Mercedes Fraser, CREATE BRIDGES Kentucky Project Coordinator
Award-winning curriculum will help more rural communities support their retail and hospitality industries.
CREATE BRIDGES Overview
CREATE BRIDGES (Celebrating REtail, Accommodations, Tourism, and Entertainment by Building Rural Innovations and Developing Growth Economies), was a pilot project designed for multi-county regions to raise awareness of the role retail, accommodations, tourism, and entertainment businesses play in the local economy; to determine challenges, barriers, and opportunities related to those businesses; and to develop and implement strategies to strengthen the retail, accommodations, tourism, and entertainment sectors within a region. CREATE BRIDGES is a collaborative partnership between the Southern Rural Development Center (SRDC), the University of Arkansas, The University of Illinois, the University of Kentucky, New Mexico State University, North Carolina State University, and Oklahoma State University. It is currently active in eight regions throughout the six partner states. CREATE BRIDGES received the NET Excellence in Tourism award in 2021.
You can learn more about CREATE BRIDGES impacts here.
CREATE BRIDGES was developed and implemented with funding from Walmart.
What is in the curriculum?
The curriculum is comprised of modules written by CREATE BRIDGES Phase I and Phase II state leads. The modules walk through each step of the CREATE BRIDGES process and includes best practices and lessons learned. Modules include:
- Before You Begin – Introduction, funding, region selection, best practices, etc.
- Orientation – Overview of the program and processes
- Resource Listing – Process overview for listing resources in selected region
- CREATE Forum – Process overview of gathering community input on CREATE Sector in selected region through a public forum
- BR&E – Overview of how the Business Retention & Expansion process was used during the program
- Employee Engagement – Overview of Employee Engagement Survey data collection
- CREATE Academy – Sharing data with Regional Steering Committee to begin identifying strategies
- Strategy Development – Working with Regional Steering Committee and community to develop and implement strategies to positively impact the region
The benefits of this new curriculum
- Relevant and practical learning
The new curriculum is designed to bridge the gap between theory and practice. Learn from the states that participated in Phase I and Phase II about what does and doesn’t work when implementing this style project in your communities. The curriculum includes example sign-in sheets, agendas, worksheets, etc.
- Process-based programming
The processes used in CREATE BRIDGES are valuable in various scenarios. Learn more about processes such as Business Retention & Expansion, asset-based development, data gathering though Employee Perspective surveys, sharing secondary data with stakeholders, and utilizing gathered data to develop strategies through this curriculum.
- Prepare your community for its workforce needs
CREATE BRIDGES focuses on local business and workforce development. By integrating community members into the conversation you can create buy-in and empower communities to be a part of the solution.
You can access the CREATE BRIDGES Curriculum here: https://srdc.msstate.edu/programs/create-bridges/curriculum