Economic Development Recovery and Resiliency Playbook - Flipbook - Page 56
In addition to examining the challenges, it is beneficial to research the literature regarding the practice trends influencing your
community’s workforce. Through this research, you can identify the common actions among employers in your community that
are negatively impacting their ability to retain and recruit staf. With these trends identified, you may be able to address these
issues by encouraging local businesses to change their practices in a way that will make working for them more appealing to
current and potential employees. By pairing this research with efective marketing and outreach, you can begin to reverse any
negative perceptions of businesses within your community and attract a greater workforce.
Lastly, it is important to research major policies and funding that apply to the workforce in your community. It is helpful to
determine which policies may be impacting your regional workforce. Researching available funding for your workforce resiliency
eforts is a good practice so you can collaborate with groups that are already funded with federal or state workforce dollars,
such as workforce development boards. While many funding options may not be available to you at the time the research is
done, becoming familiar with the funding options that may be available to you during times of disaster or other emergencies will
save you valuable time and hasten your application processes.
Industry Sector Partnership
Establishing industry sector partnerships is one of the most efective methods of bolstering workforce resiliency. Industry
sector partnerships are created among businesses from the same industry and labor market region that work with economic
development, workforce development, educational, and community organizations to address the workforce needs of the
targeted industry. In an industry sector partnership, business leaders work together to determine and define a common goal
based on the issues that impact their shared industry. In addition to bringing industry leaders together, an industry sector
partnership relies on a coordinated team of support partners in economic development, education, and workforce. Industry
sector partnerships act as a shared space for industry leaders to collaborate with one another and public partners to ensure
that regional industries have what they need to keep the local economy strong. Valley Vision (based in Sacramento),66 the Center
for Economic Development at CSU, Chico,67 and the Smart Workforce Center68 are examples of such partnerships between the
public sector and industry leaders.
To form an industry sector partnership, local government must first reach out to regional business leaders who may be
interested. In addition to forming new partnerships, it is likely such partnerships are already established in your community
and may be leveraged. To learn of existing partnerships in your area, reach out to your local workforce development board, job
training centers, local economic development organizations, and chambers of commerce. Once a partnership is formed with
one or more industry leaders, you must determine additional groups to include in the partnership. Such partners may include
representatives from local community colleges, technical schools, K–12 schools, adult education, community foundations,
nonprofit organizations that support workforce and economic development, chambers of commerce, and other communitybased organizations. Another important step is to identify and involve an active convener in the partnership. An active
convener serves as a neutral, third party that facilitates and supports the partnership and ensures that partnership eforts are
applied fairly and equitably. The convener helps coordinate meetings, recruits business leaders and public partners, maintains
communication between partners, and facilitates meetings.
It is critical to include businesses or other organizations that are ofen underserved or underrepresented, including womenowned businesses, minority-owned businesses, veteran-owned businesses, businesses serving low-income and rural areas,
Economic Development Takeaway
By including a diverse representation of businesses within their respective
industries, the sector partnerships emerge as an efective model for
innovation in addressing equity and inclusivity.
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https://www.valleyvision.org/impact-area/21st-century-workforce
https://www.nspdc.csuchico.edu/#/ced
https://www.thesmartcenter.biz
CALED | Economic Development Recovery and Resiliency Playbook
