Community Branding Summit

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What should Fort Jones be known for? Share your ideas in our online survey.

The Town of Fort Jones is partnering with the Rural Community Assistance Corporation (RCAC) to host the Community Branding Summit. Summit participants will create a strategy to encourage visitors, including those passing through on Hwy 3, to stop and patronize Fort Jones businesses. The final brand will be a compelling snapshot of what makes Fort Jones unique and worth visiting, both in the present and in the future. Local business owners and town residents are invited to attend and lend their insight.

According to Fort Jones Deputy City Clerk Rachel Agron, “Attracting visitors to Fort Jones is a way to stimulate the local economy without having to increase our housing density, classroom sizes, or daily traffic—in other words, it is a way to develop our local economy while keeping Scott Valley Rural.” She is optimistic that the Town will be able to show potential investors that Fort Jones is a place worth visiting and that attracting new businesses will decrease storefront vacancy, provide lodgings for seasonal firefighters, offer expanded restaurant hours, and provide other goods and services that residents have been asking for.

This summit will also seek to build upon work that’s already being done to capture and communicate the Town’s Rural nature, historic atmosphere, and local amenities to those touring the Scott Valley Region. Community Branding is built on showcasing experiences that are unique to a community. Highlighting the Town’s unique draws will be a step towards strengthening local businesses and ensuring sustainable community health.

“At the end of the day, this is about money” says RCAC Rural Development Specialist Aaron Reimler. “Community brands attract tourists and bring customers to local businesses that wouldn’t otherwise find them which makes insight from both local business owners and residents extremely important. It’s a way for rural communities to take steps towards engaging in comprehensive economic development that strengthens the community without losing the things that make it a rural community.”

This summit represents the next step in the ongoing collaboration between the Town of Fort Jones and RCAC. This effort has included the ongoing Fort Jones Main Street Project, upgrades to the Little League Park, and last year’s dedicated workshop series that brought together the Town Council, residents, business owners, and other stakeholders to identify projects that would benefit the community.

RSVP HERE.

For more information, please contact Deputy City Clerk Rachel Agron at [email protected] or (530)-468-2281, or view the agenda HERE.