Southside Virginia may be within driving distance of the state capital, but its tight-knit rural communities are a world away from the more fast-paced urban scene of Richmond. While the region’s agricultural roots run deep, the farms still in operation today can’t sustain the local economy. In Brunswick County, residents remember a more prosperous past and are strongly committed to building a better future. 

“I grew up here during the time when downtown was buzzing and busy and parking was an issue,” said Alfreda Jarrett Reynolds. “I would ask my mom if I could get off the school bus downtown to go shopping for an outfit to wear to the game and stop by the drugstore for the best bacon cheeseburger EVER! I definitely have fond memories of what it used to be and it’s very personal for me to ensure that we embrace what we once were.”

As the county’s director of economic development, Jarrett Reynolds is in a unique position to preserve the best of the past and effect changes that will move her community forward. She has made it her mission to revitalize and restore Brunswick so that the downtown areas are once again humming with activity and commerce. 

Making Connections

“We're attracting huge investments of capital to refurbish our existing buildings that have great history and put them back on tax rolls to support business and industry while also focusing on quality of life,” said Jarrett Reynolds. “It’s really about building an ecosystem that includes where you work, live and play.”

Over the past four years, she has worked tirelessly to raise the visibility of her small community through outreach and marketing initiatives like "Building a Bridge from RVA to Brunswick." The former teacher has also made it a priority to offer classes and resources to attract and retain large and small business enterprises.

“People don't know that you're an option, if they don't know you exist,” said Jarrett Reynolds. “So, I spend four or five days a month in Richmond, ensuring that I'm building those key relationships with our state stakeholders and forging partnerships to bring back to Brunswick.”

When the global pandemic changed the way people did business, she relied heavily on one of those partnerships to ensure that the bridge didn’t wash out before it was completed. Brunswick County invested in Metropolitan Business League (MBL) memberships for existing enterprises and provided free space to the organization so the team could offer classes to help them keep the doors open.

“We put our masks on and talked about what e-commerce means to people who were used to foot traffic,” explained Jarrett Reynolds. “We taught classes on how to grow your business with Google, use QuickBooks for recordkeeping, and market your business in a different way through social media because things had changed with the pandemic.”

Walking the Walk

That collaboration became personal for Shelby Brown McDowney when she opened a small coffee shop in the county. The Richmond resident serves as the director of marketing and communications for MBL and found herself increasingly drawn to this community through her work on the partnership project.  

“My work with MBL gave me the opportunity to learn all about the area,” explains Brown McDowney.  “I've been a television news reporter for almost 30 years and had some prior aspirations to open a coffee shop. The Story Café marries my love of coffee and storytelling. I produce stories about Brunswick County and showcase them in the coffee shop, which serves as a community hub.”

USDA Rural Development (RD) became part of that story when Brown McDowney initiated an introductory meeting in November 2023 to discuss resources available to help Brunswick grow. As many of the county’s high-need communities are included in the agency’s CORE (Creating Opportunities through Rural Engagement) initiative, the collaboration aligned perfectly with this effort to foster investment in underserved rural communities through increased engagement.

One month later, the state team traveled to Lawrenceville for an outreach meeting at the Brunswick Conference Center that set the stage for future collaboration. Relationship building has continued through various workshops and events with a particular focus on one specific program - Single Family Housing. Brown McDowney was the 12th of 13 children in a family that placed a priority on giving back to the community. She saw the impacts of home repair projects on the lives of seniors and carried that work forward when she led the WTVR-CBS 6 News Problem Solvers team.

The café was another great forum for making connections as she began talking to residents about their needs and interests. Once she learned about their struggles to address health and safety issues in their homes, she was on a mission to help and has given out hundreds of applications to The Story Café regulars who are interested in RD funding for home repairs.

“They started out as strangers coming into a coffee shop, became my customers and now they're my friends,” said Brown McDowney. “I’m intertwined in the story here and I love being able to connect them to resources and see the impacts.

“One day I was able to make a beautiful connection for the first lady I spoke with about a home repair,” said Brown McDowney. “She told me she had submitted her paperwork and needed someone to do an estimate. Well, in walks this guy and his dad who are contractors and come to the coffee shop all the time. I said, 'Hey, Wallace and dad, meet Miss Hattie. She needs work done on her house' and 'Miss Hattie, meet Wallace and dad, they work on houses.' You know, even if I just see it one person at a time, it's very fulfilling.”

Jarrett Reynolds also set up a rural housing information session at a local church to help spread the word about help available through RD. She knows that a holistic approach is needed to deliver on quality of life promises that can attract a ready and willing workforce to Brunswick.

Partnering for a More Promising Future

“I know that large business and industry are coming because I'm working with them, and small mom and pops are still coming because we've opened 21 businesses in four years,” said Jarrett Reynolds. “We’re rural, so we will drive an hour to an hour and 10 minutes for work, play or our doctor's appointments. When you look at that 75-mile radius, Brunswick County has a workforce of over 900,000 and that's what we use to attract larger business and industry to the area.”

Delivering on promises is also key to building and sustaining RD’s partnership with Brunswick and the MBL. Jarrett Reynolds compares the collaboration to a dating scenario in which each party is getting to know the other and is very interested in making a mutually beneficial connection. She sees a strong correlation between RD programs and the ongoing effort to meet housing, tourism and infrastructure needs in her community while still looking out for small businesses.

“That's Rural Development in and of itself,” said Jarrett Reynolds. “Why not partner with the group that has the best access to resources and capital we need versus doing it independently?

“We're not just looking for a handout though. We also want to know how Brunswick can sing the song of Rural Development and what you guys do and the impact you've had here. We want to be the poster child to say, 'This is what a good partnership looks like. We were here when we started. Look where we are now.'” 

“My work with MBL got me in touch with and connected to economic development, but I also got to be on the ground floor for a kind of rebirth,” Brown McDowney added. “All these beautiful things are happening to fill a need. It's pretty unique and has turned into this whole community vibe that people are excited about.”

Brown McDowney has RD on the playlist at The Story Café. She prepared a video spotlight on a February home repair workshop that has been shown in the shop and shared footage with her colleagues at Channel 6 for a follow up news story.

“This partnership is definitely yielding positive results,” said USDA Rural Development Virginia State Director Perry Hickman. “We had a significant spike in inquiries about the Section 504 Home Repair program after the news story aired and have begun working with many residents who learned about these loans and grants through outreach events and The Story Café contacts.”

Jarrett Reynolds adds that information can be just as important as money and her economic development role often focuses on connecting the dots to ensure that resources are readily available to those who need them. Her ultimate goal is to remove every excuse or barrier to success for new and existing businesses.

“Many people think rural is maybe not being as knowledgeable and I find that to be a misnomer. Rural is a location,” she explained. “I used to tell my students they could go anywhere and be anyone they wanted by reading the book. The same is true with partnerships. Rural Development is pivotal to ensuring that our citizens and business owners have a seat at the table.”

If you are interested in learning more about USDA Rural Development home repair loans and grants, reach out to Myron Wooden at myron.wooden@usda.gov or 757-346-3162.