People living in the Northeast Kingdom love it for its natural assets, its agricultural heritage and creative culture. More and more, it is what draws visitors here too.
We see great untapped potential for economic and community development in projects at the intersection of the creative, recreational and food sectors, which often share overlapping audiences and user groups.
In December 2018, the NEKC released From Strength to Strength, an action plan for the region. The report was the result of a year-long community engagement process involving community a Task Force of leaders and experts. Together, we developed a series of projects for 2019 that we know will have a measurable impact in supporting economic development in the region.
A Snapshot of Progress
Here's what we've been up to since we released the action plan:
NEK Regional Marketing Partnership Advisory Group: This advisory group, facilitated by the NEKC has been meeting quarterly to facilitate conversation, connection, and alignment across various regional marketing efforts.
NEK Brand & Marketing Plan: A new marketing campaign “Get NEKed” launched on June 10th with its own web presence. The site offers stories about the NEK’s unique nature and offerings and a rotating and expanding menu of tours visitors can take through the region, with sticker and T-shirt prizes for participating. Lead organization Northern Forest Center is working with the Hyde Park-based consultant Adjust Communications on building out the concept and driving traffic through advertising.
“Think Vermont” in the NEK: Lead organization Northern Community Investment Corporation (NCIC) is bringing the Vermont Department of Tourism’s “Stay to Stay” initiative, an economic development tourism program launched as a pilot in 2018 that has successfully relocated over a dozen people from across the country to Vermont, to our region. NEK weekends are planned in late July (26-29) and mid September (13-16) in St. Johnsbury/Lyndonville and in late July (26-29) and mid-December (14-16) in Newport/Jay.
Business Assistance: Northern Forest Center and NCIC are setting up a low-cost program to increase awareness among local businesses of the need for an effective on-line presence and to assist them in utilizing online marketing, business listing and search and navigational tools. The program will include free initial on-site consultations followed by cost-sharing grants to assist businesses in implementing the recommendations. Enroll today.
NEK Event Backbone Pilot: Catamount Arts is currently working with the Town of Newport to develop a framework for supporting its events through a grant supported by the NEK Fund. Funding is being sought to expand the program to other communities.
NEK Kids Program Fund: Burke-based Kingdom Kids is expanding its mission to lead this project, which will assist providers of tri-sector youth programming with both organizational and fundraising support in order to increase access to programming for kids across the region.
NEK “Outdoor Recreation Friendly Community Hubs”: Co-leads Northeastern Vermont Development Association and NEKC are working jointly to support communities and non-profit organizations in planning and building trails and other outdoor recreation infrastructure. NVDA is seeking funding for an ongoing grant program. NEKC is convening an NEK Outdoor Recreation Partnership will facilitate collaboration, provide an opportunity for best practices learning and offer advice for this sub-grant program.
Other recommendations, including the local passport guide and regional mapping, are currently in the fundraising stage.
Spotlight: Advancing Broadband in the Northeast Kingdom
The Northeast Kingdom is lagging behind the rest of the state in providing truly high-speed broadband for businesses, residents and visitors, even compared to other rural parts of Vermont.
Increasing broadband connectivity in the region emerged as one of the top priorities from our community engagement process. A number of organizations including the NEKC and Northeastern Vermont Development Association are working to address this issue in a variety of ways:
Hosting broadband summits to bring communities together for discussion and learning
Developing a set of educational materials and tools to help local leaders understand different approaches to financing broadband infrastructure in the area
Conducting local workshops using new tools and educational materials to increase local leader’s understanding of broadband financing
Developing a region-wide implementation plan, guided by a regional broadband advisory board, that assesses community readiness, inventories current infrastructure, completes financial analysis of potential projects, and recommends priorities for investment
Providing capacity-building and technical assistance to communities to manage and operate community-owned infrastructure
Developing grant proposals to secure resources for building infrastructure
If you want to be part of the conversation, sign up for our broadband listserv and we'll keep you updated about these efforts.
This work is a truly collaborative effort and we’re going to need everyone pitching in together to achieve our vision. If you want to learn more, invest in a project or get involved, let us know.
