
- November 2nd-3rd Group session #2 (location TBD)
- Early Spring 2024 Group session #3 (location TBD)
- Early Fall 2024 Group session #4 (location TBD)
For additional information about the Accelerate WV project, please contact Alecia Allen, Community Development Programs Coordinator (304)881-7736 | a.allen@wvhub.org).