CEDS are designed to bring together the public and private sectors in the creation of an economic roadmap to diversify and strengthen the regional economy. The CEDS should analyze the regional economy and serve as a guide for establishing regional goals and objectives, developing and implementing a regional plan of action, and identifying investment priorities and funding sources. In addition, many federal and state granting programs are looking to a regional CEDS when making funding decisions.
Objective 1 Act regionally.
Objective 2 Create an entrepreneurial environment
and culture to enhance existing businesses and grow new business.
Objective 3 Improve wage parity with the surrounding laborshed.
Objective 4 Increase the size and quality of the Workforce.
Objective 5 Retain and attract younger talent through engagement linkages, lifestyle amenities, and meaningful career opportunities.
Objective 6 Develop immediate VY-specific workforce and site mitigation strategies prior to the 2014 closure of Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant.
A CEDS must be the result of an ongoing economic development planning process, developed with broad-based and diverse public and private sector participation, and must include a section listing all suggested projects and the projected numbers of jobs created. The CEDS will also contain a section identifying and prioritizing vital projects, programs and activities that address the region’s greatest needs or that will best enhance the region’s competitiveness.
The CEDS is a regional plan for growth of the economy created using a regional public approach. It is helpful for the rest of the region as well as potential new businesses to understand what we as a region are trying to accomplish. Inclusion of your project in the CEDS indicates it is aligned with regional goals for growth. Identification of your project as a vital project indicates the project is of the highest priority and expected to have the greatest impacts on achieving the regional goals.
While inclusion of your project in no way guarantees funding of any sort, many federal agencies look more favorably upon projects which have the kind of broad support inclusion in a region CEDS indicates. EDA often requires a CEDS be in place for a region in order for a project grant application to be considered.
In addition, to be eligible to apply to receive funds from the State of Vermont’s Windham County Economic Development Program the FAQ’s state that: “only projects that meet a goal or objective of the CEDS will be eligible for funding.”
Yes, the EDA requires that all projects submitted should be acknowledged in the CEDS. Every project has some merit, and the CEDS will be home to a great diversity of potential public and private development initiatives. However, certain projects will be identified and selected as vital projects, and they will be prioritized into a short list of ten to twelve. The purpose of this prioritized list is to publically acknowledge the top actions that will result in the most significant progress towards the region’s economic development goals.
The overarching purpose in identifying vital projects is to publicly acknowledge the top actions our region can support that will make demonstrable progress towards our regional economic development goals. SeVEDS has an established set of measurable goals with objectives and a clear set of strategies. Projects consistent with these objectives and strategies and can demonstrate a compelling argument for their relationship to the goals will obviously garner a great deal of support.
A scoring chart has been developed by SeVEDS that that will be put to use by the project selection committee. Each proposal will be reviewed and assigned a series of points in an effort to aid the committee with the prioritization.
The project selection committee is a group of 5-10 individuals that represent the region and are firmly established in their field of expertise.
2017-2018 CEDS Project Review Committee
Vicki Capitani, Deerfield Valley News
Todd Fahey, Brattleboro Memorial Hospital
Jill James, Chroma Technology Corp
Martin Langeveld, Town of Vernon Planning Commision
Leigh Marthe, Community College of Vermont
Steve Neratko, Town of Dover
Kate O’Connor, Brattleboro Area Chamber of Commerce
David Rees, Bennington College
Tim Scoggins, Town of Shaftsbury
Serenity Wolf, M&S Development
Any private or public entity or consortium of entities can submit a project for consideration.
You need to submit a status update on the project in order for it to be included in the 2017-2018 CEDS project list. Please include what has been accomplished in the past year, what resources has your project gathered, how have the plans changed must be included.
Simply put, projects submitted for inclusion into the CEDS will provide a compelling narrative. The CEDS project review committee will have one opportunity to review the submission, and so you will be responsible for explaining how your project is consistent with SeVEDS regional economic development objectives and strategies and why your project is this region’s best bet to make a significant improvement against the regional economic development goals.