Marketing Hometown America

Jamie Bright Author

02/12/2025 Added

9 Plays

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Cheryl Burkhart-Kriesel discussed Nebraska Extension's Marketing Hometown America program and how communities can help attract and keep residents. Recorded February 12, 2025.

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[00:00:00.000]Okay, I'm Jamie Bright. I know most of you. I am the Rural Prosperity Nebraska Extension Educator in the Southern Panhandle, and I generally host these Rural Rendezvous sessions. Then we'll go around the room. Jordan, why don't you start?
[00:00:22.140]Hello, I'm Jordan Dietrich. I'm the Executive Director of Twin Cities Development. We are a regional economic development organization in western Nebraska.
[00:00:30.940]Thanks, Jordan.
[00:00:32.580]Joni?
[00:00:34.460]Thank you very much, Jamie, for always putting the effort in for these Rural Rendezvous. I appreciate it very much. Joni Jesperson with Mobius Communications in Hemingford. Do community enhancement and marketing.
[00:00:47.240]Joni.
[00:00:49.160]Denise?
[00:00:50.420]Denise Wilkinson, Regional Navigator for 6 Regions 1 Nebraska, Northeast Region.
[00:00:57.840]Thanks, Denise.
[00:00:59.740]Christy?
[00:01:01.180]Christy McClung, State of Nebraska Department of Economic Development. I'm a member of the housing team. I serve the western 31 counties, Dawson County, north and south and west, except for Cherry County.
[00:01:15.200]Cherry County is handled by my co-worker, Morgan.
[00:01:19.620]But happy to join you. Thank you for the invitation.
[00:01:22.400]Thank you, Christy.
[00:01:24.160]Hannah?
[00:01:25.180]Hannah Robinson. I work at Box Butte Development Corporation. I'm the executive director here, and we do economic development for Box Butte County, including Alliance and Hemmingford.
[00:01:38.460]Thank you, Hannah.
[00:01:40.220]Marla?
[00:01:41.960]Marla Marks, USDA Rural Development. I'm a business program specialist and cover the
[00:01:48.960]the 11 counties in the panhandle, and I don't exactly know where. We've talked about changing
[00:01:56.780]lines, so I might have like 20, or I think it's like 15 other counties east of that, but
[00:02:05.340]ask me what they are. I don't remember, and it's not official yet, so I don't know what
[00:02:12.200]the counties are, but there's like 20-some counties.
[00:02:14.920]Good to know. Thank you, Marla.
[00:02:17.900]And Jodi. Hi, I'm Jodi Llewellyn. I am the Executive Director at the Scots Left Gearing
[00:02:27.360]United Chamber of Commerce. Thanks, Jodi. Did I miss anyone besides Cheryl?
[00:02:33.000]Okay, I will go ahead and introduce Cheryl. I think most of you know her. Cheryl Burkhart
[00:02:42.100]Kriesel is my colleague with Nebraska Extension. She is a Rural Prosperity Nebraska Specialist.
[00:02:47.880]I'm covering the whole state, but she lives here in the Panhandle near Gurley.
[00:02:53.740]And Cheryl's going to talk about Marketing Hometown America today,
[00:03:02.020]one of the programs that we offer through Extension.
[00:03:04.740]Okay. Okay. Can everybody hear me okay? Volume? Is it okay? Okay. Sounds good.
[00:03:17.260]Just so that you know, yesterday I was on a bunch of Zooms and it said my internet was unstable. So
[00:03:24.480]I'm not quite sure what will happen today. So just to let you know that that's always an option.
[00:03:31.660]So I do know most of you and have connected in and bumped into most of you over time. So it's
[00:03:39.640]a great opportunity to have what I would call literally a kitchen table conversation.
[00:03:44.540]And so I'm going to talk a little bit about what I do.
[00:03:47.240]I'm going to talk a little bit about this program, but I'm also going to sort of nest it in a bigger
[00:03:51.480]conversation about just new residents. And so with that, I'm going to get started. And then
[00:03:56.500]there'll be a little time at the end, I think we'll be able to kind of quit a little early
[00:04:01.780]on this topic and actually talk a bit more about some housing kinds of things. So with that,
[00:04:07.920]um, and of course, there we go. So this program, I just wanted to let you know,
[00:04:16.420]is really a, is a joint effort by a lot of people across a lot of states. And so, um,
[00:04:22.920]so it's, it's a real, um, uh, effort, uh, sort of mostly in the North central, uh, area. Uh,
[00:04:31.780]but we did have some colleagues at Penn state university also join us. So there was a group,
[00:04:37.100]um, and this really kind of the revision part of the material happened during COVID,
[00:04:41.500]which gave us an opportunity to really get into it. But it was a program that actually
[00:04:46.200]started in the early 2000s. And it was a program that started in the early 2000s. And so,
[00:04:46.400]it was a program that started in the early 2000s. And so, it was a program that started
[00:04:46.580]before that, where we, it's based in research and based here in the panhandle. So, what
[00:04:54.400]I'd like to do now is actually just kind of step back. And I know, Jordan, you were there
[00:04:59.140]when we had talked, and maybe Marla too, at one of the meetings, I believe we were at
[00:05:03.840]the ESU, and we talked just kind of generally about the system or the new resident recruitment
[00:05:09.780]process. And my colleague in Minnesota actually kind of developed this. And he and I were
[00:05:16.380]used at a number of different times, never different groups. But there's a lot of different
[00:05:22.900]pieces to people looking at a community. And this program, actually, that's why those three
[00:05:30.400]at the top are circled, really kind of feeds into those three. So the first step really
[00:05:36.060]is to understand what it's like for somebody to come or look at your community. And then
[00:05:42.620]how do you get the market part is how do you get that message that your community has
[00:05:46.360]opportunities. And then you actually recruit. And that can happen in a lot of different
[00:05:52.340]ways, a lot of different touch points. The next thing for the person really is or the
[00:05:57.920]family or the business is how will your community really welcome these people. But to get them
[00:06:03.780]to the next step, they have to be engaged. They have to find a way to participate. That
[00:06:09.940]welcoming and belonging part are critical to really retaining people. But then this
[00:06:16.340]whole process also includes a piece that I think we often forget is how do we work with
[00:06:23.300]and manage the leaving part? Because a leaving doesn't have to be, you know, we might think
[00:06:28.960]of that as always a bad situation. It could be for all kinds of different reasons. But
[00:06:33.940]they could also, people who have been in our community and then leave to another location,
[00:06:38.840]could be incredible assets to us and advocates for the community, as well as they may return.
[00:06:45.260]We don't know.
[00:06:46.320]So it's much more than just thinking about marketing or thinking about welcoming. It's
[00:06:55.800]a whole system sorts of things in place. Anyhow, I want to help you keep that in the back of your
[00:07:02.520]mind as we kind of go through this. So why marketing? And so if this really wasn't
[00:07:11.460]our intent to do a marketing project, but when we did the research,
[00:07:16.300]and we did this a number of years ago with Nebraska, South Dakota, and North Dakota,
[00:07:20.300]the people in the survey research and the focus groups, which we had 12 of them in the panhandle,
[00:07:26.680]really said that was the key. People weren't really sharing their story or sharing what they
[00:07:32.700]had to offer to new residents. And so the question really was, how can communities do a better job
[00:07:40.280]in recruitment and retention? And I see those as two things together. If you do a good job of
[00:07:46.280]you're more likely to retain. So like I had mentioned earlier, it was really the new
[00:07:51.900]residents that used the word marketing and basically saying that once they got to the
[00:07:58.780]community, there was a lot more that the community had to offer, but it was hard to find that
[00:08:04.120]information and hard to get a sense of what it's really like to be a newcomer or be a new resident
[00:08:09.340]in the community. So when we use the word marketing, it's way more than promotion. Promotion is a
[00:08:16.260]part of it, but it's really about, I guess, connecting that right product or service to the
[00:08:23.060]customer. So it's the whole piece. Marketing or sharing that story is a part of it, but it's much
[00:08:30.000]broader than just promotion, just doing an advertisement campaign or a billboard or a
[00:08:37.900]community sign. It's a lot more about being the right place and showing that you're the right
[00:08:44.200]place for that family or that
[00:08:46.240]potential new resident.
