Reports, Webinars, and Resources

CREC and partners are developing educational programming on state-EDD alignment to raise awareness and highlight the importance of collaboration opportunities while also demonstrating ways states and EDDs can improve overall alignment and coordination.

  Reports

Several reports have been developed to summarize different events that highlight state/EDD strategic alignment:

  Improving Economic Performance Through Strategic Alignment: A CREC Project to Improve Economic Development Performance: CREC completed an EDA-funded project that focused on promoting better alignment in state and regional strategies. This short report showcases the tools CREC developed to help states and EDDs, CREC’s analysis of best practices, and CREC’s technical assistance that helped states and EDDs implement alignment strategies.

  Practices Guides – EDA engaged the Center for Regional Economic Competitiveness (CREC) and its partners (National Association of Development Organizations Research Foundation, State International Development Organizations, and the American Manufacturing Communities Collaborative) to research the barriers to strategic alignment, educate stakeholders, and provide technical assistance to increase collaboration and co-investment. These Issue Briefs use case studies to discuss how states and EDDs can work together to improve outcomes in several important strategic areas:

  Issue Brief #1: The Value of State-EDD Strategic Alignment

  Issue Brief #2: Aligning the CEDS Development Process

  Issue Brief #3: Relationships Fueling State-EDD Alignment

  Issue Brief #4: Business Development

  Issue Brief #5: International Engagement

  Issue Brief #6: Manufacturing

  Issue Brief #7: Infrastructure Development

  Issue Brief #8: Workforce Development 

  Issue Brief #9: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Policy Academy Blogs and Reports

  Final Report: CREC Policy Academy: A Learning Cohort Designed to Improve Regional Competitiveness by Enhancing State and Local Alignment Strategies

  Success! Building State-EDD Strategic Alignment through the CREC Policy Academy 

 Empowering Economic Development: Progress on the CREC Policy Academy for Strategic Alignment

  Building From a Strong Foundation: The Kick-Off Meeting for the CREC Policy Academy

 And…We’re Off! The Policy Academy to Strengthen State and Local Strategic Alignment Kicks Off

 Strengthening Partnerships: Improving the Alignment Between States and Economic Development Districts

 

  Webinars

  Statewide Planning Grant Webinar: Overcoming Roadblocks

  Statewide Planning Grant Topical Webinar: Resiliency

 Statewide Planning Grant Topical Webinar: Industry and Supply Chain

 Aligning Strategies: Lessons from Six States – Policy Academy Webinar Part 1

  Aligning Strategies: Lessons from Six States – Policy Academy Webinar Part 2

 National Statewide Planning Grant Webinar

  Statewide Planning Grant Topical Webinar: Workforce

 Statewide Planning Grant Topical Webinar: Planning

  SLEDS: A New Tool for Economic Development Strategies

 

  Convenings and Presentations

  At the NADO 2023 Annual Training Conference, CREC facilitated a technical assistance hands-on session titled “State-EDD Alignment: Building Your Own Policy Academy” with participants applying lessons learned from six states as they strived to improve alignment between states and EDDs.

  The American Manufacturing Communities Collaborative (AMCC) has weekly calls to discuss the importance of manufacturing throughout the country.  CREC presented on state-EDD alignment in September 2021 and June 2023.

  CREC presented thoughts on state/local alignment at the NADO 2022 Policy Conference.  The presentation can be found here.

Additional Convenings

  NADO participated in the 2022 Western Prosperity Roundtable Forum and discussed the value of state engagement with EDDs and RDOs. The presentation can be found here.

  SIDO’s 2022 Washington Policy Forum hosted a session where CREC asked attendees their perspectives on state-EDD alignment.  The poll results can be found here.

  CREC discussed state-EDD alignment at NADO’s 2021 Annual Training Conference.  The presentation can be found here, and the results of a live poll can be found here.

  AMCC hosted a convening to discuss the development of manufacturing community ecosystem metrics that can drive state-EDD alignment and collaboration.  This work was done in partnership with NIST’s Manufacturing Extension Partnership.

 

  Other Resources

  SSTI and NADO Research Foundation Webinar: Build Innovation and Entrepreneurship into CEDS

  EDA CEDS Hub

  CEDS Central

 SSTI’s TBED Community of Practice

  NADO Research Foundation’s EDD Community of Practice


The materials included on these State-Local Alignment webpages were prepared by the Center for Regional Economic Competitiveness using Federal funds under award ED21HDQ3070060 from the Economic Development Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce. The statements, findings, conclusions, and recommendations are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Economic Development Administration or the U.S. Department of Commerce.