View the entire newsletter for more articles: 2021 – NJAC County Biz – October
by Heather Simmons, Commissioner, Gloucester County
As a leader of innovative public solutions, Gloucester County has always been able to effectively mobilize in a crisis situation to serve and protect our residents and business community. In January 2021, the Gloucester County Board of Commissioners became the first county in New Jersey to embark on proactive economic recovery efforts by convening the Gloucester County Economic Recovery Collaborative. The Collaborative was designed to explore, prioritize, and execute short-term and long-term strategies to benefit all industry sectors in communities that have been negatively impacted by the COVID-19 crisis, with the explicit goals of putting people back to work and restoring economic vitality.
This group of 75 business leaders, education partners, government officials and community stakeholders began work in January with a charge to build economic resiliency, enhance access to education and training, attract new business and create jobs. Preliminary discussions focused on investing in communities, supporting emerging industries and creating jobs and opportunities that foster innovation and entrepreneurship in alignment with our institutions of higher education. Collaborative members were encouraged to come up with pragmatic strategies to address barriers to economic success and examine issues of access to education, technology and transportation.
After the initial meeting, the 75-member Economic Recovery Collaborative was divided into five committees, each with a very specific set of goals and objectives. They were the Financial Resources and Small Business Committee, the Technology Committee, the Equity and Access Committee, the Emerging Industry Committee, and the Public Policy & Government Relations Committee. Each committee was led by two co-chairs representing business, industry, education, and government entities with subject matter expertise in the related fields. Immediately and organically, by harnessing the collective expertise of our community stakeholders, synergies began to materialize into real conversations about what our communities needed from us to support economic recovery.
Throughout the Economic Recovery Collaborative process, common themes emerged from all five committees related to access to transportation, access to technology, development of centralized hubs for community resources, industry attraction and retention, and enhanced communication with our business community and residents. The Gloucester County Board of Commissioners and Gloucester County Department of Economic Development have synthesized the complete list of committee recommendations into a final report. Implementation of these recommendations has the potential to support not only Gloucester County’s economic recovery but to also provide a means to create economic opportunity in our region for decades to come. To view the full list of recommendations and the Economic Recovery Collaborative report visit Gloucester County Economic Recovery Collaborative Final Report