Kickstart Communities Fellowships

KICKSTART COMMUNITIES

Join a fellowship.

Join a Kickstart Communities Fellowship to gain the skills, learning experiences, and collaborations that are needed to take your work in communities to the next level. We offer two fellowships: the Champions for Change Fellowship and the Coaching for Transformation Fellowship.

About the Fellowships

When you join a Kickstart Communities Fellowship, you are tapping into a network of West Virginians who are committed to making positive change in their communities. Participating in a fellowship will support you in deciding what your voice and participation will look like as a person leading and collaborating with others to create change in your community. You will learn how to lead effective meetings, build community teams, create and facilitate events, resolve conflict, prioritize group projects, build positive partnerships, and other skills and best practices to help become the kind of community leader that you want to be.

Champions for Change: Community Leader Fellowship

The Champions for Change Fellowship focuses on individual leadership development for West Virginians who want to make a difference. Offered over the course of twelve weeks with one in-person and five virtual sessions, this program builds the foundation for helping in your own community.

During this fellowship, you will gain skills in:

  • Learning the stages and aspects of team recruitment and development
  • Creating a “toolkit” with activities, tools, and ideas for building engagement and successful meeting design
  • Developing foundational confidence to lead community meetings
  • Learning key community meeting types and building a community meeting facilitation agenda
  • Understanding participatory decision making processes
  • Understanding the fundamentals of effective leadership
  • Using strengths based strategies to guide your approach to effective community change

Coaching for Transformation: Community Development Fellowship

The Coaching for Transformation fellowship is a nine-month program that will focus on your personal growth, the advancement of a project or idea, and resource development. While participating in this track, you will work with an individual coach and develop deeper peer relationships with members of your cohort. 

During this program, you will gain skills in:

  • Personal Leadership Development - Receive personal development coaching, determining your strengths and assets. Create space to determine: How do I show up? How do I share and receive information and feedback? How can I best leverage these aspects of myself in my practice of cross-sector leadership?
  • Project Development and Incubation - Formalize an idea, area of interest or community-based project. With support from coach and peers, develop an implementable action plan to advance work including identifying funding sources, challenges, and partnerships.
  • Resource Development - Increase cross-sector knowledge and build up a personal network through a range of partner engagements and learning opportunities.

Who should join

The Champions for Change Fellowship is ideal for anyone living in West Virginia who is committed to making positive change in their community and is prepared to invest time into 12 weeks of leadership growth and learning. 

The Coaching for Transformation Fellowship is ideal for anyone living in West Virginia who has completed a fellowship or community leadership program with the WV Community Development Hub in the past – such as the Champions for Change Fellowship or a coaching program like Blueprint Communities or HubCAP – or – who has experience with community and economy building. 

For each of our fellowship programs, the WV Community Development Hub is committed to building diverse cohorts of West Virginia residents. We strongly encourage and positively consider applications from people who have been historically underrepresented in community and economic development leadership programs.  

Participants are chosen with the intent that each fellowship cohort reflects West Virginia along multiple dimensions of diversity and experience inherent in the state. This includes diversity of age, race, ethnicity, gender expression, religion, ability, sexual orientation, and income level, as well as other diverse identities and experiences. The cohort as a whole will ideally span a range of perspectives in order to build understanding and a sense of unity across differences that sometimes divide us.

 

Interested in joining a fellowship?

Send us your contact information and the fellowship opportunity you’re interested in joining. We’ll get back to you personally and make sure you’re on the outreach list when we open up applications.

Kickstart Communities Guide

If you’re not sure where to start, check out our Kickstart Communities Guide. The guide takes you step-by-step through our online lessons and fellowship opportunities so you can build up your leadership over time.

see the kickstart guide
DOWNLOAD PRINTABLE PDF »

Still feeling stuck?

Reach out to Stacy Thomas with our team at The Hub. She can answer questions and get you connected in to the right fellowship opportunity based on your interest and needs. Find Stacy at s.thomas@wvhub.org.

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Follow the steps here for a journey that begins with solving a community challenge on your own and ends with working alongside teams of residents to create transformational change. We’re excited to be on this path alongside you.

Visit the online courses and fellowships through the main web page.

