A recent Daily Yonder article was forwarded to the VMS Blog from the City of Martinsville, which is pulling together community investment in their central business district through the Uptown Partners project. 

 “The Town that Builds Entrepreneurs” uses data from Oklahoma communities to demonstrate the power of the Main Street economic restructuring approach: an incremental effort to build on existing assets while diversifying the business mix. The communities focused on quality of life, including the natural beauty that surrounds them, and they built from the industries that had shaped the towns. They even partnered across jurisdictional boundaries.

In Martinsville-Henry County, the community is pulling together to put a similar strategy to work using the unique assets of the area, such as its furniture-making history, cultural and arts assets, the New College Institute– an uptown educational resource, and the area’s potential for uptown housing.  

Martinsville’s Main Street program, Martinsville Uptown Revitalization Association (MURA), is one of the uptown partners working to foster a climate specifically conducive to entrepreneurs. Track the community’s progress at: www.uptownmville.com.