Kutztown Community Partnership was named among the 10 best Main Street programs in the state by the Pennsylvania Downtown Center in Harrisburg in a news release June 6.
Kutztown Community Partnership was formed in 2002 for the purpose of bringing all the entities that make up the borough into a closer, more interactive community. According to their mission statement, these groups include the schools, the businesses, the townspeople, the churches, the university and others. In addition to its other activities, KCP sponsors the Community Meet and Greet, Christmas in Kutztown, the Community Block Party, the Kutztown Kruizz and Dinner on Main. In addition, it supports initiatives of other organizations, such as the recent Art Soiree and the Chocolate Crawl.
The determining criteria measures program activity as reported annually by local Main Street Managers. Community revitalization organizations are then ranked from top to bottom, with the top performing program in each of the sixteen evaluated categories receiving a score of 1. This year there were 40+ community organizations eligible to be evaluated. The rankings across all of the categories are then tabulated and the organization with the lowest total number is the top performing program.
Pennsylvania Downtown Center, the coordinating program to the National Main Street Center for Main Street programs in Pennsylvania, is honored to see these downtowns acknowledged for the goals they have set, accomplished and in many cases, exceeded. Each community has also met the ten performance standards established by National Main Street Center to be a nationally accredited Main Street Program. These standards include topics such as training requirements, planning methods, and community involvement.
The award recognizes those programs that have demonstrated an “across the board” capacity to generate new jobs, new businesses, public and private investment and volunteer hours. The top performing Main Street Programs across the Commonwealth for 2017 are 1st place Easton Main Street Initiative, 2nd place Ebensburg Borough, 3rd place The Ardmore Initiative, 4th place Historic Kennett Square, 5th place Oil City Main Street Program, 6th place Downtown Hazleton Alliance for Progress, 7th place Building A Better Boyertown, 8th place Kutztown Community Partnership, 9th place Wilkinsburg Community Development Corp., and 10th place Allentown-7th Street.
Founded in 1987, the mission of Pennsylvania Downtown Center is to build and support the capacity of local nonprofit organizations, municipalities and individuals to enhance the overall well-being and sustainability of Pennsylvania’s communities.
