NEED A COMMUNITY PLAN ?
Providing CARE for Healthy Communities
Strategic Planning for Local Economic Development: An Outline
I.
II.
Economic Development Options
A.
Defining Economic Development
B.
The “CARE” Model
Benefits of Strategic Planning
III. Ten Steps to Your Community’s Future
IV. Strategic Planning Concepts
V.
Successful Planning Efforts
VI. Tools to Aid in Developing a Strategy
Economic Development
Can Mean Many Things to Different People
Economy
“…is a system for meeting the needs and wants of
people in a particular geographic area.”
Development
“…is the improvement of well-being for residents in a
particular geographic area.”
Economic Development
“Any activity which provides additional jobs and
income given a community’s standard or quality of
life.”
The CARE Model of Economic Development
•
•
•
•
Create new employment opportunities!
Attract business activity!
Retain existing business and industry!
Expand current job/income sources!
Which option is the best for your community?
Creation: New Businesses Need Support in
Several Areas
• Capital Financing
• Labor Supply
• Technology
• Management Assistance
Attraction or Business and Industry
Recruitment
• Is the most well-known economic
development option.
• Local communities should assess their
chances of recruiting a basic employer.
• Major metropolitan areas will
attract most larger employers.
Factors that Influence Larger Employers Include:
1. Labor Supply
2. Transportation
3. Location of related businesses
4. Water and other resource constraints
5. Community attitude and/or preparedness
Retention of Existing Income
and Jobs
• Do your local consumers spend money for
goods and services in other communities?
• How much?
• Could special events and promotions lead to
more local shopping?
• What would this mean to your local
merchants?
Expansion of Existing Firms
• This can become an important source of new job
growth in the community.
• Existing businesses can be supported by:
– Training Programs
– Financial Assistance
– Positive Attitude from the Community
• On-site visitations can “red-flag”
the needs of the business community.
Strategic Planning
• Is similar to a business developing a
business plan.
• Is the process of identifying future goals
and how to achieve them.
• Does require forward thinking and
anticipation of the future
7 Benefits of Strategic Planning
1.
Outlines the steps to follow. A community must identify the steps
necessary to achieve its final goal.
2.
Promotes efficient use of resources. A significant amount of time,
money and people will be required for economic development efforts.
3.
Improves coordination. Many different groups should be involved.
4.
Builds consensus. The public and private sectors must agree on the
major issues.
5.
Increases public awareness. Without public support, economic
development cannot happen.
6.
Strengthens the community’s competitive position.
7.
Encourages forward thinking.
There’s nothing mystical
about developing a
strategy.
Communication
Hard Work
Cooperation
Thought
Ten Steps to Your
Community’s Future:
1.
Begin/Continue the Process: Someone
must make the initial decision to
build a community strategy.
- Are the benefits worth the effort?
- Call in outside resource providers.
Ten Steps to Your
Community’s Future:
2.
Engage the Community. Broad
community support is critical. Seek
support from the following:
- Public Sector
- Private Sector
-Volunteer Organizations
Ten Steps to Your
Community’s Future:
3. Form an organized structure. Utilize an existing
group or form a new organization.
4. Conduct community assessments. Data and
information can be very useful.
5. Develop a strategic plan. Identify goals and
measurable objectives.
6. Seek community feedback and commitment.
Share the draft with the community. Involve the
Ten Steps to Your
Community’s Future:
7. Implement the plan.
- Are adequate resources available.
- Are adequate volunteers available?
- This is the stage when most plans falter.
- Will your plan end up “sitting on the shelf?”
- A lack of resources will insure disappointment.
Ten Steps to Your
Community’s Future:
8. Evaluate the effort. Set benchmarks and
document success.
9. Celebrate successes. Reward yourself and the
entire community when goals or tasks are
accomplished.
10.Create an ongoing process. The effort does not
end, but should be re-evaluated annually.
(10)
Create
Ongoing Process
(1)
Begin/Continue
the Process
(2)
Engage the
Community & Legitimize
the Process
(9)
Celebrate
Successes
(3)
Form An
Organized Structure
(8)
Evaluate
the Effort
(4)
Conduct Community
Assessments
(7)
Implement
the Plan
(6)
Seek Community
Feedback &
Commitment
(5)
Develop a
Strategic Plan
Strategic Planning Concepts
•
•
•
•
Mission Statement
Goals
Objectives
Strategy
“If you don’t know where you are going,
any road will get you there.”
Mission Statement: The community’s
philosophy for development.
“To make Sulphur a better place to live, to work,
and to conduct business.”
(Example)
“To create an environment that allows Coalgate to
provide reasonable business growth and
employment opportunities for Coalgate residents.”
(Example)
A mission statement will answer some of the
following questions:
• Who are we serving?
• What markets will be served?
