PROGRAMS & TRAINING
Upcoming Trainings
View upcoming trainings and events hosted by Missouri Main Street Connection and partner organizations below.
Quarterly Workshop: Think Big, Act Local: Your Role in Energizing Local Entrepreneurship
St. Francis Borgia Jesuit Hall 3rd Floor
115 Cedar Street
MAIN STREET 101
Learn more about the Main Street Approach™ from this free in-depth training series.
Grants
View current and past grant opportunities that Missouri Main Street Connection offers local Main Street programs and small businesses in their districts.
With a renewed interest in spending time in outdoor spaces MMSC seeks to provide Main Street communities an opportunity to create community vibrancy for all ages through funding a placemaking project.
Following the COVID-19 pandemic, MMSC sprang into action in securing public and private funding to deliver services to local Main Street organizations and their small businesses. The services provided technical assistance and capacity building to create more resilient historic districts.
Paul Bruhn
Check back soon about the details of this grant.
Programs
St. Louis Main Streets
The St. Louis Main Streets program use the Main Street Approach™ and the UrbanMain™ to guide comprehensive revitalization efforts in three districts that participated in the pilot program in St. Louis.
Technical Assistance
Missouri Main Street offers matching grant programs to help communities create vibrant, people-centered places to live, work, and play.
This two-year matching service grant assists in the establishment of a local nonprofit 501(c)3 Main Street organization that is community led and focuses on revitalizing its historic commercial district.
This two-year matching service grant delivers advanced training and assistance developed for each Main Street applicant’s needs. Take your Main Street program to the next level.
This one-year matching service grant delivers advanced training and assistance developed for each Main Street applicant’s needs. Take your Main Street program to the next level.
View monthly curated lists of grant opportunities available to Main Street organizations and refine your grant writing skills with a collection of grant applications from Main Street’s across the state. *Investor access only
Download a copy of MMSC’s service directory to view the technical assistance and trainings we offer.
Find an expert to assist your Main Street program that has experience with historic properties and Main Street.
Access the Historic Preservation Suite for resources from MMSC’s Historic Preservation Committee that will assist you with your preservation needs.
LEARN MORE
FROM
MAIN STREET
AMERICA
Main Street Approach™
In 1977, the National Trust for Historic Preservation launched a downtown revitalization pilot program involving three Midwestern communities. In 1980, the National Trust created the National Main Street Center to disseminate the knowledge developed during the pilot program. Since then, the Main Street Approach™ has been extended to over 43 states and the District of Columbia. Missouri Main Street Connection, Inc. is one of the 43 state coordinating programs that operate under the authority of the National Main Street Center. The State Director is a mentor, trainer, and advocate for the local Main Street programs in their revitalization efforts that function within the context of historic preservation.
The success of the Main Street Approach™ to revitalization is based on its comprehensive nature. By carefully integrating four points into a practical downtown management strategy, the local Main Street program will produce fundamental changes in a community’s economic base, while preserving its historic commercial buildings and the community’s unique heritage. The goal is to create a sustainable organization that functions as the revitalization leader in the community.
Involves building a governing framework that includes a diverse representation of business and property owners, bankers, citizens, historians, public officials, chambers of commerce, and other preservation organizations. Everyone must work together in a long-term effort to renew downtown and maintain its stability into the future. The Organization Committee also trains and develops leaders for the community’s revitalization effort. Activities of a start-up Organization Committee begin with creating a not-for-profit organization, establishing priorities through comprehensive work plans, providing the organization with sustainable sources of revenue, and volunteer development.
Involves analyzing current market forces to develop long-term solutions; recruiting new businesses and strengthening the existing competitiveness of the traditional merchants and service businesses, while diversifying the economic base; creatively converting unused space for new uses, and working closely with the Design Committee to seek appropriate solutions for historic commercial buildings that will ensure their continued occupancy, maintenance, and preservation.
Enhances the visual attractiveness of downtown. This includes technical assistance and encouragement to building owners toward the restoration and rehabilitation of historic structures, street and alley cleanup, colorful banners and landscaping. Attention must be paid to safe and efficient infrastructure including streets, sidewalks, curbs, and gutters and the appearance of storefronts, signs, street lights, window displays, and graphic materials. Design improvements should be developed through a public-private partnership by reinvestment of public and private dollars in downtown.
Projects a positive, unified image to identify downtown as a gathering place. Revitalization programs market the district and the community through a series of targeted activities such as special events and festivals, which highlight the local culture, art, music, dance, and traditions that give each community its unique identity.
