Courtesy EDC Warren County
By Jim Siplon
Earlier this year EDC Warren County shared a stark view of the future economy as we age, try to compete with a smaller and smaller workforce, and still build a community and economy that works.
To help catalyze the needed investments, public policy work, and collective actions needed to attract new, younger residents that can support our diversified economy for the long haul, EDC is adding “convener” to our list of roles we play supporting our businesses and communities.
Last year we brought Dr. Rachel Sederberg to Warren County from leading labor market research firm EMSI Burning Glass to share deep insights on the “demographic drought” we are all experiencing. Using that groundbreaking research and aggregating it with local economic data that is current and novel, EDC is now engaged in meeting with as many audiences as we can to share the underlying foundation for our position.
Convening as many groups as we can, EDC is sharing the data over the last 50 years that led to where we are so we can have informed discussions and public discourse on what we must do to navigate and adapt to our new normal.
One lesson I learned over and over in my previous chapters as a military, business and sustainability leader was the value of not rushing to action, especially on problems that took generations to develop.
Change is an emotional and psychological process as much as it is a business and policy one, often generating intense reactions akin to grieving. We need to allow business, community, and elected leaders all an opportunity to engage with the data, mourn the loss of what has changed and get to a productive place for the policy and investment decisions that lay in front of us. These include the need to make ourselves attractive to new younger workers and residents, creating housing capacity to receive them, transportation and childcare to support them and the many other aspects we need to work on together to step into this next chapter of our sustainable economy.
Fulfilling our role as leaders and partners in creating a long term, sustainable community and economy means more than recruiting new businesses and helping current ones succeed-it means sharing our data and analysis with CEOs, business groups like chambers of commerce, economic development partners, school leaders and boards, community service groups and any audiences that will have us.
The EDC will be looking to bring this critical information to as many forums and places as we can, to inform and elevate the dialogue that will be needed for years.
Investing in this long-term process is needed for us all to succeed. Please consider how you can join us in this work. We need old members to renew their memberships, new ones to join us, new residents to share their experiences and needs, community groups to share their platforms and our municipal and government partners to continue to fund this critical work so we can thrive together in an ever changing economic world.