AVOCA – Avoca Main Street hosted a consultant from Main Street America to review the progress of the Main Street program and provide recommendations for the downtown area. Main Street America is a national organization that seeks to revitalize downtown areas through preservation-based economic development, and this tour is part of a partnership with Main Street Iowa. Kathy La Plante, Senior Program Officer and Director of Program Coordination Services at Main Street America, visited Avoca on July 21.
As part of the partnership tour, Kathy La Plante toured downtown and met with members of Main Street Council and Committees, as well as local elected officials. La Plante was able to view the progress of the district’s two Main Street Iowa Challenge grant projects, as well as the completed grant work of Avoca Flower Shop’s Open 4 Business grant.
“Kathy’s visit gave us several great ideas on how to develop our fundraising strategies, and she was able to share successful and creative trends that other Main Street communities are using to make their programs more successful,” said Amber Mohr, director of Avoca Main Street. “Our volunteers are passionate about historic preservation, community development and economic growth. Visiting Main Street America further inspired them to innovate and increase our impact.
The purpose of the Main Street Iowa Partnership Tour is to provide the local Main Street Board of Directors, Main Street staff and other community partners with an opportunity to celebrate the progress and accomplishments of the past year; showcase the great work of the local main street program to the national main street program, engage local community leaders with a national main street representative, learn about national main street revitalization trends that perform across the country and gather tips to improve local main street program effectiveness.
The Main Street Avoca, Inc. is an accredited program of Main Street America. Avoca Main Street’s performance is evaluated annually by Main Street Iowa, which works in partnership with Main Street America to identify local programs that meet 10 national performance standards. The assessment criteria determine which communities are developing meaningful and sustainable revitalization programs and include standards such as fostering strong public-private partnerships, documenting programmatic progress, and actively revitalizing historic buildings.
“The ability of a local Main Street program to constantly incorporate new ideas and new leadership perspectives into the revitalization process helps ensure a vibrant future for the community’s economic opportunities,” comments Main Coordinator Michael Wagler. Street Iowa State. “This visit focused on the partnerships and improving local communication that are the basis of a strong local development effort.”
Main Street Iowa is a program of the Iowa Economic Development Authority’s Downtown Resource Center. Main Street Iowa exists to improve the social and economic well-being of Iowa communities by helping select communities capitalize on the unique identity, assets, and character of their historic commercial district. Main Street is an economic development in the context of historic preservation. In addition to a revitalization framework, Main Street Iowa also provides technical assistance services to communities that have made the revitalization of their downtown or traditional commercial district an economic development priority. As one of Main Street Iowa’s 53 Designated Programs, your community can take advantage of a variety of training, leadership development, and technical assistance opportunities at Main Street Designated Programs to build community capacity. local revitalization effort. For more information, visit https://www.iowaeda.com/main-street-iowa/.
ABOUT MAIN STREET AMERICA
Main Street America has been helping revitalize old and historic shopping districts for 40 years. Today, it is a network of more than 1,600 neighborhoods and communities, rural and urban, that share both a commitment to place and to building stronger communities through community-based economic development. preservation Since 1980, communities participating in the program have mobilized more than $89.57 billion in new public and private investment, generated 687,321 net new jobs and 154,435 net new businesses, and rehabilitated more than 303,836 buildings. Main Street America is a program of the nonprofit National Main Street Center, an affiliate of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. For more information, visit www.mainstreet.org.
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