Oregon Economic Recovery and Resiliency Cohort
OVERVIEW
Small and rural communities don’t always have the same resources and capacities as larger, more urban peers to enable needed economic development planning. This was the case for three organizations in Oregon: the City of Corvallis Economic Development, Lane County Economic Development, and Oregon Cascades West Council of Governments. This cohort—a city, a county, and a regional government— contracted with Coraggio to assist in creating an Economic Recovery and Resiliency Plan for each entity, laying the groundwork to enable them to be nimble and respond to unforeseen crises such as the recent coronavirus pandemic. Even though each organization was facing similar challenges brought about by the pandemic, each community had unique needs and challenges to address. Coming together as a cohort allowed cross pollination of ideas and created relationships for continued collaboration. We helped each organization assess their current capacity, think through various economic scenarios, prioritize near-term actions and initiatives, and identify implementation resources. The resulting economic recovery plans were designed to stabilize and give focus for 12-18 months, and training was provided around forming response teams, measuring and monitoring success, and when and how to consider new strategies.
OUTCOMES
Each organization came away with a roadmap to give direction in a time of great challenge—the coronavirus pandemic—with scenario strategies, decision criteria, and prioritized and sequenced action items.
Working together created relationships between these unique entities, helping them see one another as resources, thought partners, and potential collaborators in new and ongoing initiatives.
Facing similar challenges but each having their own unique circumstances, the organizations that came together in this cohort not only built actionable resolutions in a time of crisis, they made local connections with colleagues that will continue to provide support and resources.
APPROACH
We gathered the cohort agencies together, asking each of them to share in advance community specific worksheets profiling their organization, the community they serve, and their current their current situation, as well as any existing strategic plans. Through a series of four workshops, we discussed and addressed the following topics:
Organizational capacity
Economic scenarios and indicators
Decision criteria
Near-term strategic actions and initiatives
Initiative phasing and sequencing
Initiative resourcing and response teams