Partner Feature:

Our work is made possible thanks to incredible partnerships with other community development organizations across the state. From local economic development authorities (EDAs) to state level nonprofits working to uplift communities, all of our partners are crucial in making West Virginia the best it can possibly be by working together.One partner that made our work truly profound this year is Coalfield Development. For years, Coalfield Development has worked to rebuild Appalachian communities by inspiring the courage to grow, activating the creativity to innovate, and cultivating communities of opportunity in central Appalachia.We are proud to be part of Coalfield Development’s ACT Now Coalition, a broad network of organizations working hand-in-hand to uplift communities throughout Southern West Virginia. The ACT Now Coalition is infusing more than $63 million into programs to help communities using business development, building revitalization, and so much more.The Hub is leading the Community and Business Resilience Initiative as part of the larger ACT Now Coalition to bring other partners with us to build up community and business resilience in the Coalition’s footprint.“For decades, we’ve known the economy of southern West Virginia needs diversification. Some progress has been made on this goal, but not nearly enough,” Brandon Dennison, CEO of Coalfield Development, said about the ACT Now Coalition. “ACT Now constitutes a tangible opportunity to take a major leap forward in this generational challenge to become a vibrant, growing, diversified economy. In the wake of continued coal-job losses, nothing could be more important for our region.”Our partnership with Coalfield Development is giving us a chance to take our work to new communities and to build upon our years of experience. Working alongside Coalfield Development in this large undertaking to bring $63.8 million to communities in Southern West Virginia is validation that the work happening to uplift West Virginia communities continues to grow.

Cowen

Residents participated in round 4 of The Hub’s capstone Communities of Achievement program with a focus on building local recreational economies. Read their community case study.

Montgomery

Residents participated in the Cultivate WV program to kickstart community and economy building. Read their community case study.

Smithers

Residents participated in the Cultivate WV program to kickstart community and economy building. Read their community case study.

Kingwood

Residents participated in the Blueprint Communities* program to engage their neighbors and co-create strategic plans for their future.

Lewis County

Residents participated in the Blueprint Communities* program to engage their neighbors and co-create strategic plans for their future.

Meadow River Valley Region

Residents participated in the Blueprint Communities* program to engage their neighbors and co-create strategic plans for their future. Read their community case study.

Monticello Neighborhood of Clarksburg

Residents participated in the Blueprint Communities* program to engage their neighbors and co-create strategic plans for their future. Watch their community documentary.

New Martinsville

Residents participated in the Blueprint Communities* program to engage their neighbors and co-create strategic plans for their future. Read their community case study.

Parsons

Residents participated in the Blueprint Communities* program to engage their neighbors and co-create strategic plans for their future.

Elkins

Residents participated in round 4 of The Hub’s capstone Communities of Achievement program with a focus on building local recreational economies. 

A core team led by Woodlands Development Group also participated in Opportunity Appalachia, receiving technical assistance to support a community development project located in an Opportunity Zone.

Community Feature:

The Hub works alongside communities across West Virginia coaching community teams as they come together to make transformative changes in their towns. In 2022, one town stands out for its continued work and unwavering commitment to making its community a place where people want to live, work, play, and visit.Petersburg, located in Grant County at the northernmost point of the Mon Forest, is filled with community members who want to make their town a destination. Not only have businesses opened, and stayed open, the town has transformed the way they present to the world through rebranding and outdoor recreational development.As part of the HubCAP IV program, Petersburg utilized its technical assistance to push forward with projects to bring transformative change to its community. Part of the work Petersburg worked towards was creating plans to pave a hike and bike trail that runs along the Petersburg dike. The proposed trail will run approximately three miles along the Petersburg dike and will include multiple entrances for walkers and bikers. The group secured a $25,000 grant from Senator Hamilton, which was matched locally by the City of Petersburg, the County Commission, and the Board of Education, each adding an equal share to bring the total to $50,000.This year, Petersburg witnessed a major upgrade to one of the town’s most iconic and historic structures: The Hermitage Inn. The hotel, which dates back to 1841, has been renovated and once again welcomes guests to stay the night and have a nice dinner in the restaurant.The Hermitage Inn is the first project initiated and completed as part of the Downtown Appalachia: Revitalizing Recreational Economies (DARRE) program. Seeing the old hotel returned to its majesty has been an incredible development for Petersburg adding another jewel to the downtown area.Seeing Hub communities come together to create transformative change thrills us. Community members are the subject matter experts on what their towns need. Our commitment to accompaniment and walking alongside communities as they do the hard work guides us in our work. Celebrating their victories with them gives us a moment to uplift those making the work happen.

