A Brighter Tomorrow Through Communities in Action
June 28, 2024 | Ben White
It’s been an exciting time in Missouri for Carrollton and Milan as these two communities have recently graduated from the Community Empowerment Grant (CEG) program! The Community Empowerment Grant program is designed to assist in the establishment of a strong nonprofit organization focused on downtown economic development as well as guide the organization through effective planning using community feedback. From strong applications to strong community-led Main Street programs, each community impressed our staff with how they quickly adopted the Main Street Approach™ and put it into action towards a brighter, more thriving future.
Missouri Main Street Connection (MMSC) delivered technical assistance and services to Carrollton and Milan through our partnership with the United States Department of Agriculture through their Rural Community Development Initiative (RCDI). This partnership allowed MMSC to deliver additional Promotion, Design, and Economic Vitality services to these communities. This process allowed these communities to come together through input sessions to determine what is important for the future of their downtown and to come together with a unified vision. Since then, they have continued to accelerate as Main Street programs.
Carrollton: Forging Partnerships for a Brighter Tomorrow
Since early 2022, this small Missouri town of about 3,500 people has committed to the revitalization of their historic square through the Main Street program. Carrollton’s community members continually work to improve their historic district using the Four Points of the Main Street Approach™.
Last year in June, Missouri Main Street Connection staff and consultants visited Carrollton as part of the technical assistance and provided services through our partnership with the USDA RCDI program. Over the course of two days, our consultants brought their expertise to the community to support the economic development, historic preservation, and beautification progress that local community members had achieved. The technical assistance provided included economic vitality efforts such as materials for business support and retention, resources to market available properties in downtown Carrollton; and ideas on locally led financial support for business and property development. Design services were provided through providing two building owners with façade renderings to showcase the potential of the properties. This process helped show visions for two key buildings downtown, and left the building owners eager to make improvements to their buildings. Additional Design-related recommendations were provided such as ordinance review, beautification, vibrancy amenities, façade improvements, streetscape rendering, and remediation of buildings.
My Hometown Carrollton, the local Main Street, is currently in the process of implementing one of the recommendations given during the visit, which was to establish a façade component grant program to revitalize the building storefronts downtown. My Hometown Carrollton has partnered with the City of Carrollton for their façade component grant program. The Main Street program, through these efforts, has set itself up as the economic development entity for downtown through the support of MMSC’s services. These services gave the organization the resources and confidence to assume this role.
In addition, My Hometown Carrollton also hired a part-time Executive Director to help lead the Main Street organization’s efforts downtown, helping raise the capacity of the organization. MMSC is excited to see the continued growth of the organization after they graduated from the CEG program and how it will pay dividends in the economic health of their Square.
Milan: A Community in Action
Since the start of 2022, community members in Milan embraced the Main Street Approach™ as they received services from the Community Empowerment Grant program. Milan Main Street was another CEG community that received technical assistance and services through our partnership with USDA’s RCDI program.
Milan’s community members are real go-getters as they quickly started implementing the recommendations they received from our consultants in October 2023 to replace an entire block of wood-shake awnings—that have long been a topic of conversation in the community. The recommendations included directions for replacing these awnings and unifying building owners towards the goal of beautifying downtown Milan. This plan presented the new Main Street program looking to make a visible difference downtown, the opportunity to address a huge community need.
While Milan Main Street worked on the larger awning project, they also implemented another recommendation through a smaller beautification initiative by adding banners downtown. By embracing the incremental nature of Main Street and cultivating partnerships, the community members have visually shown the great work they have initiated and were invited to speak at the American Planning Association conference in Kansas City with members of the Design-Preservation Rapid Assistance Team (D-PRAT), an organization that provided additional planning services free of charge in the community.
These two communities have started to implement recommendations to economically revitalize their respective downtowns because of the support and services brought from MMSC’s partnership with the USDA RCDI program and the Community Empowerment Grant programming. The input gathered and services provided to these rural communities has given each the tools and resources to revitalize their downtowns. These organizations are stronger because of these services, and each community has a road map for success for years to come.
