There is no charge to participate but membership is not “free”. To maximize  benefits to their community, participants will need to engage with their coach and other learning communities. We intend to make that engagement useful and relevant to the work of each community group.

Some resources will be available to all without joining as a member. These include attending WNEKY free events and workshops, and access to the WNEKY Resource Toolkit.

Community Accelerator Members will get additional benefits:

Access to the Community Accelerator team on the Basecamp platform. Basecamp is an online platform that allows teams & communities to interact and share information. On the platform, participants can access files/resources, online chats with other members and consultants and a calendar listing deadlines for grant proposals and other opportunities. Additionally, the member has the option of creating a team on Basecamp for their own community accelerator team.

Peer-to-Peer Community Learning Forums. This is an open forum in which members can share “what’s working” and lessons they are learning, pitch ideas & get feedback, seek partners for grant opportunities and connect with other members. These forums will be hosted on Zoom and some may be in-person. (Mileage at IRS rate & childcare costs will be reimbursed.)

Coaching. Each community will have a coach to guide them through the 1-year Accelerator. The coach will help the community group assess their needs, plan projects to take advantage of local opportunities, connect with potential partners, find and gain resources, and apply for funding. It is expected that communities in Year 1 will receive intensive coaching services; whereas Year 2 and 3 will need progressively less coaching, with Year 4 communities only receiving coaching upon request on an as-needed basis. 

In-Person Community Action Visit. During this in-person visit to your community, the Director of Kentucky Main Street (or another qualified consultant), will visit your community and, along with your Core Team, will meet with local leaders, business owners, and residents to learn about your town, share ideas and opportunities, and help your group set goals to move your community forward.

In-Person Meetings. Your Core Team will be invited to a Kick-Off, Mid-Term, and Final Network-Wide Event to help you get acquainted with other participating community leaders and gain training geared toward your community’s specific needs. The final meeting will celebrate and showcase your community’s accomplishments and allow you to share lessons learned along the way.

Optional Energizing Workshops & Activities Tailored to Your Community Needs. Members working with their Coach are eligible to request workshops to help accelerate work in their community. Examples include:

Open Space Community Workshop: Open space is a type of open community meeting where there is no preset agenda and no required participants. Initial planning is important but is much easier to plan than most community meetings. First, a general topic is decided, then a date and location are set, a diversity of people in the community are invited, and then the people who care enough to show up get to set the agenda and discuss the things they are most interested in doing. The “goal…is to create time and space for people to engage deeply and creatively around the issues of concern to them. For instance, Grayson, KY held an open space meeting to discuss the question “How do we make downtown Grayson a fun place where more people want to visit, work, shop, and play?” Over 20 people attended and identified 5 main topics to discuss further: (1) the vacant lot, (2) veteran’s park, (3) signage & info, (4) cleaning & painting, (5) vacant buildings. Since then, their group has made significant progress addressing each of these issues. This open space meeting was vital in helping them focus on the main issues and opportunities their community wanted to address and gather the key people who are interested in making a difference.

Round Robin Shared Idea-Generating Workshop: Originally shared by Shane Barton of UK CEDIK, this is an interactive “idea generating” community workshop that gets a group together of about 12-20 people to come up with ideas for a specific topic. It usually takes about 2 hours. It feels like a fun, collaborative game where everyone gets to write down an idea on a piece of paper and then the leader guides the group into trading papers and adding to each other’s ideas until only two ideas remain that everyone has had a part in creating. In Grayson, KY, a dozen people gathered to discuss ideas for how to transform an empty lot downtown where a building had once burned down into a lively shared space where the community could gather. Both of the ideas generated were combined to create the “Grayson Art Park” (i.e. the GAP). It has been amazing for community members who participated in this 2-hour workshop to see their ideas brought to life.

Strategic Doing Workshop: This is typically a 3-hour workshop where groups come together to address a specific community challenge or opportunity. Unlike the Open Space meeting, it provides a structured way for people from different organizations and backgrounds to form collaborations quickly, identify readily available resources, and move from what they could do to what they will do together.  By the end of the workshop, the group will have selected a project that can be accomplished in 6-9 months and have a plan for how to move that project forward in the next 30 days. Each person in the group that is able will commit to what they will do in the next 30 days to move the project forward. The group then meets every 3o days to report progress and plan next steps. This process makes the work light, maximizes resources, and helps the group make measurable progress quickly to keep momentum going.

Community Development Matrix: Mountain Association has developed a matrix to help communities assess their strengths and weaknesses. Accelerator communities can choose to walk through this matrix with their coach and develop a roadmap for growth.

Learning Stipend. Participating Communities will receive a Learning Stipend to compensate the community for time spent participating in the project (Year 1: $2,500; Year 2: $2,000; Year 3: $1,500, Year 4+: NA) and support a local project. The stipend will be paid to a non-profit or government entity representing the participating team and distributed as the team sees fit. Stipends will be paid once a project has been identified. To qualify for the Learning Stipend, the community must be actively participating through meeting with their coach, pursuing local learning projects, attending peer learning forums, and in-person Community Accelerator meetings.

Additional training. Members are eligible to apply for funding from the Mountain Association for specific training, i.e., the Brushy Fork Leadership Conference, grant writing workshops, marketing, etc. Funds could cover travel expenses and reimbursement for childcare as well as training fees. (This does not include conferences unless there is a specific training component.)