hear how local partners helped to support a recent redevelopment project .
“ They ’ re all doing great things ,” Ashby said of the 21 participating organizations from around the state , “ but they didn ’ t have a cohesive way to communicate their message at a local level to convey the true impact of Main Street .”
Why does that matter ? In a nutshell , because their funding may be in jeopardy if they can ’ t . Many Main Street organizations are embedded within the local governments , cities , standalone nonprofits , or special districts like a downtown development authority and “ are always scrambling to find enough resources to run their programs ,” Ashby said . If the programs aren ’ t funded , they can ’ t engage in business recruitment efforts , complete façade improvements and beautification efforts , or host events that generate foot traffic .
Gayle Langley , state coordinator of the Colorado Main Street program , housed within the Department of Local Affairs ( DOLA ), was a Main Street manager before taking her current leadership role at DOLA and said she saw the “ extreme need for our Main Street coordinators to be able to
effectively tell the story of what they do ” to the various audiences .
“ When I took this job , I realized that there was a real need to have a statewide presence and continuity between all of our communities in how we broach this topic and how we relate our activities and our efforts to our community ,” Langley said .
With that idea in mind , DOLA put out a Request for Proposals to help them formulate a roadmap , selecting Ayres for the work largely because of Ashby ’ s creativity and ability to relate to the impacted communities , all of which are small and rural . “ The Colorado Main Street program is honored to be able to support our communities by offering this service through our consulting fund ,” Langley said .
“ The program had worked with Matt through Ayres for a number of years on a lot of different projects . The Pickaxe is only one ,” she said . “ Matt specifically also extremely excels at helping our
WHAT ’ S IN A NAME ?
Curious how the Pickaxe Project ’ s name came to be ? Considering the project was focused on storytelling , the team took the same approach with its title and accompanying imagery . Pickaxe Project co-designer Matt Ashby of Ayres explained that the pickaxe was a tool that pioneers in Colorado used for mining in the state ’ s mountain communities “ to hack away at the worthless granite and expose the golden nuggets of value that drove the state ’ s economy .”
“ We see that same analogy of this project because elected officials and the communities are faced with so much information on a day-to-day basis . We have to distill what they ’ re hearing and focus on those golden nuggets they really need to hear ,” Ashby said .
– Jennifer Schmidt
28 | TRENDS Ingenuity , Integrity , and Intelligence .