Franklin

Residents participated in round 4 of The Hub’s capstone Communities of Achievement program with a focus on building local recreational economies.

Marlinton

Residents participated in round 4 of The Hub’s capstone Communities of Achievement program with a focus on building local recreational economies.

Petersburg

Residents participated in round 4 of The Hub’s capstone Communities of Achievement program with a focus on building local recreational economies.

White Sulphur Springs

Residents participated in round 4 of The Hub’s capstone Communities of Achievement program with a focus on building local recreational economies.

Charleston

A core team led by Crawford Holdings, LLC participated in Opportunity Appalachia, receiving technical assistance to support a community development project located in an Opportunity Zone.

Huntington

Core teams led by Thundercloud, Inc. and the City of Huntington participated in Opportunity Appalachia, receiving technical assistance to support community development projects located in Opportunity Zones.

Grafton

A core team led by Unleash Tygart, Inc participated in Opportunity Appalachia, receiving technical assistance to support a community development project located in an Opportunity Zone.

DEI Journey:

Since 2018, The Hub has been working diligently to bring Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion into our work. For years, the organization has been working internally to expand on one of our core values: “We believe diversity creates strength.”We believe that now is a time when we must work from the ground up to commit to long-term efforts to build power through leadership development, programmatic strategies, and partnerships that commit to building power and advancing racial equity.Looking back at our organizational history, we acknowledge that our work in rural communities with populations of less than 15,000 has not reached a diverse cross-section of people in West Virginia. Because of this, we began to ask, “Who isn’t here?” when examining our involvement in communities. The social unrest in 2020 led us to examine our role in white supremacy, ableism, classism, and gender discrimination, and the ways we have perpetuated unjust systems in our communities and across West Virginia.Since 2020, our equity journey has included a staff racial equity learning series, making internal commitments to increasing our hiring and retainment of diverse staff including creating full-time Racial Equity Fellowship and VISTA positions, committing to increased coaching for rural communities of color across the state, and tackling the inherent challenges of advancing equity across the community development field within a highly rural, majority white state where Black and brown leadership has been historically marginalized and under-invested.Our belief in the power of local people to see the value and the potential of their place, and of each other, is at the core of our belief in the potential we have to build power in West Virginia to advance racial equity, inclusion, and accessibility while disrupting systems that have historically excluded some communities.We are committed to engaging in conversations to uplift communities and leaders of color to move from talk to action on why race matters in West Virginia as we work to disrupt these systems. We will support investment in Black-led organizations and rural Black leadership. And we are committed to driving public and private investments into these spaces, both organizational and geographic.

Message from our Executive Leadership Team

It has been a year of abundant opportunities and partnerships across the state, and a year that has pushed all of us to work harder, faster, and smarter – together.At The Hub, we say that “the work works when you put in the work.” This means that our approach to community-based development, and individual leadership development, really does transform local communities, especially when we all work together for the same goal, and stay committed to working together for the long haul.A growing number of towns across the state are putting themselves on the “growth map.” Princeton, Richwood, Elkins, New Martinsville, Parsons, Petersburg, White Sulphur Springs, and so many more communities we have worked with are all putting in thousands of hours of volunteer work. This commitment has helped local leaders improve their communities. These improvements can be seen increasingly through the growth of local economic and business development in each of these towns.We extend our deepest gratitude to everyone for being part of the larger Hub community as we reflect on this year’s deep impact in West Virginia communities through our work. We are thrilled to have champions who believe in our mission that every community in West Virginia can achieve economic growth when they are supported with the tools and training they need to lead and spark positive change.We believe strongly in the fact that putting in the work yourself to improve your neighborhood, your town, and our state is where true transformational change happens. With strategic partners and thought leaders like you in the work with us, we continue to be able to walk alongside community teams as they do the work to uplift their communities.Thank you to all of the community teams and leaders who are brave enough to keep showing up every day. Your determination in the face of difficult work and far-off successes is something to applaud yourself for, and celebrate together.Whether you’re volunteering on the ground in your community, sharing our stories of hope with your friends and neighbors, or attending a virtual event with The Hub, your participation in our work is what keeps it going. Thank you for all your work and support this past year, and we are excited to continue in the work with you in 2023!In Continued Accompaniment,

– WV Community Development Hub
Executive Leadership Team

Stephanie Tyree

Executive Director

Amanda Workman Scott

Director of Community Engagement

Katie Loudin

Director of Strategic Development