Helping Communities Shine

Whether researching and implementing ways to shape a community's economic development plan or partnering to create ways to put people to work, CREC connects researchers and policymakers with:

• Data training
• Custom portfolios that aid regional competitiveness

What We Do

Analyze Your Clusters and Talent
We assist policymakers assess their region’s industries and understand their workforce so that the next level of improvements can be made.
Plan Your Economic Future
Working with public and private sector leaders, we identify and evaluate economic and workforce challenges and find solutions.
Leadership Development
Regional leaders are trained on topics such as impact analysis and GIS instruction. Custom data trainings help meet municipal needs.
Manage Your Professional Networks
We provide a quantitative analysis approach to management support to professional agencies that focuses on community and economic development.
Technical Assistance
Our technical assistance aids policymakers and workforce development staff to better implement innovation and job-creation strategies.

Project Catalogue

Inventory of State Economic Development Investment Programs
SelectUSA
Start Date: May 2014 — End Date: Ongoing

The Council for Community and Economic Research (C2ER) in collaboration with CREC entered into a partnership with the U.S. Department of Commerce’s SelectUSA initiative to make some features of the State Business Incentives Database publicly available through www.selectusa.gov website. C2ER provides the database to SelectUSA through an application programming interface (API) to provide public to […]

C2ER Cost of Living Index
Council for Community and Economic Research
Start Date: Jan 2000 — End Date: Ongoing

CREC conducts a quarterly survey of prices for a basket of consumer goods and services. Published by C2ER, the Cost of Living Index provides a useful and accurate measure to compare cost of living differences among urban areas. Items on which the Index is based have been carefully chosen to reflect the different categories of […]

C2ER State Incentives Database: Stateincentives.org
Council for Community and Economic Research
Start Date: Oct 2004 — End Date: Ongoing

On behalf of C2ER, CREC has developed a national database of state business incentives with profiles on more than 1900 programs. The database (http://stateincentives.org/) was designed to give economic developers a one-stop resource for comparing incentive programs. Data provided in the database includes a fully searchable text description of the program as well as other […]

Development District Association of Appalachia (DDAA) Staff Support
Development District Association of Appalachia
Start Date: Jul 2018 — End Date: Ongoing

CREC is providing operational staff support to the Board of the Development District Association of Appalachia (DDAA). The goal is to strengthen the capacity of the region’s local development districts (LDDs) to partner with the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) in developing a more cohesive membership, providing a voice for LDDs in Washington, and managing the […]

Association of Public Data Users (Association Management)
Association of Public Data Users
Start Date: Jan 2008 — End Date: Ongoing

The Association of Public Data Users (APDU) is a national network that links users, producers, and disseminators of government and open-access statistical data. Members share a vital concern about the collection, dissemination, preservation, and interpretation of public data. CREC supports APDU's mission, and provides the high-talent staff, management, communications, and logistical support to help the organization achieve its annual goals.