Business Council Extends Deadline for Scholarships to National Main Street Community Transformations Workshop
The Wyoming Business Council is offering scholarships for the 2021 Community Transformations Workshop hosted by the Main Street America Institute in Cheyenne and Laramie on September 15 to 17, 2021. The scholarship application deadline has been extended to August 10 and the scholarship amounts have increased to $1,000 for the first individual and $500 for a second individual per community.
Make plans to join fellow community development leaders for this great networking and learning opportunity and register today. We're looking forward to seeing you in Cheyenne this fall.
The workshop and scholarships are not exclusive to Wyoming Main Street programs and are open to all communities. To apply for the scholarships, click here. Kayla Kler, Wyoming Main Street Project Manager, will send an email acknowledging receipt and acceptance of the application.
ABOUT THE COMMUNITY TRANSFORMATION WORKSHOP
Commercial district revitalization professionals from across the country will come together for the workshop to learn how strategy, through the lens of the refreshed Main Street Approach, guides successful efforts to transform and sustain our communities. Led by expert instructors from the National Main Street Center and Donovan Rypkema, a renowned expert in real estate and economic development, the workshop will include hands-on projects and assignments in Cheyenne and Laramie.
Aimed to provide participants with advanced tools and strategies to address complex revitalization projects and initiatives, participants will walk away with new tools to communicate the impact of investment in downtown buildings and businesses. The workshop will strongly emphasize economic vitality and COVID-19-related recovery trends and applications, including a special focus on upper-floor development. Networking opportunities will abound, with an emphasis on team-based problem solving and leadership conversations.
To learn more about this engaging, hands-on educational experience:
Come on Down to Downtown
Wyoming's downtown merchants are eager to welcome shoppers and diners back as Wyoming transitions to its new normal. Some of the practices are going to be a little different, but the quality of the goods and food made and sold by your neighbors remains excellent.
We have launched the Shop Smart, Shop Safe campaign to help downtown merchants reassure customers they can expect the highest quality cleanliness, the safest recommended practices and the warmest welcomes at their local shops and restaurants.
We have window clings, social media posts and monthly themes to get everybody back into the groove of enjoying Wyoming's summers. Check it out here.
Wyoming Main Street is a Main Street America coordinating program that promotes and manages the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Main Street program for the state of Wyoming. Wyoming Main Street’s purpose is to assist Wyoming communities of various sizes and resource levels with downtown revitalization efforts.
Wyoming Main Street is a program of the Wyoming Business Council.
Wyoming Main Street is not a grant program; it offers technical assistance to communities interested in revitalizing their historic downtowns and helps coordinate efforts to work with the Business Council’s Business Ready Community grant and loan program to provide publicly owned infrastructure for downtown business development and quality-of-life projects.
2019 Wyoming Main Street Best Practices Tour: Washington
2020 Overview of Wyoming Main Street
Main Street Lite
For communities not ready to install a full-fledged Main Street program, we have implemented Main Street Lite, a new way for Wyoming's smallest towns to build capacity and strengthen their core commercial districts.
Businesses Seeking Financing
National Main Street Conference
The Wyoming Main Street program provides increasing degrees of technical and architectural assistance to three tiers of communities.
- Aspiring communities are exploring downtown revitalization and wish to become an affiliate or certified community within the next two years.
- Affiliate communities are in the beginning stages of downtown revitalization. Wyoming Main Street provides access to training and some on-site assistance.
- Certified communities have paid staff and mature downtown development programs. Wyoming Main Street provides access to training, on-site assistance and resources for additional technical assistance.
Links
Wyoming Main Street Applications
Pre-Technical Assistance Application
Technical Assistance Application
The Wyoming Main Street program provides communities with technical assistance for revitalization of commercial business districts using the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Main Street Four Point Approach:
- Organization: Organization establishes consensus and cooperation by building partnerships among the various groups that have a stake in the commercial district.
- Promotion: Promotions communicate a commercial district’s unique characteristics, its cultural traditions, architecture, history and activities to shoppers, investors, visitors and potential business and property owners.
- Design: Design means getting downtown into top physical shape; preserving a place’s historic character and creating a safe, inviting environment for shoppers, workers and visitors.
- Economic Vitality: Economic vitality is a strategy to retain and expand successful business by providing a balanced commercial mix, sharpening the competitiveness and merchandising skills of business owners, and attracting new businesses that the market can support. Converting unused or underused commercial space into economically productive property also helps boost the profitability of the district.
The four points of the Main Street approach work together to build sustainable revitalization efforts. The Main Street approach is incremental; it is not designed to produce immediate change. In order for a community to succeed, a long-term revitalization effort requires careful attention to every aspect of downtown.
The Main Street Four Point Approach is a community-driven and common-sense way to address a variety of issues and problems facing traditional business districts. The Main Street approach advocates a return to community self-reliance, local empowerment and the rebuilding of traditional commercial districts based on unique assets such as distinctive architecture, a pedestrian-friendly environment, personal service, local ownership and a sense of place. The underlying premise of the Main Street approach is to encourage economic development within the context of historic preservation.
Contact Info
Wyoming's contact with the National Trust Main Street Center is:
Links
Main Street America
In 2019, Shopko shuttered 13 retail stores in Wyoming. In response, the Big Horn Basin region brought in National Main Street Center consultant Matt Wagner to speak with the community, gather data about retail leakage, gaps and opportunities in the local retail landscape.
With the help of the Wyoming SBDC, Wagner analysed the data and provided the community some actionable items.
From that process, we've put together a booklet to show how your community might approach a similar problem.
You can also watch Wagner's presentation of his analysis and the process here or check out his slideshow separately here.
