Economic Development News |
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From Our Executive Director |
It has been extremely rewarding to witness all of the collaborative efforts that have been happening to help finalize our Strategic Plan. With this new plan, AEDC will be able to continue to support and uplift our community to the best of our ability. After such an unpredictable year, we are feeling hopeful for our local economy and beloved businesses and can’t wait to share our plan with the community. More information to come very soon!
-- Ross
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AEDC will soon be finalizing our Strategic Plan in May. Over the past several months, Planwest Partners have been working with AEDC to identify their top priorities for the next five years. Coming out of this challenging year, we've learned a lot about our strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities. So far, Planwest has interviewed several board members, staff members, and hosted three focus groups, including Community Partners, Financial Partners, and AEDC Committee Members.
All board members and staff will be meeting on May 7th to identify initiatives to move forward. If you have any thoughts about how AEDC could better serve our mission to provide loans and support for entrepreneurial, innovative, and business endeavors, please email Susan at susans@aedc1.org and she’ll be sure to include your feedback during our discussions. We will be providing a more in-depth look at our strategic plan in the coming months.
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Partner Highlight: Prosperity Network |
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The Prosperity Network is made up of local agencies committed to working together to implement Humboldt County's Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS). The purpose of the Prosperity Network is to foster community and economic development to improve the quality of life for Humboldt County, its residents, and its communities. The network acts as a platform for collaboration for those who are interested in economic development. Susan Seaman, Program Director for AEDC, is the chair of the Committee with Dianna Rios from Fortuna Business Improvement District as Vice-Chair.
The Prosperity Network meets monthly for special presentations and networking on the third Thursday of each month. This committee is open to all economic development practitioners across both the public and private sectors—County wide, including all county jurisdictions and municipalities. If you would like to be added to the Prosperity Network email distribution list, email gohumco@co.humboldt.ca.us and let them know that you'd like to participate in the Prosperity Network!
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Have you heard the exciting news?! Lemonade Day will be celebrating its 11th year on August 14, 2021. This nationwide event is organized locally by AEDC. Lemonade Day teaches kids to create goals, develop a business plan, establish a budget, seek investors, provide customer service and give back to their community.
AEDC has received a generous $950 Sponsorship from Coast Central Credit Union and $3,000 from Humboldt Sponsors. This year, we will be partnering with North Coast Big Brothers Big Sisters to match mentors with participants! This means we’ll soon need additional funding to pay for background checks for mentors. The more sponsors we have, the more mentors we can provide to participants! We'll also be offering workshops beginning in July, both in-person and virtually.
Lemonade Day was originally created to inspire today’s youth with the spirit of enterprise, teaching the basic business and entrepreneurial skills one lemonade stand at a time. Each participant will learn how to start, own and operate their very own business using a lemonade stand.
Won’t YOU Consider Supporting Lemonade Day?
Lemonade Day includes events throughout Humboldt, including registration events and workshops to prepare participants, recognition, and award for participants after the event, and promotion for all of our young entrepreneurs. It's two full months of activities and preparation where kids get to plan, learn and test. Lemonade Day is the result of their hard work.
Consider getting involved to support the program or the participants!
Community Sponsor $500
- Name recognition on Lemonade Day on the Lemonade Day App that will be used by each participant
- Logo recognition (with link) on the Lemonade Day web page
- Recognition in our Lemonade Day electronic newsletters
- Recognition on Lemonade Day Facebook Page/Twitter
OR Become a Mentor
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Eureka Chamber State of the Economy Webinar |
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On April 9th, the Greater Eureka Chamber of Commerce hosted a State of the Economy webinar. Four experts shared data on how the pandemic has impacted our local economy and gave insights as to what recovery might look like for our local businesses.
Randall Weaver, Labor Market Consultant with the California Employment Development Department shared information regarding employment rates and trends, and how Covid-19 has impacted our labor market. Weaver then continued to give an overview of which industries saw growth or loss in employment over the past year. For those who are looking to hire, Weaver highlighted some of the reasons as to why it could be challenging to find employees right now. He also gave insight on the upcoming opportunities to grow the local labor market, within the two growing aquaculture and cannabis industries.
Audience members then got a chance to hear Scott Adair, Director of Economic Development with the County of Humboldt, provide an overview of the current county programs and initiatives related to economic development throughout Humboldt. In addition to the great contextual explanation he gave for the state of our local economy, he also provided some great dad jokes and complicated graphs.
Next, Lane Millar, Finance Director with the City of Eureka, shared an overview of how local tax money was impacted by Covid-19, and the state of Eureka’s local economy. And Miles Slattery, City Manager with the City of Eureka, ended the presentation with an overview of marketing efforts for the city.
The webinar ended with a question and answer session, which led to a fascinating and thorough overview of our region with great insights. We’d like to give a big thanks to the Greater Eureka Chamber of Commerce, for organizing this great event.
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Arcata Economic Development Corporation
Fax: (707) 798-6130
Tel: (707) 798-6132
707 K Street, Eureka, CA 95501
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