4Theville

African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund Grant - 4TV Strategic Plan 4theVille was granted a variance from the National Trust for Historic Preservation to rebudget our AACHAF grant toward hiring a strategic planning consultant to complete a 3-year organizational strategic plan and 3-year fund development plan. Through a competitive bidding process, 4theVille hired Key Strategic Group (KSG) as our strategic planning consultant. KSG led our board of directors through a 9-month strategic planning process to develop new mission, purpose, core values, and theory of change statements in addition to establishing 4 strategic priorities: internal infrastructure and capacity building, organizational growth and sustainability, placekeeping, and cultural heritage & tourism. Year-by-year objectives were developed for each strategic priority. KSG also completed robust stakeholder engagement and landscape research to inform the strategic planning process. Through the strategic planning process, KSG met bi-weekly with our ad hoc strategy committee consisting of 2 board members, a cultural tourism partner, and a community development partner. KSG also presented to the board of directors 3 times and hosted a board retreat in April 2024. After the strategic planning was complete, 4theVille contracted Doerhouse to design and execute a communications campaign for our new strategic plan, including development of a new mission moment video.

Sumner High School Museum Studies Program 4theVille continued to operate our museum studies program at Sumner high school for the second year. In 2024, our teaching artist, Mack Williams, taught 35 students in two classes. The classes were conducted on an A-B schedule, and Mr. Williams taught every day from 12:30-2PM. We were also fortunate enough to have 7 students qualify for the state competition in Columbia, Missouri, and one 1 student qualified for the national competition in Washington, D.C. Our teaching artist and the students attended state competition on April 27th, and they attended the national competition on June 9th-13th. Additionally, the museum studies class produced 6 new lock exhibits in the high school.

Other programs