GRANTS, NM – On November 9, Grants Mainstreet’s Executive Director William Yarborough announced that the program had been accredited through New Mexico MainStreet. Accreditation by New Mexico MainStreet signifies that Grants MainStreet Project has met rigorous standards of excellence in downtown revitalization and community development.
MainStreet America, the one who sets the standards for Mainstreet organizations across the United States, was developed in the 1980s. The development was a result of shopping malls taking away traffic from historic downtown centers that were the main commerce and market centers for rural as well as large cities. When shopping malls started sprouting up businesses in these downtown areas started moving out and as a result those properties, typically historic properties, became deteriorated and unlived in. As a result of this MainStreet America was developed by Historic Preservation through the U.S. Department of the Interior.
For Grants MainStreet Project Inc. to receive accreditation they had to go through a specific process. The process includes four to five activities and reports. The first is to send out a partner survey to stakeholders, such as business owners, property owners, citizens that live in the district, politicians, and institutions that benefit from having a quality of life in the downtown. They sent out these partner surveys for three months. GMS then has to do a self-assessment survey for MainStreet America, to understand the hierarchy or chain of command for MainStreet. MainStreet America has set six standards which all Mainstreet’s in the United States should be achieving. The six standards for accreditation, broad-based community commitment to revitalization, inclusive leadership and organizational capacity, Diversified funding and sustainable program operations, strategy-driven programming, preservation-based economic development, and impact and results. Upon completing their self-assessment GMS is aware they still have room to grow.
As for what GMS does in the community, they divide it up between projects, programs, and events. Currently GMS is very event heavy, many of the things that they do for the community are events, such as Spokes on 66 or the Holiday Light Parade. Yarborough said, “Events are good, they help to promote the town, they help to promote the district, they help to bring in foot traffic but before you promote yourself, you want to build yourself up.” For GMS to build up the district and the community, they need to hold more projects and programs, which is the route that they are wanting to go. For them to complete more projects and programs, they need to have more funding and resources.
The third piece for the accreditation is a performance report. For this NMMS looks at GMS’s economic transformation strategies and their annual workplan which includes the projects, programs, and events that they completed from November 2022 to November 2023. The last piece is the interview with NMMS’s Director Daniel Gutierrez and Revitalization Specialist Annie Barnhart.
The benefits of Grants MainStreet’s Accreditation are access to resources, economic growth, community engagement, heritage preservation, job creation, quality of life, and increased property values. The big three important parts of accreditation according to Yarborough is capital outlay funds, additional services that can be used downtown, and showing the importance of the downtown area. Yarborough said, “What makes [other cities and towns like us] different? What makes their community want to reinvest and shop locally and have this great downtown compared to us?... Well, it has a lot to do with I think the lack of pride that has been built inside our schools, inside people’s hearts about how they feel about Grants… If we can start to change the messaging to say, ‘Grants is a diamond in the rough’… that’s at least where I think it could start.”
According to Yarborough, for them to feel like they are achieving higher standards is for them to gain more volunteers. He also said that for them to get more projects, programs, and events to be successful is to have more community involvement and feedback. It’s also important for them to fill out their four committees based on the fourpoint approach, economic vitality, promotion, organization, and design, with individuals in the community who care about the community. Yarborough said, “It’s hard work, but nothing happens without friction and resistance, but that’s how you become stronger… You need healthy resistance to build upon yourself… I’m not the person that’s going to save Grants, I can’t be. I’m not that confident. But ultimately it takes a community to build itself.”