SHELBURNE FALLS — In an effort to promote post-pandemic revitalization, a digital platform for businesses and community organizations aims to make real-world impacts by connecting local communities and attracting tourists to Shelburne Falls and the surrounding towns.

In 2022, the Franklin Regional Council of Governments coordinated the formation of the Shelburne Falls Task Force, a group made up of local businesses and residents from Buckland and Shelburne, to discuss what the community needed post-pandemic. Through this effort, and with funding from two grants awarded to the Franklin County Community Development Corporation, it was decided that the village’s website, ShelburneFalls.com, needed an update, according to Cate Chadwick, a West County Arts and Culture board member and the new website’s coordinator.

Previously, ShelburneFalls.com used a membership system where businesses could pay to be featured. Now, after four years of dormancy, anyone can create a page on the new website. Chadwick said organizers wanted to create “a platform where organizations, community groups, businesses, artisans, artists, everyone could come together and have a part.”

Tennessee-based web design company Locable helped create the new website.

“Their platform gives all those entities, all those people, the ability to have their own profile and have responsibility over it,” Chadwick explained. “So they can update their hours, they can update their logo or their picture, they can put promotions, sales, their events, and it all populates in different sections of the website to make it more user-friendly for locals and also for visitors.”

Chadwick added that the website is retaining the 10-town model, where Ashfield, Buckland, Charlemont, Colrain, Conway, Hawley, Heath, Plainfield, Rowe and Shelburne are all included.

“It’s definitely in its beginning stages,” Chadwick clarified. “We have a lot of work still to do on it, and as businesses and the organizations and the groups and everyone that would like to be promoted within the website comes on board [and] understands better what this is about, then the site will grow.”

In the meantime, however, the website offered helpful resources during Porch Fest and a recent Art Walk. Through a feature of the website, Chadwick was able to create pages for the two events and then input information about local ATMs, dining options and local businesses that allow the public to use their restrooms.

Chadwick added that she plans to do the same for the Ashfield Fall Festival and Conway’s Festival of the Hills.

For more information, visit ShelburneFalls.com. Businesses, organizations, groups or artists can create a free profile on ShelburneFalls.com by clicking the link at the bottom of the homepage.