Uptown Partnership is currently an Exploring Main Street Affiliate community under the Virginia Main Street Program (VMS), which is a preservation-based economic and community development program that offers a range of services and assistance to communities interested in revitalizing their historic commercial districts. We are committed to using the Main Street Approach to frame our work. This approach consists of the following fundamentals:

• The Main Street Approach is centered around Transformation Strategies. The Transformation Strategies developed for the Uptown Commercial district include: 1) Handmade, Craft made, Artisan, and 2) Uptown Living. These Transformation Strategies articulate a focused, deliberate path to revitalizing or strengthening the Uptown business district’s economy.

• Uptown Partnership's work on Transformation Strategies is organized around the Four Points: Economic Vitality, Design, Promotion, and Organization.

• Uptown Partnership's work – and its Transformation Strategies – are informed by a solid understanding of local and regional market data, and sustained and inclusive community engagement.

VMS is the state coordinating program for Main Street America™ which has been helping to revitalize older and historic commercial districts since the late 1970s. Today, it is a movement consisting of more than 1,600 neighborhoods and communities, rural and urban, who share both a commitment to place and to building stronger communities through preservation-based economic development. Main Street America is a program of the nonprofit National Main Street Center, a subsidiary of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.