West Virginia Community Development Hub, Inc.

Communities participating in the DARRE program use time-tested methods to build up their Main Streets and downtown neighborhoods with the ultimate goal of increasing tourism and growing local economies.
Community teams work with a network of service providers led by our team at The Hub to integrate strategies like developing downtown buildings; engaging and supporting local entrepreneurs; and creating long-term plans for revitalization. The newly integrated strategies become a model for each community to bring new energy to their downtowns and grow their local economies. The model created is unique to each community and can create success, even in hard-to-access, rural, and economically depressed areas.
The central partners leading the program, the WV Community Development Hub, Partner Community Capital, Woodlands Development Group, and the Northern WV Brownfields Assistance Center at WVU, are collaborating to bring high-impact services to each community. Eight communities are served

AmeriCorps VISTA is a federal program that brings capacity building resources across the country in the form of dedicated individuals who choose to serve their community for one year, with the goal of ending generational poverty. We are an intermediary AmeriCorps VISTA sponsor, placing members in communities across the state.

As an intermediary host, we work with communities participating in our programs as well as other groups across the state to help grow capacity and create vibrant, prosperous communities.

The Cultivate WV program supports community capacity building through leadership
development, team development, and small-scale community projects. Our goal is to help your community create long-term engagement from residents and new opportunities for community
leadership, all while building positive momentum for your area. We offer community coaching;
workshops; funding for community projects; and leadership development opportunities.

Cultivate communities commit to a year-long entry-level community engagement process
where they participate in monthly workshops focused on different subjects such as community
engagement, team building and dynamics, project identification, prioritization and planning,
grant writing, leadership development and communications.

This program will serve 2 communities in 2024, to be announced.

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 1 substantial green development project to revitalize the local business district, and access private and federal funding. Communities participating in the Accelerate WV program will have access to local, regional and national technical experts for planning, implementation, and funding support, will build new local community expertise and develop a long-term diverse local leadership team, and will establish sustained partnerships for long-term development. Additionally, Accelerate WV communities will have access to additional technical support and expertise through ACT Now project partners. These partners will support the work of Accelerate WV communities by connecting local leaders with sustainable mine land development, workforce development, and energy efficiency services.

Kickstart Communities offers training and fellowships to lift up new, unexpected, and historically underrepresented community leaders. Any individual in West Virginia can join in by engaging in free online learning modules, joining our virtual community conversations, or participating in one of our community leader fellowships.