Hilltown CDC’s Community Investment Plan is now in its third iteration. It has functioned as a strategic plan, a fundraising strategy and a vision for our community development work. It is based on collaboration and reciprocity to maximize impact across intersecting segments of the rural communities we serve. These segments include the public sector (Town Select Boards and other governmental bodies), the private sector, non-profit partners and, most important, Hilltown residents, many of whom are active in several overlapping sectors. This plan is based on “demand-side community development”; it is driven by the needs and desires of the rural communities we serve, as identified by local residents.

This updated plan writes to the required sections and discusses Hilltown CDC’s plans and strategies to implement this CIP vision. Prior new initiatives we introduced have become successful programs and will be articulated in this new plan. The CIP process has been invaluable to our strategic work. Our primary concerns continue to be population loss, aging infrastructure, economic security, safety net services and the impacts of climate change on our economic geography. Still without Broadband, our towns are remnants of the past struggling to compete in a technocratic world where younger people seek technology, urban living and all the conveniences of our county’s service-based economy. It is important to the residents in the Hilltowns that state government take an interest in our future economic needs and continue to support programs like CITC that can generate investments in our region. It is very difficult for the Hilltowns to generate surplus revenue. We must continue to take an informed look at what it takes to successfully operate and manage towns that have to support 500 to 1,500 residents. Our CIP plan attempts to offer strategies and services that provide meaningful solutions to our rural problem, but also promotes a vision for rural Massachusetts that expresses our collective actions in setting forth a vision for the future. Our design is antiquated, and our infrastructure is not supporting our future needs. Peak economic activity occurred during the mid- twentieth century manufacturing boom. The last few decades have not seen any major economic opportunities and have resulted in population loss and reduction in tax revenues. Rural communities must be reimagined in the twenty-first century. We hope DHCD will recognize the unique challenges we face in the Hilltowns and how impactful the CITC program has been, and will continue to be, in supporting our activities.