Under One Roof: New Governance Structures for Aligning Local Economic and Workforce Development

by Mark Troppe, Director, Economic and Workforce Development, Workforce Development Strategies Group, National Center on Education and the Economy

Across the country, there is a growing interest in aligning the work of economic development and workforce organizations. Partly this is motivated by an attempt to make good use of increasingly scarce resources. Partly it is a reaction to intensifying competition for attracting and retaining companies with good jobs, as communities face off against others in the United States and around the globe. Partly it is motivated by a sense that, among practitioners, at best, we have missed opportunities to be more successful by joining forces.

Many have written about numerous aspects of local efforts to align economic and workforce development around specific initiatives or collaborative efforts. There are examples of cluster and sectoral strategies, joint planning, collaborative research, efforts to set broad goals and design tactics to achieve them. There also is increasing dialogue about the roles of state and local government agencies, quasi-public organizations and private intermediaries in growing the economy.

Yet there is not much written about the relatively few local jurisdictions that have gone so far as to reorganize economic and workforce development organizations and governance structures in order to bring their resources – including staff, funding, and organizational priorities – under one organizational umbrella.

The National Center on Education and the Economy conducted a study over the last year to provide similar insights for local government decision-makers considering structural realignments of agencies and organizations.6 The study profiles five areas – New York City, Denver, Stanislaus County, Calif., Montgomery County, Md., and North Central Indiana – and explores the paths taken and common lessons learned across the sites. The five sites are geographically and economically diverse locations that represent a cross-section of communities and approaches, from a rural, Midwestern, multi-county region to large urban areas.While one of the cases goes back two decades, most are in far earlier stages of maturity. Each case provides a varied look at how these areas have pursued governance changes, offering illustrations of how these changes might energize and institutionalize partnerships among local economic and workforce development entities.

Findings

Our review indicated numerous ways in which communities have decided to restructure agencies and organizations to align economic and workforce development:

• Montgomery County moved the workforce function under the umbrella of the county economic development agency from an outside organization.

• Denver combined multiple functions (including workforce, housing and neighborhood development, business development and small business services) under the City’s Office of Economic Development.

• New York City moved the program responsible for adult workforce development into the City’s Department of Small Business Services.

• Stanislaus County created a new entity that serves as the home for both workforce and economic development functions.

• North Central Indiana created a committee of the work force investment board, providing a regional umbrella that convened and coordinated individual counties’ economic development activities and made it possible for local economic development agencies to engage in joint marketing, research and planning.

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