Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter

CAT Tracks for February 25, 2008 MAPPING A ROUTE TO PROSPERITY

Connect SI works on economic development plan for region

By Karen Binder, The Southern Illinoisan

CARTERVILLE - Ninety-nine percent of Cairo public school students come from families on food stamps.

Only 54 percent of the 20-county Southern Illinois population has graduated from high school.

The region sees an average 3 to 4 percent annual economic growth rate, well behind the 5 to 6 percent national annual average.

These statistics are among dozens that community and business leaders have been voluntarily sifting through to write a new prosperity plan for the region. They are working together as Connect SI.

Some may recall the name from a broadband technology expansion initiative launched two years ago. Today, Connect SI is that and more.

With 18 months of work completed, the group plans to move forward now that it has identified where the region must go and what that move is worth in its Strategic Roadmap 2008-2012 plan.

So what if all the goods and services of the 20-county area added up to a $31.5 billion gross regional product by 2012? Stan Halle, a consultant with ViTAL Economic Alliance in Maryland, said Southern Illinois could hit this economic milestone, one that would put the region on equal footing with Costa Rica as having the 84th largest gross national product worldwide.

ViTAL consultants were hired to help Connect SI members write the economic and community development plan that potentially could put Southern Illinois on the map as a thriving global workplace. In the past 15 years, ViTAL staff have worked with Tasmania, rural British Columbia, Nova Scotia, the city of Baltimore and the state of North Carolina. ViTAL is now working with southwest Tennessee, the state of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont as a region, and Southern Illinois.

"You have said you want to prosper in spite of Springfield," Halle said. "Here is a very powerful way for you to do it on your own."

Strategic Roadmap

The effort will help create opportunity in such industries as tourism, bio-agriculture, knowledge-based enterprises (such as health care technology products and services; recreational, marine, hunting technology products and services; green technologies or visual creative and performing arts and services), global workforce opportunities, energy, mining technology, senior living and transportation, logistics and warehousing.

Why these industries? Connect SI officials see them as the best matches for the region's existing abilities, with most of those assets far from achieving their full potential.

Speaking of potential, the effort has already mapped out those assets. Many are familiar, such as Southern Illinois University with its status as a research and development institution, and the region's recreational natural resources.

But some ideas, such as knowledge-based enterprises and global opportunity, may seem new. A recurring concept throughout the plan, which is more than development jargon, is what consultants call knowledge-based enterprises. While a Google search for the phrase lists first a Connect SI glossary, it is a term used by the likes of Harvard Business School, Wall Street and management scion Peter Drucker to describe businesses built around knowledge systems and management. They are critical to the plan because they are the kind of businesses that attract higher skilled employees who earn higher salaries.

All of these goals have been detailed in what Connect SI officials call the Strategic Roadmap.

'Transformational' course

"The whole idea of turning around this economy is the core message to this plan," Jim Haguewood of ViTAL said.

It's a huge task, he said, adding that "3,000 people need to be involved to make this happen." The region is home to an estimated 423,000 population, so less than 1 percent of this group must be tapped to help achieve these goals.

Connect SI Executive Director Kathy Lively pointed out elected officials alone could account for 1,000 of the needed manpower.

Here are the goals:

Mindset and behavior: Increase the number of involved residents and collaborative funding by 300 percent and build a climate of unlimited economic opportunity through creation of 1,600 knowledge-based firms by 2012. Increase the number of involved residents and collaborative funding by 300 percent and build a climate of unlimited economic opportunity through creation of 1,600 knowledge-based firms by 2012.

Economic performance: Increase the region's value of goods and services as the gross regional product by $3.5 billion a year, its average annual growth rate from 1.34 percent to 3.85 percent, and its state and local tax revenues by $200 million or more a year by 2012. Increase the region's value of goods and services as the gross regional product by $3.5 billion a year, its average annual growth rate from 1.34 percent to 3.85 percent, and its state and local tax revenues by $200 million or more a year by 2012.

Enabling environment: Create a collaborative regional culture of livable communities with planning and zoning standards, with global best practice broadband penetration, and reduce by half the region's top ranking in 15 of 18 Illinois Poverty Summit indicators by 2012. Create a collaborative regional culture of livable communities with planning and zoning standards, with global best practice broadband penetration, and reduce by half the region's top ranking in 15 of 18 Illinois Poverty Summit indicators by 2012.

Leadership and governance frameworks: Realize a "Crossing the Boundaries" vision of Connect SI by expanding the base of collaborative leaders by 500 persons and using regional collaborative governance frameworks to fund, resource and manage a dynamic economy.

Road bumps

Halle said perhaps one of the biggest challenges to overcome is the residents' negative mindset. This attitude is manifested many ways, Halle said, ranging from accepting poverty to telling children they will have to move out of the region to find jobs, to territorial local governments that do not understand regional impact.

For an estimated $9 million "investment" into the plan, Connect SI officials believe the payback will be worth fighting for - 50,789 jobs and all the advantages that come with growth.

"The word is out. People know something's going on," Lively said.