Quality of Place
Quality of Life (in Beaver County) is one of the five key areas of focus of the Beaver County Partnership. The Council collects and tells the region’s good stories about the region as a center for living a robust, healthy, fulfilling life, focusing on identifying where people are doing great things.
We are developing pilot projects in local communities to strengthen their fabrics and well-being. And, we are working to bring churches, civic organizations and mission groups together to improve life in our communities.
RiverWise
Our Mission: RiverWise employs sustainable development practices to create a regional identity around the rivers of Beaver County. At the heart of this work is a concerted effort to organize stakeholders to dream, learn, and collaborate about the future of our rivers. We are encouraging this process in two primary ways. First, we have formed ecodistricts in three communities (Aliquippa, Monaca, and Beaver Falls). Second, we are engaged in a growing list of projects aimed at activating community ideas and bringing sustainable development to life throughout Beaver County.
Desirable Housing
Providing desirable housing for all Beaver County residents is one of the important initiatives of the Beaver County Partnership’s Quality of Life Council. The Desirable Housing Team is working on developing scalable, public/private processes to strategically plant seeds in Beaver County’s river towns, helping to offer a walkable lifestyle, to reduce blight and make them more attractive for investors and home buyers.
We have worked with officials and citizens of Beaver Falls and Ambridge to develop prototype strategies and mobilize residents to discuss neighborhood revitalization and quality of place. Goals are to define small, pilot neighborhoods, focus on rehabs or new construction and bring together community leaders, churches and other non-profits to set shared goals and obtain people to participate and financial resources. A recent success was helping the Beaver Falls Community Development Corporation obtain a Pa. Department of Community and Economic Development grant in the amount of $125,000 for a one-year community revitalization planning effort that will lead to a major six-year revitalization program.