[00:08:47.980]So the reality is this whole idea, remember this is a multi-state effort, this whole idea came from
[00:08:57.000]western Nebraska, and it came because somebody asked the question a number of years ago,
[00:09:03.200]I think people are coming to western Nebraska from Colorado, but they weren't sure, okay? So that
[00:09:09.760]allowed us on the extension side to look into some data, and at that time, you could actually get
[00:09:14.680]census data that looked by
[00:09:16.220]census tract, and across the state, we could see that in terms of how many people moved in and
[00:09:25.900]moved out of the state, the panhandle, the western part, really had more in and out than
[00:09:32.640]a lot of other locations in the state. So as a percent, rural and western Nebraska saw more
[00:09:40.020]recent people coming in than any other part of the state at that point in time. And so,
[00:09:46.200]for low-populated areas, newcomers exceeded a third of the population, and this was in a
[00:09:51.060]five-year period. And so, I realized, you know, a low population, it doesn't take much, many people
[00:09:56.820]to make a big difference. However, if you think about it, a third, a third of them had come in,
[00:10:03.860]in that five-year period of time. So again, I'll go over this really quickly, but the research
[00:10:10.900]really said, why do people move to the region? There were a lot of reasons, and this came by way of
[00:10:16.180]survey research and focus groups. So you take a look there, there's just a lot of different
[00:10:21.280]things that people told us. I always sort of laugh about that last one, lower taxes.
[00:10:29.200]You can tell definitely we were not asking Nebraskans about that. These were people from
[00:10:36.360]outstate, and our sample of folks that we actually talked to were a sample of people that had come in
[00:10:44.120]within the past five years. So
[00:10:46.160]a variety of different things. But some of these we wouldn't necessarily think about right off hand.
[00:10:51.220]That simpler pace of life, less congested, closer to relatives,
[00:10:55.600]lower cost of housing. Now again, this was a few years ago. So that may have changed,
[00:11:03.800]but it may not have, to be honest. And I'll show you some other things to kind of relate to that.
[00:11:10.480]So other states have picked up on this research. So Montana,
[00:11:16.140]did a similar type of survey. And of course, in Montana, then this was in 21,
[00:11:21.220]you'd expect people moving into Montana for that natural environment, right? But again,
[00:11:27.860]you see these things about less congested place, slower pace of life, smaller community,
[00:11:32.620]safer place to live. And then in Minnesota, at about that same time or a little later,
[00:11:38.580]again, so all of these are basically kind of confirming what we had found in the panhandle
[00:11:46.120]we did this question as well, where we ask the community is welcoming. And then we put that
[00:11:56.340]against the likelihood of people being able to live here in five years. And so if the community
[00:12:03.600]was welcoming, their likelihood to live here was quite high, 86%. And this was in Minnesota,
[00:12:10.000]same thing. We got the same kind of results in Nebraska. Now, if the community wasn't welcoming
[00:12:16.100]they strongly disagree. Man, that cuts it in half. So that's a huge, you know, push-pull
[00:12:26.320]for us to think about in terms of retaining people. And again, retaining, once you get them
[00:12:33.260]here, it's so much easier than constantly recruiting, you know, if you can retain.
[00:12:38.780]So I will tell you, there's really no marketing model for
[00:12:46.080]communities. I mean, they talk a little bit about on the tourism side, but if you think about communities
[00:12:51.160]as a whole. So one of the things we talked with colleagues is, you know, what is this whole thing
[00:12:56.240]about? And so it's really about the people first. And then you're
[00:13:01.260]really trying to sell kind of both the people and the community. It's kind of a combined
[00:13:06.080]thing. As you think about marketing, the discussion really becomes
[00:13:10.960]what's your position? What's your competitive advantage? What do you have that people might be
[00:13:16.060]looking for? And then that's the thing that you promote. And then the perform really is
[00:13:21.240]doing it, you know, and then getting back to the community, the people in the community
[00:13:26.140]have have we recruited, you know, are we appealing to the right, you know, the
[00:13:31.140]people that that make sense for this community, both as newcomers
[00:13:36.040]as well as those that are here as long term. And then you kind of kind of feeds
[00:13:41.260]around the circle. So that's that's kind of what we used as the base.
[00:13:46.040]Cheryl, there's a question in the chat. How was welcoming defined?
[00:13:51.100]I'm assuming, Denise, you mean in that survey where they asked if the community was
[00:13:56.880]welcoming? Yes, because that's pretty broad. When you're looking at the panhandle area, you had the Cabela's
[00:14:01.980]debacle with lower housing and people saw that in Colorado and came
[00:14:06.740]over. So, you know, how do you define welcoming to people?
[00:14:11.740]Did they? I don't know. It was defined by
[00:14:16.020]them. It was defined by them. So did they feel that the community was welcoming?
[00:14:20.800]OK, so what would we have to do to make somebody feel welcome in their in their study?
[00:14:25.700]Do you know? Well, it could be a variety of different things.
[00:14:30.920]Were they kind of welcomed into organizations
[00:14:35.860]or were they brought in and listened to
[00:14:41.160]in organizations? Were they asked to be a part of
[00:14:46.000]leadership kinds of opportunities, that kind of thing?
[00:14:49.160]It can also be something simple as some communities have done
[00:14:55.380]like welcome baskets or welcome things. I mean, it's kind of
[00:14:59.760]a variety of different things that are stacked up. Was the realtor
[00:15:04.840]friendly? Was their experience with
[00:15:10.040]getting their utility hooked up? Was that a positive experience?
[00:15:15.980]Sometimes they can be grumpy, you know, so it's a combination of all sorts of different things
[00:15:20.940]to help people feel welcomed. Does that make sense, Denise?
[00:15:24.400]Yeah, but it was pretty much defined kind of by them.
[00:15:30.400]The key piece that welcoming opens the door, but to be really honest, getting
[00:15:35.760]them to feel like they belong in the community is where the really the retention comes
[00:15:40.920]in and really is the place you want to be. So the welcome
[00:15:45.960]sets the stage, but the belonging is where you really build that
[00:15:50.820]retention. So in terms of this program, there are a variety
[00:15:56.220]of different bits and pieces. And I don't know, Jamie, did you share that flip
[00:16:01.120]book in the chat at all? Yes, but let me share it again because I think we've
[00:16:06.160]had a couple of people join since then. OK, so this flip
[00:16:11.160]book really is a way for you to kind of take a look at the actually
[00:16:15.940]it's just different pages of some of the material, but it gives you a sense of what it looks
[00:16:20.880]like and and it'll kind of feed into this process. So
[00:16:25.580]it's a community led grassroots process. So it starts with basically
[00:16:30.980]organizing meetings where you have like kind of like a steering committee. The
[00:16:35.540]real meat of the program is a variety of people host
[00:16:40.940]small groups or conversations. And so those conversation
[00:16:45.920]hosts are recruited. And then there's also a training
[00:16:50.680]so that they feel comfortable with the program and also sometimes with working in small
[00:16:55.960]group experiences. So some people come in with more. Some people
[00:17:01.000]come in with less. We try to even out the playing field there. The launch
[00:17:06.220]really is a kind of a public event. We usually encourage if there's lots
[00:17:11.140]of media involved in a variety of ways, social media, all different types.
[00:17:15.900]But it's a way for the community to say, OK, this thing is starting. If you want
[00:17:20.800]to join a conversation group and be a part of this, here are the people that are leading
[00:17:25.760]at the conversation host. And they get to set their time and place where they
[00:17:30.740]meet. Usually it's four sessions, typically over four weeks, once a week.
