A public-private partnership to promote rural economic development in
Minnesota will be announced today at a meeting of outstate foundations near
Brainerd.
The Regional Economic Development (RED) Group is intended to share
information and ideas, track development initiatives and then help regions
apply lessons about what works and what doesn't.
The system will "concentrate state and local resources more efficiently and
effectively," said Jim Hoolihan, president of the Blandin Foundation of
Grand Rapids, Minn., who convened the group. "RED links powerful public and
private resources to the same engine and puts them on the same track,
heading in the same direction."
Louis Hohlfeld, senior program officer of the McKnight Foundation, said it
is working with the RED Group in outstate areas just as it is working in the
Twin Cities with the Itasca Group, a collection of executives devoted to
civic progress.
Both foundations are funding the RED Group.
The group's principles suggest that the private sector must lead economic
development efforts while the public sector creates an infrastructure that
is responsive to business opportunities and promotes broadly shared economic
success.
Today's announcement notes that the Minnesota Department of Employment and
Economic Development has created six new jobs for regional workforce and
development specialists and the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities
system, earmarking $300,000 a year to coordinate planning and communication
among institutions outstate and in the Twin Cities area.
Other members of the group include the six outstate Minnesota foundations
that are meeting today, the Minnnesota Chamber of Commerce, other business
groups and the Center for Rural Policy at Minnesota State University,
Mankato.Star Tribune:
