Create Buckhannon How Creative Citizens are Building Their Future in West Virginia
The story of declining communities has almost become a cliché throughout the hills of West Virginia where shifting economic forces have emptied many of the state’s small towns and counties. Leaders all over the Mountain State believe the hope of a brighter future lies within the possibility of small communities recreating themselves into vibrant meccas of talent and entrepreneurial activity in the global innovation economy. The city of Buckhannon in Upshur County agrees, and, steered by a band of visionary leaders and citizens, they believe they can pull it off. From the list of their achievements over the past two years, it looks like they just might. After a less-than-successful vision and planning exercise in 2007 called Buckhannon 2015, a small group of determined leaders attended a creative community economic development conference in 2008 called Create WV. Create WV was formed to “build creative communities for the innovation economy” and has, over the last six years, trained dozens of local communities and hundreds of individuals. The 2008 conference that the Buckhannon team attended brought together hundreds of likeminded entrepreneurs, business executives, artists, educators and nonprofit and government leaders with the goal of answering the question “How do West Virginia communities and businesses grow in a global, Internet-based economy that demands a new kind of innovation-minded human capital?” The organizers of Create WV shared a simple formula with attendees that held the answer: creative, entrepreneurial individuals are attracted to creative communities. When a community attracts creative individuals, great things begin to happen. The team from Buckhannon came to the 2008 conference with open minds, and they were amazed and excited about what they experienced. As Steve Foster, the director for the Upshur County Development Authority and a member of Buckhannon’s visionary team, explains, “Attending Create WV was pivotal in inspiring us to build Create Buckhannon. The networking and creative learning opportunities were phenomenal.” Armed with motivation and some basic community development strategy skills, the group returned home to form their local version of the creative communities movement. An initial workshop with Create WV brought together the Buckhannon 2015 planning committee, the Buckhannon/Upshur Chamber of Commerce and faculty and staff of West Virginia Wesleyan College, and ideas immediately began to flow. As is common with initiatives meant to spark change, many of the ideas met resistance. Some public officials, many of whom had been in office for decades, found plenty of reasons why the ideas couldn’t be executed. A skeptical public burned by prior efforts of change were at times uneager to get on board. The group persisted. “We overcame many of these objectives by choosing some quick wins early on that gained us credibility and by including as
One of Create Buckhannon’s successes has been the new street signage on College Avenue.
many people as we could in researching actions and decisions,” says Buckhannon entrepreneur and team member CJ Rylands. “An example is the street signs placed on College Avenue, which have received great feedback.” The open and inclusive nature of the planning meetings, combined with confidence built by those early wins, allowed the Create Buckhannon movement to catch fire. The team decided to seek additional support from the West Virginia Community Development Hub and HubCAP, the hub’s Communities of Achievement Program. What ensued has been nothing short of extraordinary. At last count, the group has been responsible for more than 30 community projects, including: • Securing a $250,000 grant for the development of Jawbone Park and a farmers market; • Designing street signage for Buckhannon, including those along College Avenue; • Holding an entrepreneur’s café to raise seed capital for new and expanding businesses; • Placing LED lighting on Main Street to promote events year-round; • Founding Festival Fridays, a gathering of locals and guests around live music, crafters, farm produce and food to eat and • Launching the Buckhannon-Upshur Citizens Leadership Institute of Government Affairs to teach community members about local government and to encourage participation. Create Buckhannon meets every Thursday at noon and has involved 80-100 different people at various times. Younger people get more involved every day, including younger owners of businesses. Several staff, faculty and students from West Virginia Wesleyan College have been involved as well, participating in design, creative ideas and support. For their efforts, the Create Buckhannon team won the Governor’s Award for Community Service by a Volunteer Group in 2011. For more information about Create Buckhannon and other creative communities or to start your own, visit www.createwv.com. By Jeff James Photography by Melodie Stemple
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fall 2012
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