Eight Communities Selected to Help Research COVID-19 Economic Recovery

WASHINGTON - EntSun -- The International Economic Development Council (IEDC) has selected eight organizations across the country to partner with for the next 12 months to track the success of COVID-19 recovery and relief programs at the local level. IEDC will engage with each community numerous times to learn about the progress of initiatives to assist businesses, maintain or create jobs, or otherwise help economies that have been affected by the global pandemic. The U.S. Economic Development Administration has invested CARES Act funds in this project, which supports EDA's mission to promote national economic recovery from the impacts of Coronavirus.

The organizations that IEDC will work with are:

• Albemarle Commission, North Carolina
• City of Port Arthur Economic Development Corporation, Texas
• Jefferson Parish Economic Development Commission, Louisiana
• Develop Indy, Indiana
• Bent County Development Foundation, Colorado
• City of Martinsburg, West Virginia
• Downtown Stockton Alliance, California
• Tri-County Economic Development District, Washington

Each organization will be matched with an IEDC member volunteer who will provide tailored technical assistance to the community.  At the conclusion of the project, IEDC will provide recommendations to enhance the resiliency sections of these organization's Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS) or equivalent documents.

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IEDC will supplement its research findings on economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic with a review of best and promising practices in disaster response, recovery, and resilience over the last fifteen years. This research will draw on IEDC's extensive work in economic recovery, including assistance after Hurricane Katrina, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Superstorm Sandy, numerous hurricanes along the gulf and east coasts, flooding in the Midwest, and other disasters. IEDC has sent over 350 volunteers and completed an estimated 200 technical assistance assignments across more than twenty states and territories.

At the end of this project, IEDC will release a research report with lessons learned from local communities facing the effects of COVID-19 and past research to help inform communities' economic decision making.

IEDC will also use this opportunity to update "Leadership in Times of Crisis," a publication previously prepared with funding from EDA, to reflect the state-of-the-art in recovery and resilience and to include new information on pandemics.

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This press release was prepared by the International Economic Development Council using federal funds under award ED20HDQ3070067 from the Economic Development Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce. The statements, findings, conclusions, and recommendations are those of IEDC and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Economic Development Administration or the U.S. Department of Commerce.