Growth Partnership's Strategic Responses to the Top Issues

 

1. Increase Collective Impact on Economic Development: Use the dashboard as a tool to help local and regional partners to increase their collective impact on top ranked economic development priorities.

2. Workforce Shortages Facing Existing Employers: Create a new Workforce and Talent Clearinghouse website to provide strategic labor market information to local employers and augment and support companies' talent and skilled worker recruitment efforts. Work with A-Tech and other workforce partners to fill these shortages.

3. Limited Broadband Internet Capacity in the County: Create a task force to assess the needs of local businesses and work on solutions with Internet service providers.

4. Weak New Business Start Rate in the County: Organize an Entrepreneurial Business Growth Initiative to strengthen the local entrepreneruial ecosystem for entrepreneurs and smaller growth companies. Work with local and regional partners to advance this sector of the economy.

5. New Resident Attraction: Work with partners to attract a greater number of educated, skilled, and professional people to live in Ashtabula County. Couple this with place-making efforts to interest high quality homebuilders to develop new executive housing in the county.

6. Manufacturing Competitiveness: Work with regional partners to strengthen the plastics and rubber sector in the county through supply chain development, workforce development, and infrastructure improvements.

7. County Image Improvement: Work with local and regional partners to improve Ashtabula County's image as a place to live, work, and play.

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