[00:17:35.700]And so that's kind of how that transpires. The number
[00:17:40.900]five is basically that's the time where they are meeting.
[00:17:45.880]Then the hosts quite often come together after that series.
[00:17:49.900]And basically what people do in those small groups is they build a marketing
[00:17:54.780]plan, a very basic marketing plan.
[00:17:57.360]On the number six that's listed there, the conversation hosts get together
[00:18:02.880]because if you've got all these groups in your community doing this, there's probably going to be some
[00:18:07.880]overlap in what they come out with, what they generate.
[00:18:11.840]And so that's an opportunity to sort of consolidate those good ideas
[00:18:15.860]a bit. And then they're shared in the action forum. Again, this is a public meeting
[00:18:20.980]where people come and get to listen to what other people have talked about. And then actually
[00:18:26.040]we'll show some pictures. Quite often it's done with flip chart paper,
[00:18:30.800]kind of a summary, and people get to vote on the good ideas. And then at the end, they
[00:18:35.800]actually have an ability to sign up if they want to sign up to be a part of a group
[00:18:40.820]to take a good idea and move it further. And then that number eight,
[00:18:45.840]the action team huddles are a way for extension, which is Jamie and I's rule.
[00:18:51.920]Oh, I think Cheryl froze.
[00:19:02.140]Okay.
[00:19:04.320]I just saw Joni's question. I haven't tried downloading it, Joni.
[00:19:15.820]It just took me to a process, you know, that you have to download,
[00:19:21.980]use a different browser kind of thing.
[00:19:23.660]So I just wondered if anybody else had gotten into it.
[00:19:26.600]I think I can have Cheryl send that out later if you would prefer that.
[00:19:33.900]Please. I would love that. Thank you.
[00:19:37.820]I was able to open your Nebraska rural poll. That worked great.
[00:19:45.800]Now you're muted, Cheryl, but you're back.
[00:19:50.140]Yeah. Sorry about that.
[00:19:51.960]I'm going to take my video off and see if we can do this a little bit better.
[00:19:56.740]Okay. And if you want me to share the slides, let me know.
[00:20:00.200]Yeah. If you would, that'd be great.
[00:20:02.740]Cause that might be messing with me too.
[00:20:05.120]You always have to have a plan B in Western Nebraska, right?
[00:20:15.780]Okay. So if you want to zip to where that, yeah.
[00:20:30.300]Okay.
[00:20:32.720]There you go.
[00:20:37.140]I was telling Jamie that I was going to do a little bit of a
[00:20:45.760]I saw the Vista beam truck in Gurley and that's never a good sign.
[00:20:50.440]Yesterday.
[00:20:52.200]Was this the one you were on Cheryl?
[00:20:55.240]Yeah. Yeah. And actually, if you want to go to the next one, that'd be fine.
[00:21:00.360]Okay.
[00:21:01.120]And are you all seeing the one with the notes or the full screen?
[00:21:08.220]We're seeing both.
[00:21:10.860]Both.
[00:21:12.420]Both.
[00:21:14.140]Yeah.
[00:21:15.740]It's a split.
[00:21:16.620]Let me see if I can be sure.
[00:21:20.900]Okay.
[00:21:29.960]Is that better?
[00:21:30.660]All right.
[00:21:36.020]Go ahead, Cheryl.
[00:21:37.000]Oh, except now I have to move back, don't I?
[00:21:39.540]Yeah, I guess I'm seeing the same thing.
[00:21:45.720]It's that presentation view.
[00:21:50.440]Okay.
[00:21:52.880]There.
[00:22:06.140]Let's try that one.
[00:22:15.700]Ah, success.
[00:22:16.940]I love it.
[00:22:18.080]Okay, so the core to this program, actually, is this participant guide.
[00:22:28.000]And again, if you look in that flipbook, there'll be a few pages of the participant guide.
[00:22:33.700]There's also some pages of the conversation post-training, as well as the teaching outline as well.
[00:22:43.520]So it gives you a flavor of...
[00:22:45.680]Of how this is laid out.
[00:22:47.060]It's really a step-by-step approach.
[00:22:48.960]And it really kind of helps people move along.
[00:22:52.880]And everybody's doing the same thing, basically, in your community.
[00:22:56.520]So especially if they work week by week.
[00:22:58.740]So next, Jamie.
[00:23:15.660]Okay, so you might wonder, what are these four sessions?
[00:23:23.300]So the first one is basically talking about, personally, what's your connection to the
[00:23:28.800]community?
[00:23:29.220]And we talk about that in a way that brings in kind of the new resident or newcomer perspective.
[00:23:36.120]How does your community stack up?
[00:23:38.260]What are people looking for when they're looking to come to a community?
[00:23:42.240]Why would people want to move here?
[00:23:44.760]That's really...
[00:23:45.640]It's really an opportunity to look at the community assets and kind of like how things happen in your community and what that looks like and maybe what it looks like to a new person.
[00:23:56.560]And then action steps to promote the community.
[00:23:59.440]That's where kind of go back into what the previous discussions were and then really think about what could be those opportunities that could really elevate and make it easier for us to bring new people in.
[00:24:13.340]Next.
[00:24:15.620]Within this program, there are a variety of different activities.
[00:24:27.900]So it's not just talking.
[00:24:31.320]It's actually a lot of doing and doing a little bit of research.
[00:24:35.820]So one of the things we have in here is a community report card.
[00:24:39.600]And really those bullets on the left-hand side are often the...
[00:24:45.600]The things that new residents, newcomers are looking for.
[00:24:48.780]And so we actually have this report card so that you can go to somebody who's been in the community a long time.
[00:24:57.320]Somebody who's maybe new in the community.
[00:24:59.520]And maybe then as a small group kind of compare and see what people say.
[00:25:04.820]What are some of those opportunities?
[00:25:07.060]So again, it's a way to get even broader input, broader engagement in community.
[00:25:12.100]Get people thinking about what this is.
[00:25:14.160]Next one.
[00:25:15.880]Jamie?
[00:25:16.060]Again, I said that we'd get kind of a picture of what this action forum looks like when people come together.
[00:25:31.960]And because you're going to be curious, I think, and this is what usually happens.
[00:25:36.560]If you've got multiple groups in your community doing this, what are they talking about?
[00:25:41.380]What are they thinking about?
[00:25:42.420]And so this is a way to kind of share that summary.
[00:25:45.560]And actually then vote.
[00:25:46.980]And so these are actually pictures of some of the sessions where they do an action form.
[00:25:52.160]And if you look, there's some dots on these ideas.
[00:25:55.360]The key thing here is that before people leave, they know who's maybe taken a good idea and
[00:26:02.120]taken it further so that that person will then just kind of hold that first organizational
[00:26:09.260]meeting.
[00:26:09.740]Let's say they do something simple like they want to talk about welcome signs or maybe
[00:26:15.540]welcome bags or something like that.
[00:26:18.960]They know somebody is going to be doing that.
[00:26:21.400]You've got an idea of maybe who might be interested and they call that first meeting.
[00:26:26.220]Then that group has the opportunity to kind of shift among themselves who wants to kind
[00:26:33.060]of lead some of those sessions, what they want to do, but they have the opportunity
[00:26:37.500]to take the ideas and go the next step and take it to action.
[00:26:41.200]And that's really an important part.
[00:26:42.820]It doesn't just die with an idea.
[00:26:45.520]It goes to the next step and really develop action.
[00:26:48.960]Next one, Jamie.
[00:26:50.520]So we've kind of incorporated a variety of times where after the action forum, basically
[00:27:08.040]kind of the extension, the person who's sort of the coach checks in with these different
[00:27:13.380]groups.
[00:27:13.820]These can also be.
[00:27:15.500]Parts of the steering committee also chicken in to see if they need any resources.
[00:27:19.700]How is it going?
[00:27:20.680]Sometimes even connecting across groups to make sure that things are going smoothly.
