Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy will be more easily available
As the federally designated economic development agency for southeastern Connecticut, seCTer is required to produce the region’s Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS) report.
The most recent CEDS was released this past summer and a digital version is available for broader and more convenient distribution and use by municipalities, businesses, and the public at large. This digital version is provided by the StateBook platform, and provides interactive capabilities.
As described by the US Economic Development Administration, a CEDS report should be developed “with broad-based community participation and result in a document that is readily accessible to regional stakeholders. Potential partners for developing a CEDS could include government agencies, private sector interests, education providers, non-profits, community and labor groups, workforce boards, utilities, etc. Stakeholders should be able to use it as a guide to understanding the regional economy and to take action to improve it.”
A CEDS report consists of four main elements: summary background; SWOT analysis; strategic direction/action plan, evaluation framework.
The StateBook platform allows users to compare locations to identify the most strategic opportunities for investment, confirm project viability, and mitigate risk across disparate data sources, multiple geography levels, and over time.
This platform will allow our staff to more fully utilize CEDS data by filtering information to more efficiently compare locations and create custom reports using maps, microsites, and comparison platforms.
