Group
created action plan at Appalachian Gateway Communities Regional Workshop
focused on enhancing and capitalizing on the area’s natural and cultural assets
 |
| One of the many events that attract visitors to Fountain Square each year. Credit: DDM. |
Middlesboro,
KY. (June 11, 2014) – Discover Downtown Middlesboro has been awarded a $7,500 grant
from the Appalachian Gateway Communities Initiative to help the Passage Through
the Gap Partnership to implement a plan to establish a tourism ambassador
training program.
As
an important entry point to Cumberland Gap National Historical Park,
communities in the Cumberland Gap area between Barbourville in Kentucky and
Martin’s Station in Virginia sent a diverse team of local leaders, land managers
as well as tourism and community arts representatives to participate in a
three-day program earlier this year. The Appalachian Gateway Communities
Regional Workshops focused on helping communities to spark economic development
while maintaining and enhancing their quality of life. The
participating communities extended from Alabama to New York and engaged in
action-planning exercises designed to identify the unique Appalachian
characteristics that make their communities appealing places to live, work and
recreate. Working with national and regional experts on sustainable tourism,
economic development, the arts, natural and cultural resources, transportation
and branding, the Passage Through the Gap Partnership team crafted a new vision
that aims to enhance tourism, economic development, and job creation efforts in
our area.
Team
leader Isaac Kremer, Executive Director with Discover Downtown Middlesboro
explained: “Through our strategic planning over the past year we identified
enhancing tourism and regional collaboration as major goals. The Appalachian
Gateways workshop served to simply accelerate plans we already had. We’re
thrilled to bring the Certified Tourism AmbassadorTM program
to our area ─ an approach that has successfully aligned businesses to enhance the
visitor experience in 17 states, with over 11,000 front-line CTAs.”
The
workshops and accompanying seed grants were presented by the Appalachian
Gateway Communities Initiative, a partnership by the Appalachian Regional
Commission, the National Endowment for the Arts, The Conservation Fund, and the
National Trust for Historic Preservation that aims to help Appalachian gateway
communities build thriving economies while protecting and conserving their
precious natural and cultural heritage qualities and strengthening the overall
quality of life. Fourteen teams participated in the workshops and nine teams
were awarded seed grants totaling $60,000 to carry out their on-the-ground
plans.
“The
Passage Through the Gap Partnership was an ideal candidate for an Appalachian
Gateway Communities Initiative seed grant because it demonstrated a clear need
with a proposed project that is well-crafted, achievable, and designed to
address the need,” said Kris Hoellen, Vice President of Sustainable Programs at
The Conservation Fund. “The project’s
potential for both expanding and diversifying access to the artistic, cultural
and natural heritage of the area will help to strengthen the community and
spark sustainable economic development.”
The
Appalachian Gateway Communities Initiative was developed by the Appalachian
Regional Commission
and the National Endowment for the Arts in 2007. The Gateway Initiative has helped gateway
communities across Appalachia expand tourism and other economic development
opportunities through community assessments, tourism planning workshops and
grants for project implementation. The Conservation Fund and the National Trust for Historic Preservation have partnered
to strengthen the leadership capacity of towns, cities and communities that
neighbor publicly protected natural and recreational lands in distressed,
transitional or at-risk counties.
The
regional workshops were held this winter at the Heartwood Center in Abingdon,
Virginia, and at the National Conservation Training Center in Shepherdstown,
West Virginia.
About the Appalachian Regional
Commission
The
Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) is a regional economic development agency
that represents a partnership of federal, state, and local government. Established by an act of Congress in 1965,
ARC provides funding for several hundred projects each year in the Appalachian
region, in areas such as business development, education and job training,
telecommunications, infrastructure, community development, housing, and
transportation. These
projects create thousands of new jobs; improve local water and sewer systems;
increase school readiness; expand access to health care; assist local
communities with strategic planning; and provide technical and managerial
assistance to emerging businesses. www.arc.gov
About the National Endowment
for the Arts
The
National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is the largest annual funder of the arts
in the United States. An independent
federal agency and the official arts organization of the United States
government, the NEA’s mission is to support excellence in the arts; bring the
arts to all Americans, and provide leadership in arts education. The NEA awards more than $100 million
annually, investing in every state. www.arts.gov
About The Conservation Fund
At
The Conservation Fund, we combine a passion for conservation with an
entrepreneurial spirit to protect your favorite places before they become just
a memory. A hallmark of our work is our deep, unwavering understanding that for
conservation solutions to last, they need to make economic sense. Top-ranked,
we have protected more than 7 million acres across America. www.conservationfund.org
About the
National Trust for Historic Preservation
The
National Trust for Historic Preservation, a privately funded nonprofit
organization, works to save America’s historic places. For more information,
visit www.PreservationNation.org.
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