• What are the major outputs or products of the
organization?
• What defines the organization’s constraints?
• What functions does the organization perform?
• For whom does the organization perform these
functions?
• How does the organization fulfill these functions?
After Defining the Mission,
Set Some GOALS
• An end-state or result to be achieved.
• Specific statement of what the community would
like to be.
• The more explicit the goal, the better.
• Based on more than wishful thinking.
• Must contain a sense of economic reality.
• Provides specific direction for the planning
process.
Examples of Goals:
“Bring customers back to the downtown
shopping area.”
“Become a retirement
destination community.”
“Expand the agricultural processing industry
in the southwestern part of the state.”
For Each Goal, List Some
OBJECTIVES
Each objectives should define:
• The key result to be achieved.
• Numerical measures of the progress.
• Target date for completion.
Objectives vs. Goals
(What’s the Difference?)
• Goals are aspirations while objective
are targets.
• Objectives are actions that allow the
community to reach its goals.
• Progress toward objectives is
measurable.
The Goal: “Bring customers back to the
downtown shopping area.”
1.
2.
Some Objectives
Make the area more attractive to customers by June
of next year.
- Add benches and planters
- Bring in new stores
- Clean up the downtown area
Make shopping more convenient by next June.
- More on-street parking
- Access to alley parking
- Add a parking lot in specified location
Strategy or Strategic Action: A project or
activity undertaken to accomplish the
defined objective.
Objective: Make the area more attractive to
customers by next June.
Strategies:
- Add benches and planters
- Bring in new stores
- Clean up the downtown area
Concerns when selecting strategies:
• How much will the proposed program
cost?
• What are the relative costs and
benefits of various options?
Strategic Planning/Economic
Development Action Work Plan
Goal:
Objective:
Agency or Group:
Project Manager:
Strategic
Action
Time
Frame
Possible
Contacts or
Resources
Staffing
Requirements
Estimated
Budget $
Source of
Funds
A VISION OF
THE FUTURE
Future
A SHARED VISION
OF THE FUTURE
Present
A community
with no shared
vision of its
future.
A community with a vision and
action plan that is not supported
by its citizens (no alignment
with the vision).
A shared vision and action plan
supported by community (community
organizations and institutions aligned
with the vision).
You are seeking the alignment of organizations - their agendas, their resources, and their
actions - to an overall vision for the future which they help develop.
SOURCE: Mark Peterson, Cooperative Extension Service, University of Arkansas
Three Conclusions about Successful
Community Strategies
1. No strategy should be dismissed
automatically as inappropriate.
2. There is no unique formula that can work
in all places under all conditions.
3. Careful analysis of unique local situations
is required for success.
Keys for Success
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Local Commitment
Broad Community Involvement
Community Ownership
On-Site Visits
Reliable Survey and Secondary Data
Exposure to New Information
Timely Response
TOOLS to Aid in Developing a Strategy:
• Survey Instruments
– Helps identify strengths and weaknesses in the
community.
– Helps set priorities for economic development.
– Helps inform a cross-section of the community
about the economic development effort and
can help gain their support if they are given an
opportunity to express their opinions.
Here is a list of things that are important to a town. Be absolutely honest, how do you rate your town?
In answering the questions below, please make a check mark in the appropriate column.
Good
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
Streets & Roads
Traffic Conditions
Parking Downtown
Police Protection
Fire Protection
Garbage Collection & Disposal
Water Supply
Sewage Collection & Disposal
Community Parks & Playgrounds
Recreation for Adults
Recreation for Teenagers
Recreation for Children 12 & under
Library
Flood Control
Crime Prevention Programs
Ambulance Service
Availability of Doctors
Availability of Dentists
Availability of Emergency Care
Availability of Care for the Elderly
Availability of Housing
Condition of School Building
Elementary Education
High School Education
Vocational Education-Job Training
Fair
Poor
Do Not Know
What are the strengths and weaknesses of our town? Your answers to this survey will assist in the development
of the Economic Development Strategy for
. Our objective is to identify the needs we have
in
and to find out what you feel should be done to make this town a better place to live,
work, rear children, do business, and enjoy life. Please be as candid and as specific as possible in your answers
(each survey is confidential).
A.
In your opinion, what are the biggest strengths or advantages in which could lead to future growth?
1.
2.
3.
B.
What would you say are some of the biggest problems and obstacles faced by
future growth of the area? (note in order of importance)
1.
4.
2.
5.
3.
6.
C.
Identify in your opinion which of the following are most important; with highest priority rated #1.
Rank
Rank
Attracting New Industry
Create Community Organizations
Expand Local Industry
Downtown Revitalization
Retail & Commercial Development
Retirement Industry Development
Expand Tourism Industry
Create Home Grown Businesses
Expand Community Services
Other
for the