The West Virginia Weaver Awards: $3,500 for Community Connectors
The West Virginia Community Development Hub (The Hub) is partnering with the Aspen Institute’s Weave: The Social Fabric Project to recognize 20 individuals and groups across West Virginia who are building trust, fostering belonging, and helping neighbors form meaningful relationships.
Across West Virginia, there are dedicated individuals who bring neighbors together, create opportunities for connection, and help communities solve challenges together. They organize local events, mentor young people, welcome newcomers, support their communities, and build bridges across differences. They may or may not hold formal leadership positions but they are often the people their communities trust most.
Does this sound like you or someone you know? Nominate or apply now!
What is weaving?
Weaving is the practice of building meaningful relationships that set the conditions for social trust to grow in communities.
It begins with a simple commitment: to see one another as equal in dignity, even when experiences and viewpoints differ.
Weaving invites people to:
- Discover what they have in common
- Learn how their differences can make the community stronger
- Work side by side toward common good.
Weaving can be formal or informal, and it is characterized by four qualities:
- Local: It brings together people who share the same neighborhood, town, or region
- Mutual: It celebrates everyone’s contributions and creates opportunities for everyone to both give and receive
- Welcoming: It invites people to join as they are
- Continuous: It builds relationships that deepen over time through ongoing engagement
What are the Weaver Awards?
The Weaver Awards are a national initiative of Weave: The Social Fabric Project at the Aspen Institute. The program celebrates and invests in ‘weavers’, people who strength the social fabric of their communities by building trust, fostering belonging, and helping neighbors form meaningful relationships. The awards are built on the belief that local residents are the experts on what their communities need, whether they are running a community garden or organizing neighborhood gatherings.
By providing financial support, new connections, and valuable resources, the Weaver Awards help community leaders build on their successes and continue to support their neighbors.
In 2026, 20 individuals and groups across West Virginia will be selected to receive a $3,500 mini-grants to support their community work.
What will you get if you become a Weaver Awardee?
Each Weaver Awardee will receive a financial award of $3,500 to celebrate and recognize their contributions to their community. In addition, each awardee will receive:
- Local and National Recognition: Awardees will be recognized both locally and nationally by the Aspen Institute alongside weavers from across the country.
- Learning Resources and Tools: Awardees will access learning resources and opportunities.
- Networks and Connections: Awardees will access a network of other local weavers and partners and resources from across the state and region.
- 1:1 support from Hub staff members to implement their community-based activities.
Who is eligible?
Eligible individuals must meet the following criteria:
- I live, work, and/or serve in West Virginia.
- I am at least 18 years old.
- My project helps connect neighbors and fosters relationships between them
- My project addresses a shared need in the community.
- I have a community recommendation from a community member who lives in the area.
- My project does NOT support a political party or policy.
- My project does NOT restrict participation based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation or identity, political party or policy. (Weaver Awards can go towards projects that serve specific affinity groups (ex: Veterans groups, language groups, women’s groups, student groups, etc.), however, participation cannot be restricted based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual preference or identity, political party, or faith.)
Eligible organizations must meet the following criteria:
- My organization operates and serves West Virginia.
- My project helps connect neighbors and fosters relationships between them
- My project addresses a shared need in the community.
- My organization’s annual budget is under $250,000.
- My project does NOT support a political party or policy.
- My project does NOT restrict participation based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation or identity, political party or policy. (Weaver Awards can go towards projects that serve specific affinity groups (ex: Veterans groups, language groups, women’s groups, student groups, etc.), however, participation cannot be restricted based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual preference or identity, political party, or faith.)
What makes a good candidate for a Weaver Award?
Weaver is characterized by four qualities:
- Local: It brings together people who share the same neighborhood, community, or region.
- Mutual: It celebrates everyone’s contributions and creates opportunities for everyone to both give and receive.
- Welcoming: It invites people to join as they are.
- Continuous: It builds relationships and trust that deepen over time through ongoing community engagement.
We are looking for individuals and organizations with projects that reflect these qualities. We are looking for people that get their neighbors together to tackle a shared issue in their community. The project must be collaborative and foster relationships between project participants.
For examples of past weavers and their projects, click HERE.
How can you use the funds?
We believe that weavers know best how to use the funds to connect their communities.
Use of funds for illegal activities is prohibited.
Who selects the Weaver Awardees?
An advisory group, made up mainly of community leaders from across West Virginia, will select the Awardees. These committee members live, work, and serve West Virginia communities everyday and understand the unique assets, challenges, and traditions that make up our beautiful state. They care deeply about weaving a strong social fabric and they know what it takes to do so.
About the West Virginia Community Development Hub
The West Virginia Community Development Hub (The Hub) is the leading rural development organization in central Appalachia. Since 2009, The Hub’s mission has been to help communities improve quality of life by investing in leaders, building partnerships, tackling barriers to place-based community development, and amplifying stories of communities where we live and work. The Hub coaches diverse community leadership teams and individuals using an asset-based framework over sustained periods of one to two and a half years. Everything we do is in partnership with others. This deep, relational approach builds trust, agency, and leadership capacity in places too often overlooked, sparking extraordinary outcomes in more than 100 communities and neighborhoods across Appalachia.
The Hub’s professional community coaches walk alongside local leaders, helping them navigate complex systems, access trusted technical assistance partners, and build sustainable business and support structures. The Hub serves as a trusted regional intermediary, leveraging millions in public and private investment for community-led projects—many of which began as a conversation in a church basement or bingo hall and grew into lasting change.
About Weave: The Social Fabric Project
Weave: The Social Fabric Project is an initiative of the Aspen Institute dedicated to strengthening trust, connection, and belonging in communities across the United States. Weave supports everyday weavers—neighbors who show up for others, bridge divides, and build community. Through storytelling, online learning, community-building programs, and the Weaver Awards, Weave works to repair America’s social fabric from the ground up and lift up the people who are already leading this work in their neighborhoods. Learn more at weavers.org.
Contact Us
weave@wvhub.org
Nominations due August 12, 2026 at 5:00 PM, West Virginia time.