Transforming Our Communities: Studying the Impact of the WVHUB Coaching program

Since Fall 2024, the WVU Center for Resilient Communities and WV Community Development Hub (WVHUB) have worked in partnership to advance action research on their unique community coaching program in West Virginia. Now celebrating 15 years of operation, the Hub is the only statewide community economic development organization in West Virginia. Its purpose is to help communities locate and obtain local, regional, and federal funding resources for various projects. The Hub works with isolated, marginalized communities, especially in rural areas. The Hub seeks to evaluate its community coaching programs. During the past few months, countless organizations have seen financial cuts from the federal government, especially towards community development programming. We are working together to ensure the Hub’s mission and coaching program establishes a means of systematizing its learning and assessing its approach through time among its coaching team. We accomplished this through interviews, a story map, interactive GIS maps, and site visits. Through this work, we learned about the challenges faced in coaching and in community and economic development, but we also witnessed the resilience and perseverance of the communities involved.