[00:27:26.360]And so we do that at the three, six and 12 month as a follow up.
[00:27:31.080]It also kind of motivates people to keep going and keep moving forward.
[00:27:35.200]And then at the 18 month, we do something called ripple mapping.
[00:27:38.440]So you want to click that one, Jamie?
[00:27:40.660]This is a way to bring a small group together and say, hey.
[00:27:45.480]We did this thing.
[00:27:47.380]What happened as a result?
[00:27:49.340]And so in this town, this is Highmoor, South Dakota.
[00:27:53.820]What happened as a direct result is in that blue ring, some very basic things.
[00:27:59.180]They wanted to do a website.
[00:28:01.940]They wanted to do some welcome bags, some very concrete things.
[00:28:07.240]The next level out is the things at the community level or maybe things we didn't see.
[00:28:15.460]That happened as a result.
[00:28:17.020]And so they added some of those in.
[00:28:19.160]And then at the purple level, it's really about what did they look at at the big picture level at the community.
[00:28:25.740]And so what you see there are some really interesting things.
[00:28:29.340]They saw, I believe, if I remember correctly, one of the things they said that there was a permission not to look at things differently, try things differently.
[00:28:41.180]So they were seeing people do things in a different way.
[00:28:45.440]As a result of some of this, sort of one of those unintended consequences.
[00:28:50.240]So you want to hit the next one, Jamie?
[00:28:52.620]And when we did this as a pilot effort among states or among communities in North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska, we saw these intended outcomes.
[00:29:07.580]Those are the green bubbles, marketing actions and amenity improvements.
[00:29:11.320]They wanted to spiff up and, you know, make their community alive.
[00:29:15.420]They look a little better quite often to newcomers.
[00:29:18.740]But then the blue ones, the light blue ones, really are unintended outcomes.
[00:29:23.020]And we saw adult and youth engagement, expanded leadership, expanded community awareness, and maybe a pump up with community spirit and increased networking.
[00:29:33.480]All of those blue bubbles are incredible things that really help the next part or more community development to happen.
[00:29:42.840]Next, Jamie.
[00:29:45.400]So, we've got a couple of things here.
[00:29:54.140]We've done this in a lot of different communities.
[00:29:56.560]We had two opportunities, actually, rather than doing it at the community level, we did it at the county level.
[00:30:02.140]And so, Jonathan Jank in Seward County was on board.
[00:30:06.320]And again, this was a few years ago.
[00:30:07.920]This was pre-pandemic.
[00:30:09.520]But this came, like he says, at a perfect time for him.
[00:30:12.860]They were creating a new identity and wanted to be able to do this.
[00:30:15.380]They wanted to be intentional about welcoming and being inclusive.
[00:30:18.480]And so that helped them work with some of their smaller communities.
[00:30:22.280]And the program helped bring people together and prioritize projects that got started on the right foot.
[00:30:27.300]So that really then actually set him up because of how they were going from a Seward County effort or a Seward proper to a Seward County effort.
[00:30:41.440]They had a marketing firm come in.
[00:30:45.360]The marketing firm loved this because they had all these sound bites that had been generated from these communities and then that they could rely back on to actually kind of push out a broader countywide effort.
[00:30:59.200]So next one, Jamie.
[00:31:00.880]This is with Lisa Hurley in York, in York County.
[00:31:04.600]And in that situation, they were able to get the, there's a small college involved in town.
[00:31:10.580]They were doing some things.
[00:31:12.200]They did that.
[00:31:15.340]They did that score sheet or that report card actually online, for instance, and were able
[00:31:22.960]to get a lot of input that way.
[00:31:24.420]So it kind of opened the door again for some of the smaller communities to start talking
[00:31:31.500]and thinking about what they could do because those smaller communities feed into the larger
[00:31:35.960]one, right?
[00:31:36.400]I mean, they're absolutely connected.
[00:31:38.500]So you see some of the things that happened there.
[00:31:42.200]And one of the communities, Bradshaw, really got...
[00:31:45.320]got on the bandwagon and they just really took, for instance, a lot of the ideas that
[00:31:52.160]came from those small group conversations and kept after it.
[00:31:56.400]And even to the point where I think it was like three years after they were involved,
[00:32:01.060]we saw a Channel 1011 TV spot featuring Bradshaw.
[00:32:09.120]And the person interviewed said, well, a number of years ago, we did this program called Marketing
[00:32:15.100]Home.
[00:32:15.300]And that's really kind of what got us started.
[00:32:18.100]So you'll find some communities that just grab on to things and go.
[00:32:22.060]And just like anything else at the community development level, what you put in is what
[00:32:27.600]you get out, right?
[00:32:29.390]And so this is classic, not also with this program.
[00:32:33.030]So next, Jamie.
[00:32:33.970]So just going back to that first one of those early slides where you can kind of see that
[00:32:46.430]this program gets things started in that understanding the market and recruiting piece
[00:32:51.850]to really leverage into a bigger discussion and some more actions that really kind of
[00:32:58.750]fulfill this whole process.
[00:33:00.110]And that's what I think is important.
[00:33:02.690]It really allows that to be kind of leveraged.
[00:33:06.230]And I think what we have right now is there are two communities.
[00:33:12.550]I haven't heard anything about if they've gotten funded.
[00:33:15.270]East Nebraska and then also Sydney, I believe, put in for a talent initiative that was a
[00:33:25.170]DED.
[00:33:25.510]You guys are familiar with that.
[00:33:28.110]And they incorporated Marketing Hometown America into their application.
[00:33:33.770]So we'll see.
[00:33:34.750]They get funded.
[00:33:35.690]It's one of those things.
[00:33:36.830]But it's an opportunity for on two ends of the state, really, to be highlighted.
[00:33:42.050]So we're kind of looking forward to see if that happens.
[00:33:44.810]That's it, I think, for this.
[00:33:48.110]There's some questions.
[00:33:50.030]And Jamie, you might have to look on the chat for me.
[00:33:57.410]Okay.
[00:33:57.450]Let's see.
[00:34:04.310]Marla says she likes the idea of county or regional.
[00:34:11.270]Cheryl likes your street, or sorry, Michelle likes your chimney rock picture.
[00:34:18.850]Yeah, absolutely.
[00:34:23.290]It's way better than me, right?
[00:34:26.950]Right. And this way I get to promote Western Nebraska all the time.
[00:34:31.270]And honestly, I love that picture.
[00:34:33.330]It's a gorgeous picture. And no, Cheryl, oh, there I froze.
[00:34:37.030]No, your face is always better.
[00:34:39.310]And Cheryl, we had went back and tried to upload your flip.
[00:34:48.010]And I got to like a whole different download process.
[00:34:52.210]So I don't know if you could share that with Jamie and maybe we can get it.
[00:34:56.430]Sent a different way.
[00:34:58.030]Sir, I think it's on a, that flip book is on a server.
[00:35:05.070]And so I think it's just a link.
[00:35:07.470]So I don't think it's something you can download, but I'm not sure.
[00:35:10.710]Okay.
[00:35:11.470]It's a, yeah, it was a free, it was a free thing.
[00:35:15.410]And so it's just a link to view, I believe.
[00:35:19.850]Okay.
[00:35:20.170]All right.
[00:35:20.850]Thank you.
[00:35:21.330]But if any, yeah, if anybody wants more information,
[00:35:24.290]I'd be happy to, to share it.
[00:35:26.410]I'd be happy to share one of those participant guides with them and some
[00:35:29.850]other information.
[00:35:30.610]That'd be great.
[00:35:32.950]Thank you.
[00:35:33.410]Does anyone have more questions for Cheryl?
[00:35:41.810]Okay.
[00:35:49.470]With, with that, I think Jamie,
[00:35:51.710]you want to talk about some housing kinds of things?
[00:35:54.350]Sure.
[00:35:55.250]Um, next month we will have DED talk about a housing grant.
