Downtown Revitalization program
Learn how to make your rural community’s downtown area vibrant.
Overview
The Downtown Revitalization (DR) program helps improve your rural community’s downtown core and boost overall economic well-being.
Your community can aim to:
- help existing businesses get new customers
- bring more businesses to the downtown area
- team up with downtown organizations to coordinate efforts
- promote your downtown core
- make physical improvements (e.g., historic façade restoration, streetscaping, parking)
- make your downtown safe and pedestrian-friendly
Eligibility
To participate in the program, your community should have:
- at least 50 commercial enterprises or 70 structures in the downtown area
- a population of under 100,000 people
- completed at least one of our programs (e.g. First Impressions Community Exchange, Business Retention and Expansion)
How to get started
Email us or call
- help you tailor the program to your community – based on the people, time and money you have available
- train your team to successfully run the project
- give you the tools you need – a step-by-step guide and information sessions
How it works
With your advisor’s guidance, you’ll run the program in four stages:
1. Plan your project and engage your community
At this stage you’ll:
- form a leadership team to plan and run the project
- hire and train a project coordinator
- identify opportunities and concerns
- kick off your project at a public meeting
2. Research and analyze your findings
Next, you conduct research to get the information you need to develop a strategy to meet your goals.
3. Plan and take action
At this stage, you create a plan to guide your work and outline performance measures to monitor your progress.
4. Monitor your progress
Finally, you measure the results and adjust your plan to ensure success.
Resources
In-person training
We’ll show your team how to plan and implement your project (e.g. how to keep stakeholders engaged, conduct market analysis, and monitor your project’s performance)
Coordinator’s manual
This manual provides instructions, worksheets and templates for completing your DR project. Fill out this form to get a copy of the DR coordinator’s manual.