New River
Economic Renewal for Three Rural Counties

The New River begins in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina and flows through 21 counties in North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia, where it feeds into rivers that find their way to the Ohio River and ultimately to the Mississippi. Geologists believe it to be approximately 320 million years old, making it the oldest river in North America and possibly second oldest to the Nile River in Africa. Having experienced less industrial impact than other American rivers, the New River offers abundant recreational opportunities, pastoral settings and spectacular scenic areas such as the Blue Ridge Parkway.

The New River’s lead community partner, New River Community Partners, located in Jefferson, North Carolina, is a grassroots not-for-profit that was formed to oversee and coordinate implementation of the New River’s American Heritage Rivers Work Plan. Approximately 1,500 agencies, organizations and individuals have participated in the development of the Work Plan for the 21 New River watershed counties, identifying more than 300 priority projects in the areas of historic and cultural preservation, education and training, economic revitalization, natural resource protection, agriculture, and transportation and trails. To date, some 60 projects have been completed. New River Community Partners also worked with the White House Council on Environmental Quality and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to select Ben Borda, a native of West Virginia and the Corps’ assistant chief of planning for the Huntington District, as New River Navigator.

Members of the 2003 Ashe Leadership Challenge, a local leadership development program under the Ashe Chamber of Congress. Members represented a variety of Ashe County, NC organizations and businesses, including banks, local government, entrepreneurs, the local community college, ministry, the arts council, workforce development, medical practitioners, a Latino advocacy organization, the local electric cooperative, and the Chamber of Commerce.

“The Northwest Alliance Program was the first instance I know of that a United Methodist Church District collaborated with another nonprofit organization to do economic development,” says Rev. Dr. Alan Rice. Formerly Superintendent of the North Wilkesboro District, Reverend Rice worked closely on the program with its coordinator, Melanie McFadyen of New River Community Partners. He notes that the program “providentially” brought together a long-desired chance to work with McFadyen, a fellow church member he’d met while both were studying at the North Carolina Rural Economic Development Institute, with an opportunity to help the church fulfill its mandate “to do good” in the world.

One of the New River’s key attributes is the historical and cultural heritage of its people, for whom family is still central and religion and community activities provide a strong sense of community. A recent New River American Heritage project, the Northwest Alliance Program for the Rural Carolinas, reflected the area’s cultural heritage by arising as a faith-based collaboration among the North Wilkesboro District of the United Methodist Church in North Carolina, New River Community Partners, and the Duke Endowment.

The Northwest Alliance Program was a five-year project that ended in April 2007. Ken McFadyen, executive director for New River Community Partners, says, “Overseen by a Steering Committee of 18 local members, the project achieved notable successes in three North Carolina counties (Ashe, Alleghany and Wilkes) with a combined population of 90,000. As its final success, the project became self-sustaining, with the programs it created now housed in new home institutions.”

With a mission to build “leadership, employment opportunities and training and asset education for the working poor in the New River headwaters region”, the Northwest Alliance program was funded by a $550,000 grant given by the Duke Endowment (which targets rural churches in the Carolinas) to the North Wilkesboro District of the United Methodist Church. An additional $500,000 in matching funds was obtained through New River Community Partners. (Donors included the North Carolina Rural Economic Development Center; U.S. Economic Development Administration: The Conservation Fund’s Resourceful Communities Program (Creating New Economies Fund); the Golden Leaf Foundation; Wilkes County Board of Commissioners; Ashe County Board of Commissioners; and Alleghany County Board of Commissioners.) The program was part of the larger Program for the Rural Carolinas, funded by the Duke Endowment and designed by MDC of Chapel Hill, a private nonprofit that works to advance the South economically and build inclusive communities.

Seed-money grants made by the Northwest Alliance Program to start up various programs and projects were used to leverage additional funding from private and state sources and the federal government. The most notable case of leveraging funding has occurred with an “advanced materials industry cluster” project centered around the Martin Marietta Composites plant in Alleghany County, which is the program’s most far-reaching success. A key element of the cluster project, in which Wilkes Community College is collaborating with Martin Marietta, would be an Advanced Materials Center, toward which $1.4 million in funding has already been raised. The funding includes $1.2 million in state funding from North Carolina’s Golden Leaf Foundation and another $200,000 in federal funding from the Appalachian Regional Commission.

Melanie McFadyen, project coordinator for the Northwest Alliance Program for the Rural Carolinas, presenting a $50,000 start-up grant to representatives of Wilkes Community College that is developing an advanced materials cluster initiative for northwest North Carolina.

Currently, the cluster project is wooing major companies to build plants in the region, and more jobs could be on the way if new products being tested by Martin Marietta and Wilkes Community College find major markets. There are high hopes that in the long run, the advanced materials industry cluster could turn the three-county region from a loser in the old economy to a winner in the new one. (More information is available on the project website: www.advancedmaterialsnc.org)

With old-economy manufacturing plants shutting down, and jobs being shipped overseas, thousands of people in the three counties have been falling into poverty in recent years. Nevertheless, in addition to the advanced materials industry cluster project, the accomplishments of the Northwest Alliance Program include:

• Leadership programs in each county that train people in the basics of economic development. By April, 2007, 120 people had graduated from the course and 21 had gone through advanced training at the North Carolina Rural Economic Development Institute.
• The leadership development programs are continuing through the Ashe County Chamber of Commerce and the Alleghany County leadership alumni, who are providing management and securing other sources of funding.
• Rural entrepreneurship training programs that have resulted in 62 new businesses and the creation of 63 jobs. Other, similar programs are continuing under Wilkes Community College.
• The ability of 22 local farmers and craftspeople who attended the rural entrepreneurship program to stay in business for themselves, fund local marketing efforts at festivals and farmers markets, and create a website, www.newriverrcrafts.com. The website has in turn created eight new jobs to keep up with demand, from both local and new customers from around the country.
• An Individual Development Account (IDA) program that matches participants’ savings, allowing them to make a down payment on a home or start a new business, has resulted in four first homes, three new businesses, and new participants in the program. Included is a first-ever consumer credit counseling service.

Along the way, the Northwest Alliance program led to other gains. The town of Sparta won a $200,000 downtown development/revitalization grant, after being encouraged to apply by the alumni of Alleghany County’s leadership program. As a direct result of the IDA program, efforts are being made to address the area’s lack of affordable housing.

“The Northwest Alliance Program for the Rural Carolinas is a wonderful example of the kind of successful public/private partnerships that can be brought about through the American Heritage Rivers Initiative,” says Ken McFadyen. “By revitalizing components to the economy of three counties in the watershed, the program is helping not only to preserve the area’s heritage but to help the culture evolve into an improved future economy. Innovations like the arts and crafts website enable the area to participate in the national economy, while the sustainable technology that can be provided by the advanced materials industry cluster offers the opportunity to compete globally.”