HELENA — With a slogan of Keep Helena Montana, the newly formed group Invest in Helena is promoting a grass-roots approach to growing the state capital.
Invest in Helena was created as a way for citizens to have a say in which direction their town goes.
The group formed after concerns that outside entities have had a large influence on the direction in which neighboring towns like Missoula or Bozeman have taken. Their goal is to encourage a new generation of Helena investors and developers.
Through community education and networking opportunities, Invest in Helena hope to develop creative solutions to the challenges presented by rapid growth and connect like-minded individuals.
Joe Mitchell, member of Invest in Helena. wants to be clear this group is not intended to direct the public in one way or another. It's intended to bring people together to figure that out for themselves.
“My whole hope for this whole thing is that we're bridging this gap between maybe folks who have a bunch of ideas and energy and some folks who are very passionate about our community and maybe have some dusty money that they want to do something with. And so, we're trying to introduce, you know, introduce people who otherwise wouldn’t have gotten connected, create and facilitate this collaborative type environment, all in the name of, you know, having some say in the way that our city, you know, is developed,” says Mitchell.
Organizers say the group is for all people who call Helena home to have a seat at the table and help guide growth, not just for people originally from Montana.
An initial meeting back in March showed that interest in the group was pretty high. The group was forced to cap the event at about 200 people.
Because the interest was so high, Invest in Helena created a series for investors and developers that kicks off Thursday, April 28th.
“‘...growth is great. Let's be a part of it and let's invest in our, let's invest our time, our gifts, and our energy into it,’ So that 10 years from now, 20 years from now, we can look back on this time and say, ‘Hey, we were a part of that. We were a part of keeping Helena Montana,’” says Mitchell.
Limited tickets are still available for the meeting on the 28th. You can find them here: https://investinhelena.com/the-event
