Plan Your Economic Future

CREC facilitates meaningful conversations between public and private sector leaders to identify and evaluate chronic or emerging economic and workforce challenges.
Addressing those challenges involves:

• Collaborative strategies that generate stakeholder consensus
• Customized, growth-oriented solutions
• Developing and implementing plans

Customized Planning

Sustainable, effective plans require thought, energy, and crucial stakeholder buy-in. CREC’s planning process evolves based on each project, and we recognize that planning builds on past efforts. For every project, CREC facilitates your efforts by helping you:

  • Create jobs
  • Generate economic prosperity
  • Ensure that you can successfully manage the ongoing implementation process

Guiding Your Region for Decades to Come

Beyond leading the economic planning process, our staff is also trained to help regional leaders:

  • Facilitate stakeholder meetings with the goals of achieving issue consensus and/or plan buy-in
  • Bring private and public sector leaders together to have effective conversations and develop consensus around important issues
  • Develop tailored case examples that highlight best practices from regions with similar challenges
  • Establish benchmarks for success and processes for measuring them

For more information about past experiences putting together economic or workforce development strategies and implementation plans, please feel free to reach out to our CEO, Ken Poole, directly at kpoole@crec.net.

Related Projects

State of the Region: Examining Changes to the Appalachian Region Since 1965
Appalachian Regional Commission
Start Date: Nov 2013 — End Date: Dec 2014

This study, commissioned by the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC), "Appalachian Then and Now: Examining 50 Years of Changes to the Appalachian Region Since 1965" analyzes 50 years of socioeconomic trends, including poverty, income disparity, unemployment, employment change, population change, economic and industry mix, educational attainment, housing quality, health, transportation access, and telecommunications capacity in the Appalachian Region and summarizes the economic impacts accruing to the Region through ARC’s non-highway investments.

Post-Disaster Economic Recovery for Manufacturing Facilities
American Planning Association
Start Date: Oct 2014 — End Date: Dec 2014

CREC produced a briefing paper on post-disaster economic recovery for manufacturing facilities as part of the American Planning Association's work with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to create briefing papers for planners concerning “Planning for Post-Disaster Recovery: Next Generation.”

Small Business Supply Chain Opportunities in Northwest Pennsylvania
American Planning Association
Start Date: Oct 2013 — End Date: Sep 2014

In partnership with the U.S. Small Business Administration and Entreworks Consulting, CREC is conducting a comprehensive manufacturing supply chain analysis for Northwest Pennsylvania along with hosting matchmaking events designed to help local small businesses capture new supply chain opportunities in transportation equipment manufacturing and shale gas production industries.

Diversifying Appalachia: Metrics, Tools, Strategies, and Guides
Appalachian Regional Commission
Start Date: Oct 2012 — End Date: Oct 2013

CREC, working in collaboration with the University of Illinois’ Regional Economics Applications Laboratory, developed a set of diversity measures to better understand the relationship between economic diversity and economic growth and development.

Grant Proposal Management, Advanced Manufacturing Jobs and Innovation Accelerator
Arizona Commerce Authority
Start Date: Jun 2012 — End Date: Jul 2012

C2ER collaborated closely with ACA Business Development staff to develop the concept and win themes for a successful $1.7 million grant to support the state’s aerospace and defense industries. The proposal involved preparing scopes of work for five different Federal agencies (e.g., Employment and Training Administration, Small Business Administration, Economic Development Administration, Department of Energy, and NIST Manufacturing Extension Partnership) designed to meet their individual needs as well as drafting a cohesive project narrative to engage the cross-agency collaborative.
1 2 3 4 5 6