[00:36:01.650]It was not quite ready for this month's presentation,
[00:36:04.250]but Christy is going to go over where it'll be available because it should
[00:36:10.330]open up sometime between now and next month.
[00:36:13.130]Christy, let me pull things up for you just a sec.
[00:36:18.610]So I've experienced the same fun with internet that Cheryl has.
[00:36:25.230]So when Jamie and I talked about me discussing the Nebraska Affordable
[00:36:31.910]Housing Trust Fund, I asked Jamie if she'd be willing to share the slides.
[00:36:35.470]First of all, because sometimes I don't keep up, right,
[00:36:38.470]and changing from one screen to another.
[00:36:40.550]And additionally, sometimes the internet and I are not on the same speed.
[00:36:44.110]So I appreciate Jamie's help and you guys' patience.
[00:36:48.370]My name is Christy McClung.
[00:36:50.910]I work for the Nebraska Department of Economic Development.
[00:36:53.290]I'm a housing team member.
[00:36:55.210]I'm based in Western Nebraska.
[00:36:56.510]And as Jamie said, I'm going to share with you some really basic information today from
[00:37:01.030]DED's website, help you learn a little bit more about DED's housing program.
[00:37:05.350]As you can see here, DED's homepage identifies us and it declares our mission.
[00:37:14.410]As you read across the banner, and most of you may or may not be familiar with DED, each
[00:37:23.150]of those options allows you to learn a little bit more.
[00:37:25.190]You can click on any of those links to be able to learn more about a specific topic.
[00:37:31.210]DED manages and co-manages or partners with a large number of different programs.
[00:37:36.810]I want to encourage you that while you can always access information on the website,
[00:37:41.670]you can contact any of our staff with questions, we really strongly recommend that all our
[00:37:46.570]units of local government, our 501c3s, 501c4s, we want you to sign up.
[00:37:53.630]Jamie, if you'll scroll all the way.
[00:37:55.030]All the way to the bottom, we'd really encourage you to sign up for that, yep, all the way
[00:38:01.010]down there at the bottom, sign up for our listserv.
[00:38:02.930]Signing up for the listserv, you'll be given the option to choose which topics that you're
[00:38:09.950]interested in receiving emails from DED on, and since this is a fairly small group, I'm
[00:38:15.070]going to give you just a hint.
[00:38:19.310]You can share as you like.
[00:38:22.470]I'm not sure I'll ever take credit for giving you this hint.
[00:38:24.890]Our website mailing list frustrates me because when we roll out a new program, and if I want
[00:38:33.390]to get emails on things, you reopen that mailing list, and it deletes all your previous choices.
[00:38:39.290]So I have created in my Outlook, in my contacts, I've created a contact business card that
[00:38:47.430]is DED mailing list, and I save all of the selections that I have made.
[00:38:52.630]So if I go back in and want to add something else...
[00:38:54.830]It is not quite as much brain work to try to remember which things I previously signed
[00:38:59.910]up for.
[00:39:00.910]And I also don't eliminate things that I want to be getting, but I have forgotten to check.
[00:39:07.290]I do generally share that with our newest of individuals that are working with DED.
[00:39:15.790]They're usually inundated with information and they quite honestly, they don't know if
[00:39:21.070]they want to get information on the ARPA program.
[00:39:23.650]They don't know if they want to get information on the ARPA program.
[00:39:24.650]They don't know if they want to get information on the ARPA program.
[00:39:24.650]They don't know if they want to get information on the ARPA program.
[00:39:24.650]They don't know if they want to get information on the ARPA program.
[00:39:24.750]They don't know if they want to get information on the ARPA program.
[00:39:24.790]They don't know if they want to get information on the ARPA program.
[00:39:24.810]They don't know if they want to get information on the ARPA program.
[00:39:54.790]They don't know if they want to get information on the ARPA program.
[00:40:24.770]They don't know if they want to get information on the ARPA program.
[00:40:54.750]They don't know if they want to get information on the ARPA program.
[00:41:24.730]They don't know if they want to get information on the ARPA program.
[00:41:54.710]They don't know if they want to get information on the ARPA program.
[00:42:24.690]All of our workers, all of our business people, all of our recruitment opportunities, we have to be able to show that we have housing available or some of our recruitment efforts are going to be less successful.
[00:42:35.350]So, Jamie, scroll down for you here.
[00:42:39.250]And, again, this is the best or the most important, I think, of the information I'm going to be able to provide to you.
[00:42:46.550]DD has a number of housing staff people.
[00:42:49.370]We are located across the state.
[00:42:51.910]We work in a variety of different programs.
[00:42:54.670]And we are here to work with you.
[00:42:57.670]We're your resources.
[00:42:59.730]So please reach out.
[00:43:01.670]Please reach out to us.
[00:43:03.370]Please let us help.
[00:43:04.350]We want to be your partner.
[00:43:07.150]We want to be involved in your projects.
[00:43:09.450]I took several snips, made some notes of the information that Cheryl shared because occasionally we see some stagnation.
[00:43:17.970]We receive the same types or the same type of information from our grantees over and over again.
[00:43:24.650]The application process is very competitive and some of the information Cheryl just provided, I think, would really help some of my communities or some of my housing nonprofits that apply.
[00:43:35.210]I think it'll help them freshen up their view and be able to better make their story as far as why they need housing and what DED's assistance can really offer to them.
[00:43:48.410]As Jamie navigates back up to the top, to the Nebraska Affordable Housing Trust Fund,
[00:43:54.630]we refer to it as NAHTF.
[00:43:57.670]Nebraska Affordable Housing Trust Fund is a lot to say and it's even more to cite every single time.
[00:44:04.770]So it's NAHTF to those of us that like throwing acronyms around.
[00:44:09.250]NAHTF has been around for quite a while.
[00:44:14.010]It's been one of the department and the housing team's long term and heaviest listing of programs.
[00:44:19.690]Trust funds have been funding housing development projects since the late 1990s.
[00:44:24.610]And annually, we award around $12 million of trust funds.
[00:44:28.390]And I want to emphasize, even though I don't have the 2025 information for you, now is the perfect time for you, for your communities, your nonprofits to explore trust funds.
[00:44:39.830]And I appreciate Jamie's invitation to join you today.
[00:44:43.410]As I stated, the Qualified Allocation Plan, the annual pre-application and full application is going to be coming out very soon.
[00:44:51.730]And we'll be able to give you more.
[00:44:54.590]More and more specific information.
[00:44:57.170]I'm so sorry, Jamie, if you'll scroll up just a tiny little bit.
[00:45:01.990]Yep, thank you so much.
[00:45:03.330]So, it's important for people to know what types of projects are eligible.
[00:45:07.070]And this little blurb gives a very, very small statement.
[00:45:11.410]But I want to specify that we fund not only housing projects, but we also do some capacity building, technical assistance, operating assistance for some of our eligible nonprofits.
[00:45:22.370]We like being involved.
[00:45:24.570]We like being involved, especially when we have a successful organization that wants to branch out and try to do a new activity.
[00:45:30.130]We like to be involved in that capacity building assistance wheelhouse.
[00:45:36.250]It helps us stay involved, and it helps us be able to be a little bit of a guide as far as what DED's funding opportunities, whether it's trust fund or something else, a little bit of a guide as to what may be eligible project-wise and what projects have been successful in the past.
[00:45:54.550]The next section down on who is eligible to apply, this is extremely important.
[00:45:59.570]So, unfortunately or fortunately, the trust fund does not fund individuals.
[00:46:06.050]We do not fund individuals directly.
[00:46:08.030]We will fund applications or we will take applications and fund projects with units of local government.
[00:46:15.110]Our public housing authorities have been great partners.
[00:46:18.170]We've worked with our community action agencies, our CAP agencies across the state.
[00:46:24.530]We work with 501c3s, 501c4s that have housing in their mission.
