In 2022, as part of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) the Agency of Commerce and Community Development (ACCD) received a federal grant from the Economic Development Administration (EDA) to work on economic planning in wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The goal of the grant was to help the State of Vermont define COVID-19 economic recovery areas and help prioritize existing resources through a formal framework and analysis. Additionally, the project identified and defined how state and regional organizations within the Vermont economic ecosystem can work together and design future federal funding strategies.
This work was also intended to better align state-level strategic priorities with regional priorities set by the state’s Economic Development Districts (EDD) and through their regional Comprehensive Economic Development Strategies (CEDS).
Like the ARPA Statewide Planning Grant, EDDs and CEDS are also EDA funded. Documents associated with the project:
- Current State Economic Summary (2022) is an overview of the economic landscape in the state of Vermont.
- Current State Program Comparison is a report is intended to compare a small subset of state programs that foster economic development to determine how those programs impact the Governor’s Statewide Strategic plan.
- Current State Program Peer Review looked at the same subset of state programs that foster economic development and compared them to how other states look at and execute similar initiatives.
- From the Current State Economic Summary, Current State Program Comparison and Peer Review six overarching themes emerged. These themes each represent a barrier or gap for the state’s economic recovery and growth. The Gap Analysis and Recommendations looks at those themes in more detail. In the recommendation section of the document, each recommendation for closing the gap is tied directly to regional CEDS priorities produced by the state’s EDDs. This exercise was intended to find areas of alignment so regional and statewide organizations can unify efforts when looking to obtain federal funding and grants.
- Given the large scope of ARPA, a spreadsheet of funding sources was developed that also ties back to statewide gaps and regional EDD/CEDS priorities.
- As part of the work to grow the economy, attract new businesses to the state, and create more high paying jobs around the state, ACCD also sought a Business Sector Cluster Analysis. The goal was to identify which industries and sectors the state was uniquely positioned to support or create a cluster – like manufacturing or technology. The analysis also looked at neighbor states and those state’s top sectors or industry clusters.