Small grants program continues with “Marketing Hometown America” project
Marketing Hometown America is an educational program that has been implemented successfully in several Midwestern states. The program helps guide rural communities through the decision-making process on how to market themselves to potential new residents, thus empowering communities to create a vision to grow. The team will use the NERCRD funding to conduct a train-the-trainer event to be delivered by University of Nebraska Extension to Extension faculty and educators from Penn State, West Virginia and New Hampshire. The training event will take place in Centre County, Pennsylvania, in early 2020.
In turn, each Extension team participating will deliver the curriculum in pilot communities in their respective states, using both NERCRD funding and funding from additional community partners.
Led by Peter Wulfhorst (Penn State Extension) and Michael Dougherty (West Virginia University Extension), other team members include: Tanya Lamo, Neal Fogle, John Turack, and Linda Falcone of Penn State Extension; Doug Arbogast and Daniel Eades of West Virginia University Extension; and Penny Whitman of University of New Hampshire Extension.