CLARION, Pa. (EYT) — Clarion is one of ten communities in the United States selected to participate in the Cool & Connected Planning Assistance Program, an innovative initiative to help people use broadband service for downtown revitalization and economic development.

The Clarion Blueprint Community, Inc. applied for the grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC).

The Blueprint Team will be working with experts from those agencies, community leaders, and organizations to develop strategies to increase local communications capacity to market nature-based tourism, motivate people to invest along the historic Main Street, and create an incentive for students at Clarion University to stay in the community.

Curwensville was the only other Pennsylvania community to receive a grant. The Curwensville Regional Development Corporation is creating a downtown co-working space for professionals, students, or entrepreneurs to use as an alternative to working from home or commuting long distances.

EPA support for Cool & Connected is provided through the Office of Sustainable Communities, which helps communities develop in ways that protect public health and the natural environment by creating walkable, livable, economically vibrant communities, and supporting reinvestment in existing neighborhoods.

USDA support is provided by the Rural Utilities Service, which provides funding for critical infrastructure including electricity generation and transmission, water and waste water facilities, and telecommunications for rural America.

The Appalachian Regional Commission support is through the Obama Administration’s Partnership for Opportunity and Workforce and Economic Revitalization initiative (POWER), a multi-agency effort to invest federal resources in communities and regions that have relied on the coal industry and are impacted by the changing energy landscape.