[00:46:28.610]We also have worked especially in the last eight to 10 years with for-profit developers
[00:46:35.390]or builders or interested groups, especially some statewide interested groups that are
[00:46:42.370]working with a local partner to be able to do some larger developments because sometimes
[00:46:47.750]these larger developments that our communities need, they take a different set of expertise
[00:46:53.150]than sometimes our...
[00:46:54.510]small local nonprofits have.
[00:46:56.830]Thanks, Jamie.
[00:46:57.670]If you'll go ahead and scroll down just a little bit.
[00:46:59.790]As you stop here, it talks about how can you apply.
[00:47:04.070]The link here on how to apply,
[00:47:06.070]and it talks about the Amplifund application user guide.
[00:47:09.450]Starting in, and I'm sorry, either 2019, 2020,
[00:47:12.890]somewhere in there,
[00:47:13.730]we started using a grants management program
[00:47:15.910]called Amplifund.
[00:47:17.270]Our applications are taken within Amplifund.
[00:47:20.530]We process our applications with Amplifund.
[00:47:22.710]We manage our program within Amplifund
[00:47:24.910]if you're awarded a grant.
[00:47:26.410]That's how you meet your special conditions
[00:47:28.570]for release of funds.
[00:47:30.170]This is how you manage your grant.
[00:47:34.570]This URL that Jamie just went to
[00:47:36.550]is something you need to bookmark, quite honestly.
[00:47:40.710]If you're going to apply,
[00:47:42.150]if you're successful in getting an application,
[00:47:45.030]these vignettes, these small training videos,
[00:47:49.370]these selections of slides
[00:47:52.130]will give you so much information on what to do,
[00:47:56.190]how to do it, the steps to follow.
[00:47:59.910]They are almost a recipe card.
[00:48:02.650]We talked about sitting around the kitchen table
[00:48:04.590]and these instruction guides are almost a recipe card.
[00:48:07.130]Do this, click here, do this, click here.
[00:48:10.470]Because sometimes when you're new
[00:48:12.550]to the Amplifon Grant Management System, it is daunting.
[00:48:16.290]It can absolutely be a daunting system
[00:48:18.490]to try to move around within.
[00:48:20.230]So this URL,
[00:48:21.550]this page that Jamie has up for us right now
[00:48:24.290]is extremely important.
[00:48:26.970]If you can go back to the previous URL, Jamie, thank you.
[00:48:30.750]So we just talked about Amplifon and the Amplifon Guide.
[00:48:34.970]This information here, those links aren't active.
[00:48:37.430]Of course, those were for the 2024 application.
[00:48:41.170]We're starting to change, right?
[00:48:42.550]We've got in here that we're getting ready
[00:48:44.210]to announce our 2025.
[00:48:46.230]And this is where you'll find the information
[00:48:48.110]for our 2025 application when it's live.
[00:48:50.970]So I encourage you to come back.
[00:48:54.870]I'll try to remember when the application goes live
[00:48:57.850]to drop Jamie a quick email
[00:48:59.210]and ask if she just shares it so that you can use it.
[00:49:03.210]You can encourage others within your listserv
[00:49:05.830]to be able to use this information.
[00:49:08.050]But if you'll go ahead and scroll down,
[00:49:10.230]here is more information on our funding categories.
[00:49:16.470]And it's important to know and understand
[00:49:19.010]that we are generally,
[00:49:20.390]are generally not the full funder of a project.
[00:49:23.550]We're usually a piece of the funding pie.
[00:49:28.230]We want to be your partner.
[00:49:30.890]Old school, they used to call it skin in the game.
[00:49:35.570]We wanna see that this is something
[00:49:38.370]that you're willing to invest in.
[00:49:40.150]And this is something that's important to you.
[00:49:41.950]And you're gonna put money into the projects as well.
[00:49:45.950]But we do a lot of different kinds of projects.
[00:49:47.950]So under home buyer, we do single family,
[00:49:49.810]new construction with or without infrastructure,
[00:49:54.410]with or without down payment assistance,
[00:49:56.850]with or without subsidy.
[00:49:59.050]Cheryl talked a little bit about,
[00:50:00.790]we used to be able to tout that our housing was affordable.
[00:50:04.130]Housing is less affordable.
[00:50:06.090]Maybe it's still more affordable in Nebraska
[00:50:08.170]than some other expensive places across the nation,
[00:50:10.870]but our housing prices have gone up.
[00:50:12.530]So we do allow within our home buyer programs
[00:50:15.510]an opportunity for there to be some subsidy left
[00:50:18.210]in the project to be able to buy
[00:50:19.650]down the cost of those units.
[00:50:21.290]And we also do under home buyer projects
[00:50:23.850]just straight home buyer assistance or DPA,
[00:50:27.150]down payment assistance and closing costs.
[00:50:29.390]We also do a program that before 2008,
[00:50:32.970]so before the last mortgage crisis,
[00:50:35.430]we did a number of programs called the Purchase Rehab
[00:50:38.570]Resale where when there were units in a community
[00:50:41.910]that perhaps one of our school teachers had lived in for years
[00:50:46.750]but perhaps had some deferred maintenance and when that --
[00:50:49.490]when that school teacher left the community
[00:50:53.230]or when we had a loss in the community,
[00:50:55.430]sometimes those homes are not exactly what a newcomer
[00:50:58.930]to the community is interested in buying.
[00:51:01.330]So we've offered a program. We still offer it today.
[00:51:03.510]People still run it called Purchase Rehab Resale
[00:51:05.470]where you can purchase the nonprofit
[00:51:07.510]that's been awarded the grant, can purchase the home,
[00:51:09.370]can rehabilitate it, and then can sell it to a home purchaser
[00:51:14.110]with down payment assistance.
[00:51:15.750]Now, again, our trust funds do have to serve individuals.
[00:51:18.290]It's a state resource.
[00:51:19.330]So there is an income limit.
[00:51:20.870]It does have to serve people at less than 120% AMI.
[00:51:24.730]Under rental housing, just to the side,
[00:51:26.730]we do single family development of rental units.
[00:51:29.570]We certainly have done duplexes and triplexes.
[00:51:32.250]We've also been involved in multi-unit rental housing.
[00:51:35.870]And it's been a number of years,
[00:51:37.350]but we also did a, for a short period of time,
[00:51:39.630]a rental program called Rent to Own,
[00:51:42.530]where you could either build a new construction rental unit,
[00:51:45.390]or you could rehab an existing home,
[00:51:47.730]and you could rent it to a home buyer
[00:51:49.170]as they improve their credit score,
[00:51:51.850]as they learned how to become more than just a renter,
[00:51:56.850]right, as they learned a little bit more
[00:51:58.710]about how to be able to manage a mortgage,
[00:52:03.110]and then eventually they could purchase a home.
[00:52:05.610]Under owner-occupied rehabilitation,
[00:52:07.430]this has been extremely helpful
[00:52:10.330]across the state of Nebraska.
[00:52:11.930]Our winters are hard, our summers are hard.
[00:52:13.790]We get all kinds of weather.
[00:52:16.170]Homeowner rehabilitation, we refer to as OOR,
[00:52:19.010]or owner-occupied rehab.
[00:52:21.250]It's extremely important for us,
[00:52:23.790]especially with the increased cost of new construction,
[00:52:26.390]for us to save the housing stock
[00:52:28.390]that we have within our communities.
[00:52:30.350]When communities complete any type of a survey
[00:52:35.130]of what their housing stock is,
[00:52:36.790]typically it's gonna show that there's some
[00:52:38.230]that needs to be demolished, that's normal.
[00:52:40.630]It's gonna show some that is in need of rehab,
[00:52:43.070]perhaps because of deferred maintenance.
[00:52:45.670]And there's going to be some that needs rehab just simply
[00:52:48.850]because some of the primary systems are outdated.
[00:52:51.950]When somebody purchases a home,
[00:52:53.450]especially our newer and younger community members
[00:52:58.330]that are moving in, some of them may be very handy, right?
