Jefferson Matters: Main Street has been designated as an accredited Main Street America™ program for meeting rigorous performance standards set by the National Main Street Center. Each year, the National Main Street Center and its coordinating program partners announce the list of accredited Main Street America programs in recognition of their exemplary commitment to preservation-based economic development and community revitalization through the Main Street Approach®.
The organization’s performance is annually evaluated by Main Street Iowa which works in partnership with the National Main Street Center to identify the local programs that meet 10 performance standards. Evaluation criteria determines the communities that are building comprehensive and sustainable revitalization efforts and include standards such as fostering strong public-private partnerships, securing an operating budget, tracking programmatic progress and actively preserving historic buildings.
Jamie Daubendiek, president of Jefferson Matters: Main Street has been involved in this accreditation process for a number of years and was very pleased with the progress in 2015 of the various committees and board. Terry Poe Buschkamp of Main Street Iowa reviewed the 10 standards with the local board of directors during their annual review in May. Jefferson Matters: Main Street was a partner with the city of Jefferson to be awarded a Community Development Block Grant for downtown revitalization and knew this would be a big step in the national accreditation for 2016.
Main Street America has been helping revitalize older and historic commercial districts for more than 35 years. Today, it is a network of more than 1,000 neighborhoods and communities, rural and urban, who share both a commitment to place and to building stronger communities through preservation-based economic development. Since 1980, communities participating in the program have leveraged more than $65.6 billion in new public and private investment, generated 556,960 net new jobs and 126,476 net new businesses, and rehabilitated more than 260,000 buildings. Main Street America is a program of the nonprofit National Main Street Center, a subsidiary of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
