Kenneth Martin
West Virginia University Extension Service
Community, Economic & Workforce Development
707 Knapp Hall
P.O. Box 6031
Morgantown, WV 26506-6031
(304) 293-6967 ext. 3343, (304) 293-3395 fax

West Virginia University and Lightstone Community Development Corporation (LCDC) are engaged in a partnership to further the development of a statewide learning network of regional clusters of communities that was formed to strengthen and sustain the communities’ entrepreneurial capacity. In the first two clusters we have built relationships with community representatives and formed partnerships capable of supporting entrepreneurial development with activities that will increase community capacity to contribute effectively to decisions about economic development. We use community visioning and asset mapping exercises embedded in a model of community-based participatory research (CBPR) to strengthen this capacity. Our community partners have identified a variety of research and/or technical questions to be studied by individual students or teams of students under supervision of WVU faculty. Extension agents work directly with the counties/clusters and the local steering committees. LCDC works with entrepreneurs to develop business plans and ultimately provide access to capital through their loan funds.

An example of a CBPR project will be highlighted and involves an in depth review of historic and heritage resources conducted by WVU students and faculty that can be used by entrepreneurs in the region to develop cultural and heritage tourism focused businesses. This project was also supported by offering a Web-based training course on rural tourism development taught by an Extension agent which was designed to increase the skills of community leaders in taking advantage of the opportunities identified by the CBPR project. The presentation will include updates on progress for this ongoing project.

PowerPoint Presentation (PDF format, 560 kb)