The Workforce Development Analysis and Strategic Plan identifies positives and challenges for the community and paths to work on them.
In the last eight months, the City of Flagstaff has completed a new Economic Development Strategic Plan, approved a new Workforce Development Analysis and Strategic Plan and reorganized its Economic Development Program. This new set of data-based strategies, implemented with the new program structure, will help advance Flagstaff’s economic diversity and prosperity into the future.
To begin, the city’s economic development efforts are often accomplished working with partners such as the Economic Collaborative of Northern Arizona (ECONA), Moonshot, Local First, the Chamber of Commerce, the Small Business Development Center, Northern Arizona University, Coconino County and others. The Economic Development Program uses Bed, Board and Beverage (BBB) – Economic Development funding to support and grow the local economy in a number of ways.
One example is entrepreneurial support and facilities provided through Moonshot at the Incubator and Accelerator. This provides businesses coaching and mentorship while founders get their business up and running. The BBB – Economic Development funding also provides grant opportunities to new and existing businesses through competitive processes such as the Innovate Waste: Carbon Neutrality Challenge and the Business Retention and Expansion Incentive. They fund assistance to reusing challenging spaces through the Adaptive Reuse Program. They also work with Flagstaff’s businesses to provide analytics to better understand customer demographics.
With recruitment efforts, the Economic Development Team reaches out to attract businesses that fit our community values as well. The team seeks to bring new businesses and jobs to the community. The team will work with any business interested in Flagstaff, but our recruitment efforts target businesses that fit our community profile and values. As a business attraction example, the new Economic Development administrator recently returned from a trip to California, with partners from ECONA and the City of Winslow, where they recruited businesses related to growth in the electronics design and manufacturing supply chain.
To go deeper into the new plans themselves, the new strategic plan focuses its recommendations into four thematic pillars:
- Focus and Positioning of the Community: Involves numerous actions such as identifying and mobilizing around priority sectors and aligning our talent pipelines.
- Branding and Awareness: Involves communicating Flagstaff’s value proposition and increasing the business community’s awareness of the city’s available opportunities and programs.
- Sustainable Economic Development: Recommends establishing metrics for what sustainable business and economic development are, attracting businesses that meet those metrics, and identifying opportunities for infrastructure expansion.
- Finally, Community Ecosystem Development would involve formalizing the city’s relationships with community partners to ensure the most effective efforts are being made and pursuing funding to address infrastructure needs and challenges.
The strategic plan also calls out specific sectors that data and analysis show as potential areas of opportunity. These include:
- Forestry
- Food Processing
- Advanced Manufacturing
- Astronomy/Space
- Biomedical/Healthcare
These are areas where Flagstaff has historic strength, where we already have a talented workforce, and where the education and research opportunities in the community are compelling. You can see more about what makes these areas our targeted sectors in the plan itself.
The Workforce Development Analysis and Strategic Plan identifies positives and challenges for the community and paths to work on them. Most of the work done in this area is led by partners, and the plan recommends the city continue to support those partners in achieving their great outcomes while potentially working with them to identify gaps where city BBB-Economic Development resources could provide the bridge. The team intends to work with our partners to do just that. One particular area that came up significantly in this conversation was childcare. The city is now researching what supports may make sense in addressing the challenging childcare environment. This would be beneficial both to assist hard working families and to help maintain a viable and sustainable workforce for our businesses.
There is a lot of great work to do to help Flagstaff to continue to grow in resilience and prosperity and in a way consistent with our community values. This new structure for the program and the data driven strategies identified in the City Council approved plans will allow staff to use time and resources efficiently and effectively. It is critical that the city and its partners continue to work together to support Flagstaff’s economic well-being to ensure we remain a diverse economy and that there are jobs in the community that can provide the great quality of life Flagstaff can offer. FBN
By David McIntire
David McIntire is the community investment director for the City of Flagstaff.