City of Fairmont hopeful it can cultivate community engagement with help from The Hub

Apr. 13—FAIRMONT — Nothing makes Fairmont City Planner Shae Strait light up more than community development.

There is, however, a problem. The City can't get more than the same 12 people to engage for each new project.

Hoping to change that, the City applied to a program designed to foster community engagement in the pursuit of projects that will improve the space in which a community resides. On April 5, the City announced it had won entry into Cultivate WV.

"In order to take a lot of these great ideas that people have, or a lot of goals we've set, we're going to need more hands on deck," Strait said. "We're going to need more engagement and this is the perfect program to help make that happen."

Cultivate WV is the brainchild of a nonprofit organization named the Charleston-based Community Development Hub. The nonprofit dedicates itself to providing communities the tools they need to pursue the types of projects a community wants developed. Cultivate WV provides coaching and technical assistance while connecting communities to the resources they need to complete small scale projects. The idea is to empower residents to uplift their communities from within, Strait said.

Before any projects can be undertaken, the Hub needs to come in and figure out what people want to see done in their communities.

The Hub functions as an intermediary between the City and residents, guiding both to develop the kinds of projects that will improve quality of life within Fairmont. While Strait said the City has its own ideas for what it wants out of the program, namely beautification projects, the final vision would ideally be shaped by residents who have a handle on what they want within their own communities.

Which means the level of success the program meets will depend squarely on the level of community engagement it receives.

The Hub will hold meetings once a month, location to be determined, for 12 months through May 2025. The purpose of the meetings will be to gauge resident needs and provide training and coaching to those pursuing a project or goal.

"You don't have to be a city organization," Erin Hager, assistant city planner, said. "It can be just a small group of citizens who want to see something happen. Yes, we sort of initiated the project. Our goal is to get that interaction with the community."

Once residents have a firm grasp on what they want to see realized, the Hub will connect them with the grants and funding they need to make their project a reality.

Strait hopes that by having an outside organization come and host these meetings, residents will feel more empowered to attend and engage with community development. There is a level of skepticism the City is trying to overcome, which Strait hopes to dispel by having the Hub here. Strait's ideal scenario is to have a wave of new faces show up and engage with City planners, bringing fresh ideas to improve the community.

However, that might be easier said than done.

Montgomery and Smithers, a pair of communities between Huntington and Beckley, went through the program in 2021. Angela Packett, Montgomery's city administrator, said it was a challenge to get people to take ownership of their projects. They have the same problem Fairmont has, it's always the same few people who choose to participate in uplifting their community.

"People want to see things happen," Packett said. "But when the same few people do the work all the time they get tired, they don't come up with new ideas. You need community participation in order to get different ideas. If I'm planning everything, then I have the same idea over and over again. You need input from the community and then help carrying things through."

That said, both communities still got 20 projects out of the program at the end. Cultivate WV was able to connect both communities to mini-grants that paid for the things residents wanted where they lived. Packett said the lack of engagement may be due to the fact that Montgomery and Smithers are in an economically-depressed area. Working with the Hub was also a positive experience, she said.

Strait is optimistic. The circumstances in Fairmont are different than that of Montgomery and Smithers, because it's a larger metropolitan area with an economy that's in arguably in better shape. Strait has one reason to be optimistic.

In September 2022, the Planning Department held a casual open house to gauge community needs for the Beltline Redevelopment program. He remembers a packed meeting in the basement of the church they used for their meeting.

"It was great, people just walked in off the street," Strait said. "Off Gaston and into the basement and hung out with us. Super awesome. Spent a couple hours with them. I remember one married couple spent hours talking to a couple of our consultants. They listened intently to every concern residents had, it was really great."

The first meeting will be held sometime in May, with details to be determined by his department.

Reach Esteban at efernandez@timeswv.com