Marketing Hometown America

Marketing Hometown America (MHA) is an Extension program that empowers communities to create a vision to grow. Designed as a tool to create dialogue that moves toward action, it can be the spark to help a rural community look at itself in a new way. The program was originally developed by a consortium of Midwestern land grant universities and their Extension service educators.

Why? Declining rural populations have been making the news for decades. But just because some rural areas are declining does not mean that all areas are declining -- or destined to decline. Some rural areas are realizing that the unique assets and the quality of life of their communities can be marketed and is an important factor for families looking to relocate from urban areas and other rural areas.

Marketing Hometown America is an educational process that helps guide rural community leaders and current residents in making decisions on how to market themselves to potential new residents. Along the way, long-time community residents and newly arrived residents learn from each other and form deeper, effective working relationships that bridge any potential differences in community perspectives that may exist.

As part of the education process, Marketing Hometown America empowers communities -- and their leaders – with knowledge, tools, and other resources to create the community's vision for growth. A community may already be working on attracting new residents, but to grow, more people need to be a part of that effort; and often, the overall effort needs to be better coordinated.  Marketing Hometown America engages communities and all members through small groups called Study Circles to get more people involved and more voices heard. These Study Circles provide a means to get everyone involved and more community vitality ideas and projects shared and implemented.

The Study Circles are formed and led by trained, volunteer local facilitators. The Study Circles consist of 8-12 people that meet four times, each meeting lasting approximately 2.5 hours. After the fourth session, the circles and all interested community members come together for an Action Forum. At the Action Forum everyone votes on their favorite parts of the proposed plans and activities. Action teams are formed, and community members volunteer to help with or lead one of the future community initiatives or projects as integral members of one or more of the action teams.

Through a Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development grant that funded a pilot of the program, Penn State Extension conducted the first Marketing Hometown America program in the Northeast United States in Susquehanna Depot, Susquehanna County throughout 2021 and 2022.

To start, Penn State Extension first conducted a virtual facilitator training for Susquehanna Depot community leaders on February 24th, 2021, which was attended by approximately 20 people and that was conducted via Zoom. Two study circles were established, and these Circles groups conducted the 4 prescribed MHA study circle sessions during March and April. One study circle conducted their sessions virtually while the 2nd study circle convened their meetings face-to-face with COVID PPE (Personal Protective Equipment). To assist the groups in conducting the formal, branded MHA Community Resource Guide material in a virtual format, Penn State Extension educators provided customized Google Docs and on-line Jamboard discussion and decision-making facilitation tools (based on the MHA branded resources) for the virtual study circle in adaptation of curriculum resources that had previously only been available for Face-to-Face delivery.

An MHA program-culminating Action Forum took place on April 21 of 2021 after an Action Forum preparation meeting on April 19. Both sessions were conducted virtually. Due to community need for introspection and resolution of community power dynamics and decision-making practices (a common concern in many communities) a second, redo of the April 21 Action Forum took place on June 2nd. At this final Action Forum, four "Action Teams" were established by the end of the session: Community Beautification, Signage, Community Marketing Guide & Welcome Wagon.

As a result of the Penn State Extension piloting of the Marketing Hometown America national curriculum in Susquehanna Depot, Pennsylvania, the four action teams are currently meeting (throughout 2022) using a newly developed  MHA "Action Team Huddles" format, and all action teams convene every 3 months through an Extension-facilitated "Community Huddle" to discuss/celebrate their collective work of the previous three months, and to regroup and position the action teams and the overall community for the future.

The official MHA process is now set to conclude 18 months after the initial Action Forum, and after four Extension-facilitated Community Huddles during the 18-month After Action Forum period. The "Action Team Huddles" and the "Community Huddle" gatherings are a new addition to the national MHA curriculum that has evolved because of greater understanding of the community development and community capacity-building needs of many rural and other communities.

The goal of the 18-month community huddle period of this now updated MHA program is to institutionalize the Action Team Huddles and the Community Huddle process into the culture of the communities where MHA is conducted, and to provide a process for best follow-up from the initial Study Circles that MHA utilizes.

Is your community ready to Market Hometown America?  Answer the following readiness assessment questions and then reach out to us to learn more!

Contacts - Peter Wulfhorst, ptw3@psu.edu, 570-296-3400 or John Turack, jdt15@psu.edu, 724-837-1402

Do you think your community is ready for Marketing Hometown America?

Think through the following questions to make that determination.

• Are current residents excited to help grow your community?
• Is recruiting new residents an important issue in your community?
• Do you have at least 10 people who are ready and willing to commit to serving on an advisory committee?
• Can you recruit 30 or more residents to actively participate in discussions?
• Does your community need a focused marketing plan?

The community benefits of Marketing Hometown America

• Use positive conversations to begin or expand community marketing.
• Create a welcoming spirit needed to attract new residents.
• Build and implement a marketing action plan.
• Learn what new residents are looking for as they relocate to a rural community.
• Discover often overlooked local assets.

Resources and more information related to Marketing Hometown America

• YouTube video of midwestern communities' use of the program
• Burkhart-Kriesel, C., Hawkins, J., & Weigle, J. (2019). Engagement to enhance community: An example of Extension's land-grant mission in action.  Social Sciences – Special Issue: Engaged Scholarship for Resilient Communities. 8(1), 27.  MDPI Publisher. 
• Strategic Planning for communities and the groups they comprise. Penn State Extension.
• Asset-Based Community Development Resources
• From Clients to Citizens: Asset-based Community Development as a Strategy for Community-driven Development. COADY International Institute.
• ABCD Tool Kit: What is Asset-based Community Development?
• Strategic Doing resources
• Strategic Doing Knowledge Base
• An Introduction to Strategic Doing for Community Development Book chapter discussing how Strategic Doing is used in community development settings.