Who We Are
Our Community & Economic Development program assists vibrant and resilient communities through initiatives relating to...
- Downtown Revitalization
- Historic Preservation
- Green Projects
- Community Gardens
- Farmers Markets
- Small Business Development & Support
- Economic Sustainability
- Non-profit Development
- Economic Analysis
- Disaster Preparedness
- Tourism
- Agro-security & more
What We Do
Community Development & Revitalization: We work with blighted communities to revitalize their downtown area by improving vitality, facilitating needs assessments, strategic planning, workshops and meetings, funding research, property redevelopment uses, community clean-ups and more. Projects include the West Side Main Street program on the west side of Charleston and many others throughout central and southern West Virginia.
Regional & Local Economic Development: We help communities develop strategic plans for regional economic projects, work with businesses to determine leakages and development strategies for stabilizing existing market share and developing growth strategies. Regional projects include the Strengthening Economies Together (SET) program, Great Eastern Trail, the Summit Bechtel National Boy Scout Reserve, the West Virginia Hardwood Alliance Zone and others.
Micro-Enterprise & Small Business Development: We continually support small business development, retention and expansion efforts with emphasis on sustainable agriculture, wood products, tourism, specialty foods, artisan and the creative economy sectors. Services include incubation, mentoring, access to capital assistance, entrepreneur training, management strategies, marketing, counseling on collaborative development, business plan assessment and strategies for expansion. Current projects include the Economic Development Center in Charleston, the Opening Soon Inc. business training program, and the DigiSo digital and social media incubator. In addition, through our Rural Business Services program, the West Virginia Recipe Challenge and the West Virginia Made trade association exist to support specialty food businesses and artisans in the state.
Where We Are
Our CED program currently has a 19-county service area throughout West Virginia. These counties include Barbour, Fayette, Greenbrier, Kanawha, Lewis, Mason, McDowell, Mercer, Monroe, Nicholas, Pocahontas, Preston, Raleigh, Randolph, Summers, Tucker, Upshur, Webster and Wyoming. We serve this region with multiple extension offices and cross-county programming efforts. We currently have staff members houses at the following locations:
Fayette County: Oak Hill City Hall / 100 Kelly Avenue / Oak Hill, WV 25901 / 304-610-5655
Kanawha County: WVSU Campus / PO Box 1000 / 803 Curtis Complex / Institute, WV 25112-1000 / 304-766-4289 /// Economic Development Center / 1506 Kanawha Blvd. West / Charleston, WV 25302 / 304-720-1401 /// West Side Main Street / 303 Washington Street West / Charleston, WV 25302 / 304-720-3161
Nicholas County: 1 Old Wildnerness Road / PO Box 234 / Summersville, WV 26651 / 304-651-7020
Randolph County: WV Wood Technology Center / 10 Eleventh Street / Ekins, WV 26241 / 304-642-3158
Wyoming County: Wyoming County Economic Development Authority / PO Box 1828 / Pineville, WV 24874 / 304-732-6707