[00:53:01.690]They may be able to handle some rehab,
[00:53:03.670]but most people, when they purchase a home,
[00:53:05.570]they expect the roof not to leak.
[00:53:08.030]They expect the furnace to be viable.
[00:53:10.410]They expect when they plug in
[00:53:12.750]all of their electronics devices
[00:53:15.470]that they can all be plugged in
[00:53:16.710]and they all work at the same time without blowing fuel.
[00:53:18.690]And so owner-occupied rehab has really helped us save
[00:53:22.490]some of our existing housing stocks.
[00:53:24.690]And then the last one there we talked about already,
[00:53:26.770]the technical assistance and capacity building
[00:53:28.870]is another funding opportunity through the Trust Fund.
[00:53:33.170]If you'll go ahead and scroll down for me.
[00:53:35.930]Thank you so much.
[00:53:36.970]So these links are all very, very important.
[00:53:38.910]I'm not gonna get into them now.
[00:53:40.650]The one on the bottom left,
[00:53:41.990]Jamie already opened for us at DED Help Center.
[00:53:45.650]The one on the bottom right,
[00:53:48.530]Jamie showed you the map.
[00:53:49.890]Again, we're here to be a resource for you.
[00:53:52.670]Please use us as a resource, right?
[00:53:55.530]Please reach out to any of us.
[00:53:56.930]We all came from different backgrounds.
[00:53:59.950]We all have scores of different information.
[00:54:01.830]We're all here to help you,
[00:54:03.410]and we'll refer you within the housing team
[00:54:05.250]or within other experts within DED,
[00:54:08.190]but we wanna be here to be your partner.
[00:54:10.910]If you'll go ahead and scroll down,
[00:54:13.290]this information is, of course, all 2024,
[00:54:16.570]except for about 3/4 of the way down,
[00:54:18.370]it talks about housing application best practices.
[00:54:22.530]I wanna do a little shout out here.
[00:54:24.690]Two of my coworkers, so two of the regional reps,
[00:54:28.130]Morgan Pearson lives in Kearney,
[00:54:30.830]Chris Rasmussen lives in Northeast Nebraska.
[00:54:33.350]They took it upon themselves a little over a year ago
[00:54:35.550]to create a slideshow.
[00:54:37.530]They did a taped presentation
[00:54:39.590]on housing application best practices.
[00:54:41.810]So huge shout out to them.
[00:54:43.110]This is a great resource.
[00:54:44.750]It's a great resource even if you're turning
[00:54:46.670]in an application for a planning grant.
[00:54:48.210]For example, or if you're working
[00:54:49.890]on a different type of application,
[00:54:51.750]it never hurts to listen to
[00:54:53.370]and pick up those tidbits of information
[00:54:55.210]about things that we as the department look for,
[00:54:59.010]but also red flags that you wanna make sure
[00:55:00.930]you're avoiding doing within your application.
[00:55:03.390]So that link is live,
[00:55:05.390]that housing application best practices
[00:55:07.530]can be accessed at any time.
[00:55:08.970]And again, it's just a local resource
[00:55:10.770]that was created by a couple of my coworkers.
[00:55:12.590]So kudos to them.
[00:55:14.030]If you'll go ahead and scroll down a little bit further,
[00:55:18.050]we talk about the administration,
[00:55:21.650]these are the policy memos that have been written
[00:55:24.090]to provide guidance in the past.
[00:55:25.850]And I'm not sure why the most recent one from 2024
[00:55:30.370]is at the bottom as opposed to on the top,
[00:55:32.230]because it is the most current,
[00:55:33.370]but those all are our policy memos.
[00:55:35.750]You can get down to the press releases.
[00:55:38.070]This is where we talk about last fall,
[00:55:40.650]last December actually,
[00:55:42.730]we opened up our qualified allocation process
[00:55:45.730]for public comments.
[00:55:47.890]Then that, of course, would have ended in early January.
[00:55:50.650]We received a tremendous amount of input
[00:55:52.530]and a tremendous amount of comments,
[00:55:54.110]and we're working on reviewing those comments
[00:55:57.050]and then moving towards a finalized QAP
[00:56:00.230]and then a finalized application.
[00:56:02.370]But these press releases are important,
[00:56:04.050]especially for an organization that is saying,
[00:56:07.150]"Hmm, I wonder if."
[00:56:09.210]As you can see, that second option down there,
[00:56:11.390]it talks about who we funded last year.
[00:56:13.570]Now, who we funded last year is not a guarantee
[00:56:15.510]of who we're going to fund years in the future,
[00:56:17.730]but sometimes that can be a real eye-opener
[00:56:19.690]for an organization to go, "Wow, I didn't even know
[00:56:21.730]that was an eligible activity."
[00:56:23.570]So these press releases, obviously they're out there
[00:56:26.170]for anybody to look at, anybody to review.
[00:56:29.570]Cheryl provided some slides and talked about Jonathan and Lisa.
[00:56:35.490]Those people are marvelous resources,
[00:56:37.890]but as you open up who we funded in the past,
[00:56:40.110]it may say that, for example,
[00:56:42.630]Jordan's organization was funded to do a hugely important
[00:56:47.570]and impactful project with an existing building.
[00:56:51.370]You may have an existing building within your community.
[00:56:53.610]So as you look at projects that we fund in the past,
[00:56:56.010]you may trip across that project
[00:56:57.450]that Twin Cities Development did
[00:56:59.350]with one wing of that old nursing home,
[00:57:02.750]and you may wanna reach out to Jordan and say,
[00:57:04.390]"Hey, we have some questions about this.
[00:57:06.590]"Can we ask you some questions?"
[00:57:08.330]Because our previous grantees, even our current grantees,
[00:57:10.930]are generally the best resource that our new applicants have.
[00:57:14.290]If you'll scroll down a little bit
[00:57:17.410]further, yep, we talk about here the trainings
[00:57:20.670]and the workshops.
[00:57:21.790]And we will, of course, have new trainings
[00:57:23.590]and new workshops for 2025.
[00:57:25.950]But these are full of golden nuggets for you.
[00:57:30.950]These recorded trainings and the slides that go with them,
[00:57:36.730]they are so very important.
[00:57:41.010]And in my opinion, they're so very important
[00:57:43.010]because you can go back and you can review them
[00:57:45.610]as you need to.
[00:57:47.250]And I've done five trainings, of course, for 2025,
[00:57:50.250]but so many times when you're working on your application
[00:57:53.250]to start with, and if you'll click on 23 for me, Jamie,
[00:57:57.490]2023 actually has a workshop also on, yep, the first one there,
[00:58:04.490]on the pre-application process.
[00:58:07.330]The pre-application process is pretty easy.
[00:58:09.430]It's pretty fast. It's, I think, less than five pages.
[00:58:12.970]And you need to know the organization you work for
[00:58:15.370]and who's going to sign the application.
[00:58:17.090]You need to have a general idea of what you're going to do.
[00:58:19.670]The pre-application is pretty easy.
[00:58:22.350]It's also, it's not binding you to something.
[00:58:25.510]So if you turn in a pre-application and go,
[00:58:27.490]we are going to develop a street,
[00:58:30.210]we're going to put in infrastructure,
[00:58:31.370]we want to do 12 units of new construction,
[00:58:33.810]and you turn it in, and you're eligible to apply,
[00:58:38.230]and you and I sit down and we meet,
[00:58:39.930]or you meet with one of my coworkers,
[00:58:41.950]and perhaps we've come back down off the ladder
[00:58:44.910]just a little bit, and we've went, you know,
[00:58:46.930]"Before we try to do a new subdivision,
[00:58:48.970]we think maybe we should do some scattered sites,
[00:58:51.790]fill in some lots within the community,
[00:58:53.470]and we no longer want to apply
[00:58:54.690]for 12 units of new construction.
[00:58:56.690]We want to do three."
