Given that regional approaches to economic development have gained considerable momentum in the past few years, sustaining that momentum is a priority for Alexandria Wright and her colleagues at the Yavapai College Regional Economic Development Center (REDC).
To better fulfill that and other economic opportunity interests, Wright has initiated the Yavapai Rural Center for Entrepreneurship (YRCE) within the REDC.
The vision and mission, Wright explains, is to nurture innovative and creative talents and to encourage entrepreneurship through providing technical expertise in a structured and focused support system for invention and commercialization of companies that support high quality jobs and economic vitality.
“This will be Yavapai County’s first incubator,” she said. “We will combine incubator counseling services at the same location where the concept of ‘FabLabs’ has been incorporated into curriculum design.”
Wright and her staff recently moved their offices and resources from their Sheldon Street location to a much larger building where FabLabs are functioning. That new location is at the Career and Technical Center, 220 Ruger Road, just north of the Love Field Airport on the northeast edge of Prescott. The specific FabLabs include Machining, Robotics, Welding, Microelectronics, Mill Right and Gunsmithing.
“We’ll be directly linked to students in the FabLabs,” she said.
Those relocated offices also will house the REDC and the YRCE. The facility also will contain the Small Business Development Center, which provides counseling and educational services to entrepreneurs throughout the county. The SBDC also has sites at the Yavapai College Verde Valley campus in Clarkdale, at the Sedona Center for Arts and Technology in Sedona and the main campus in Prescott.
Ambitious Initiatives Are Characteristic of REDC
The REDC is fully integrated into academic programing at the college. Even so, Wright says because of the close tie between economic development initiatives and institutional advancement resources, she reports to the campus vice president of institutional advancement.
“This is a progressive model being implemented at community colleges throughout the nation,” said Wright. “Linking the economic analyses I produce with small business resources and job placement services, the incubator and corporate training for employers serves as a best practice model. It creates an efficient and effective approach for facilitation of economic development across the country.”
Wright believes the REDC can be of significant value to economic growth in Yavapai County and the region in a number of ways. She says the REDC produces various industry and work analyses to assist local communities. “I work with eight municipalities and a handful of unincorporated areas within the county. The analyses identify areas of current needs and future opportunities for growth and expansion, because they cross-reference quantitative data from state and federal resources with local information gathered from private, public and non-profit sector participants.”
Ordinarily, such data are not available to rural communities, she says.
“We’ve been able to identify new local credentials needed to accommodate employer demand. We can provide additional content needed in existing academic programing to fill skill needs. We can provide novel program initiatives, which build a bridge between academic and local economy and employment.”
The industry and labor analyses provided to municipalities in the region are “..pro bono [work undertaken for the public good without charge]. ” Wright said, “We also produce pro bono work such as a broadband demand study and labor market reports for business attraction. Those were for the Verde Valley Regional Economic Organization, the Prescott Valley Economic Development Foundation and the Greater Prescott Regional Economic Partnership.”
Another example of free service provided by the REDC is the coordination of Youth Town Halls in cooperation with the Arizona Town Hall organization and some of its partners. So far, three such youth town halls have been sponsored, all in an attempt to give students the experience of participating in democratic deliberation and consensus building.
Not all efforts are free. Wright explained, “Because we, too, are entrepreneurial in our mission, the REDC provides fee-based services for customized training and research needed by private sector companies.”
She said fees are used to fund the running of the REDC to help it provide community services and to be a bridge between academic and employment at little or no cost to taxpayers.
REDC Staff Members Have Diverse Backgrounds
Though a California native, Wright says she much prefers the economic atmosphere of Arizona, especially that in the rural communities. In fact, she is completing a doctorate in political and economic sciences at Northern Arizona University. Her dissertation is tentatively titled, “Sustainable Development Indicator Model for Capital Project Selection.”
Wright manages a staff of three employees and two career coaches. One of them is Kurt Haskell, who serves as the Small Business Development Center director. He had been a successful inventor and entrepreneur before working for Yavapai College.
Another is Al Carlow, a business analyst, who teaches coursework in entrepreneurship. Carlow has long-term experience in providing analytics and business plans. His career prior to joining the REDC included specializing in rural economic development at the regional and national levels.
Carlow says his passion is to “…help clients as much as possible, as long as is needed.”
One of the career coaches is Linda Brannock, a Prescott native. “My job,” she said, “is to match our students and other people with jobs that fit their training and abilities in a sound economic environment.”
Program Assistant Katherine Anderson devotes a significant amount of time to various communities in Yavapai County.
Just recently, staff at the REDC conducted a Fall 2015 Job Fair in Prescott Valley in cooperation with the Town of Prescott Valley, the Prescott Valley Chamber of Commerce, and Goodwill Industries of Central Arizona.
“That event was so successful, we’re already planning yet other jobs fairs for other communities in the county,” Wright said. “We’re confident that what we are doing will create economic opportunity and prosperity for all who live in Yavapai County. QCBN
By Ray Newton, QCBN