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IEDC is accepting submissions through May 30 for the 2023 Excellence and Leadership in Economic Development Awards. Workforce Solutions Borderplex’s Neighborhood Solutions Tour: Jobs Toolbox on Wheels won a Gold Award in 2022 in the Neighborhood Development category. Workforce Solutions Borderplex (WSB) in El Paso, Texas, expanded its workforce development from static centers into a mobile service, visiting neighborhoods in need of support for upskilling and improving quality of life. The project was created when the unpredictability of pandemic lockdowns forced WSB to take an innovative approach to serving communities in dire need of workforce development. The data-driven tours consider lower-wage quartile ZIP codes, unemployment ...

The City of Tucson Office of Economic Initiatives launched a free workforce development program in 2022 to address the skill gap in the industrial sewing trades. The program, named AZ Stitch Lab, is offered by a partnership between the City of Tucson, the Pascua Yaqui Tribe, Moonshot, and Sonoran Stitch Factory. Erica Yngve, president and CEO of Tucson-based Sonoran Stitch Factory, was working to meet the needs of commercial clients from around the world wanting to produce materials made in the U.S. With business growing Yngve needed more workers to meet the demand, but at the time there were only 1,770 sewing machine operators in all of Arizona. Sonoran Stitch Factory happens to sit in the heart of a neighborhood that was already a ...

As we emerge from the pandemic, cities are entering a period of deep economic uncertainty and adjustment. Over the past two years, low-income neighborhoods have experienced disproportionate health impacts, disparities in small business aid distribution, and inadequate schooling and digital access for students. Unless major structural changes are made at all levels of government and across sectors, we run the risk of a lost decade in which racial wealth disparities are greater and neighborhoods are worse off.

The latest addition to IEDC’s Economic Development Playbook, the Equity and Inclusion in Workforce Development webinar addressed how workforce development professionals can bolster equity and inclusion within their programs, and better equip underrepresented groups with the skills needed to succeed in the changing landscape of employer needs. Sunae Villavaso, director of New Orleans’ Office of Workforce Development, shared her own experience with providing retraining and upskilling programs to disadvantaged groups. Acknowledging the likely “paycheck-to-paycheck” reality potential participants face, Villavaso stressed the importance of supplying a livable wage to those in retraining and upskilling programs. The Earn ...

Susan Bosse, MBA, EDP, is part of the first cohort of certified Entrepreneurship Development Professionals. IEDC’s EDP credential is designed to build capacity for those supporting entrepreneurship in their communities, and demonstrates the skills and expertise to lead communities through entrepreneurship-led economic development (ELED). Why did you decide to pursue the EDP credential? I am passionate about entrepreneurship. Having owned and operated several small businesses throughout my lifetime and coming from a long line of entrepreneurs, I understand what keeps entrepreneurs up at night and what it means to sign a paycheck, not just receive one. After managing my father’s radio station for several years after college, I ...

At the start of the pandemic, the Pierce County (Wash.) Economic Development Department quickly pivoted its focus to assist small businesses that were struggling to survive. Those efforts resulted in effective and efficient distribution of $46.5 million in CARES Act funding to thousands of small businesses and entrepreneurs of which 76 percent were BIPOC-, women-, and veteran-owned. More than 99 percent of these resources went to direct business support and more than 90 percent of applications were approved. By leveraging existing networks in the community, the department was able to provide information and resources to many businesses we would not normally have reached. However, recovery is showing us there is much more to do. In ...

Leaders in the innovation and technology space are stepping up to tackle staggering disparities for BIPOC and low-income communities by increasing the number of regional technology hubs, including current proposals in Congress to implement large-scale federal R&D funding for Midwestern and Southern metro centers. A recent Brookings webinar titled Leveraging Regional Tech Hubs to Advance Racial Equity discussed additional solutions to these disparities such as upscaling BIPOC talent and targeting companies to invest in their location’s talent base. From 2005 to 2017, five metro areas—Boston, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, and San Diego—contributed more than 90 percent of the U.S. innovation sector’s growth. ...