[00:58:58.190]You absolutely can do that.
[00:59:00.070]The pre-application is out there for those of us
[00:59:02.690]that work with the trust fund to know that you're interested
[00:59:05.690]and to know what type of projects you're interested in doing
[00:59:07.970]so that we can start providing you with technical assistance.
[00:59:11.470]But again, those are available for you.
[00:59:14.470]So whether you're in the pre-application phase,
[00:59:16.770]and we present a training on the full application,
[00:59:20.210]and by the time you get to your full application, you go, darn.
[00:59:23.670]I think they discussed this category, this issue that I have,
[00:59:27.670]but I don't remember what it was they said.
[00:59:30.210]These slide decks, these videoed workshops,
[00:59:33.830]these are here for you to re-watch and re-listen to
[00:59:36.530]on your own time at your own speed,
[00:59:38.610]and they're going to provide you
[00:59:39.530]with a tremendous amount of information.
[00:59:41.530]Barb Pierce, who works
[00:59:44.070]with the Nebraska Affordable Housing Trust Fund,
[00:59:46.610]you'll find her information on the map.
[00:59:48.550]She was instrumental in getting these done
[00:59:51.170]five or six years ago.
[00:59:52.190]This was one of the biggest comments we received
[00:59:54.590]when we took comments about the application
[00:59:56.710]is that it's hard to always be able to attend a training
[01:00:01.710]and gather the information you need at any specific time.
[01:00:06.170]And so our grantees asked for these workshops,
[01:00:08.370]they asked for these slide decks.
[01:00:09.770]And so this was a big undertaking, this was a big lift,
[01:00:14.590]but these should be extremely helpful
[01:00:16.450]to your applicants.
[01:00:18.030]And again, kudos to Barb for getting these out here.
[01:00:21.350]If you'll scroll down just a little bit further,
[01:00:25.450]you'll get to these forms and templates.
[01:00:26.990]As I said, everything is done now within Amplifund.
[01:00:30.490]So some of these documents are things you would have to,
[01:00:32.330]if you were funded, you'd have to open,
[01:00:33.850]you'd have to work on,
[01:00:34.750]then you'd have to submit them within the Amplifund system.
[01:00:38.590]And then if you go all the way down to the bottom,
[01:00:41.470]you're gonna see again that we,
[01:00:43.950]yeah, go ahead and scroll all the way down.
[01:00:45.230]I'm sorry, Jamie.
[01:00:46.290]You're gonna see again that we ask you
[01:00:48.850]to join our mailing list
[01:00:49.970]because that is how we're going to tell you
[01:00:52.570]when 2025 goes live.
[01:00:54.210]That's going to be your best source of information.
[01:00:57.110]Now, will I send out emails to my listserv?
[01:01:00.950]Do I have my own listserv that I use?
[01:01:02.510]Absolutely.
[01:01:03.410]And I'll send things out.
[01:01:04.890]But the fastest way for you to get that information
[01:01:07.110]is going to be for you to be a member of our listserv
[01:01:09.830]so that you get it directly
[01:01:11.830]and you don't have to wait for us.
[01:01:13.850]If you scroll up just a tiny little bit,
[01:01:15.390]I think,
[01:01:16.130]I think Barb's information was,
[01:01:18.030]oh, I'm so sorry.
[01:01:18.870]Yes, there we go.
[01:01:19.890]I talked about Barb just a minute ago.
[01:01:21.450]She is the Nebraska Affordable Housing Trust Fund
[01:01:24.310]Housing Specialist Expert.
[01:01:25.630]And again, if you go to the map,
[01:01:26.970]she's going to be listed on there as well.
[01:01:29.810]But any of us are willing to answer your questions
[01:01:32.770]to help you find a resource
[01:01:36.270]if that's what you're looking for.
[01:01:37.970]We want you to be applying for these funds.
[01:01:42.190]These funds are only helpful
[01:01:44.490]if we're utilizing them within our community
[01:01:45.970]and our communities.
[01:01:46.810]And now I'm going to step back
[01:01:49.910]and I'm going to make the least favorable of all comments.
[01:01:54.570]I'm going to caution you to right-size your project
[01:01:58.150]and to be honest with yourself
[01:02:01.610]as to what your project can succeed in doing.
[01:02:05.650]Every single year we have applicants who apply
[01:02:09.190]who struggle to be able to either complete
[01:02:12.870]the number of units that they thought
[01:02:14.030]they were going to be able to
[01:02:15.810]or they have been perhaps too optimistic
[01:02:20.550]and then they take some negative feedback
[01:02:23.230]from their communities
[01:02:24.150]because it has been such a long period of time
[01:02:25.930]since they started talking about what they were applying for
[01:02:28.470]and then they applied.
[01:02:29.790]So be realistic, use all of the tools out there
[01:02:34.250]to really come up with what you think you can do
[01:02:36.970]and what you'll be able to be successful at.
[01:02:39.130]We want you to be successful.
[01:02:40.330]It's important to us that you're successful
[01:02:42.470]because our funding depends on it.
[01:02:44.570]We have to have successful projects
[01:02:45.650]to be able to show that there's a need for the trust funds.
[01:02:48.710]And we don't fund projects.
[01:02:51.230]We rely on you.
[01:02:52.890]You're our partners, so.
[01:02:55.330]Thanks, Jamie.
[01:02:56.670]- Thank you, Christy.
[01:02:57.890]Any questions for Christy?
[01:02:59.630]And again, she plans to be back next month
[01:03:02.230]to go over the actual links and information
[01:03:07.130]once the grant is released.
[01:03:09.610]- Yep, we'll make sure somebody
[01:03:12.350]from the Department of Economic Development is here.
[01:03:14.510]As I shared with Jamie,
[01:03:15.490]it's very possible that since Barb is our creator
[01:03:20.230]of the final Qualified Allocation Plan,
[01:03:23.330]she's the chief writer of our application,
[01:03:28.330]our pre-application, our full application.
[01:03:30.310]It's very possible that Barb or another member
[01:03:33.110]of the housing team will present the 2025 information to you,
[01:03:37.470]but we'll make sure that we're here
[01:03:38.750]to be able to talk to you about it.
[01:03:40.690]I'm sorry that I can't tell you what the date is.
[01:03:43.290]I asked, I pushed,
[01:03:45.330]because I'm actually speaking to both Jamie's group
[01:03:47.390]and to a group with Jordan later this week.
[01:03:49.670]And I fully expected when I committed to doing that,
[01:03:52.570]that the 2025 application information was going to be out.
[01:03:55.870]So thanks for being patient with me.
[01:03:58.470]I'm sorry it's not out.
[01:03:59.610]There's a lot of moving parts
[01:04:01.070]when we put out an application and we want it to be right.
[01:04:04.850]We want it to be well-received when we roll it out.
[01:04:08.150]We want it to be responsive to the needs of our customers
[01:04:11.290]who are all the citizens across Nebraska
[01:04:14.050]and it takes some time.
[01:04:15.170]Thank you, Kristi.
[01:04:17.470]If there's any questions, I'd be happy to answer anything.
[01:04:19.470]Yeah.
[01:04:22.470]Any questions or announcements from the group?
[01:04:28.590]Oh, and I went over.
[01:04:29.590]I should have talked faster.
[01:04:30.590]Sorry, Jamie.
[01:04:31.590]That's okay.
[01:04:32.590]We are just slightly over.
[01:04:34.090]I did want to ask, I know there are very few of you left on,
[01:04:37.030]but in the future, I'd like to also do a little more
[01:04:40.790]peer learning with this group.
[01:04:42.190]So if there are success stories,
[01:04:45.010]from your community that you want to share,
[01:04:47.150]please let me know and we will schedule you for a session.
[01:04:51.510]Otherwise, we'll see you all next month.
[01:04:53.450]And thank you for joining us.
[01:04:54.950]Thank you.
[01:04:55.950]Thank you.

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Marketing Hometown America

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