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Economic Resilience

Threat avoidance and rapid recovery through preparation

Anticipating economic disruptors and minimizing their impact

For the purposes of this document, we define economic resilience as the ability to anticipate threats to our economy, reduce the impact of these threats by taking preemptive action, respond appropriately and efficiently when these threats materialize, and have a plan in place for recovery.

Generally speaking, these threats can be economic events such a plant closures, infrastructure disruptions, financial shocks; they can be natural events (weather‐related), or they can be technological threats, such as hazardous material accidents, pandemic diseases, terrorism, etc., and can greatly cause an economic disruption or collapse within a community.

According to the U.S. Economic Development Administration, establishing economic resilience in a local or regional economy requires the ability to anticipate risk, evaluate how that risk can impact key economic assets, and build a responsive capacity.

Economic Disruptions
  • National
    • Debt policies reducing capacity to finance opportunities
    • Shifting trade relations influencing goods and services
  • Regional
    • Key economic activity sector downturns in particular industries that constitute a critical component of the region's economic activity, such as construction and real estate
    • External shock from hazardous weather
    • Stock reduction due to Avian Influenza and fish die-offs

Economic Resilience

Economic diversification and readiness

Our region’s economy has grown more diversified, thanks to deliberate efforts of our county economic development decision makers. In addition, our workforce development programs have become more industry specific, more employer driven, and more outcomes based. Our emergency management agencies have greatly enhanced their disaster preparedness plans and have conducted many exercises including desktop simulations. To this end, we have established the following three economic resilience goals:

  • Task Force

    Establish a team whose responsibility is identify leading indicators of economic disruption to better anticipate periods of instability. At the outset of this effort, we administer an Economic Resilience Survey to our CEDS Committee members and our key stakeholders. This survey is an adapted version of the survey developed by our sister region to the north, the Mid‐Shore Regional Council.

    • Survey Stakeholders

      Establish a baseline of economic resilience awareness and preparedness already taking place in the region.

  • Contingency Planning

    The task force will also develop contingency plans for a variety of potential economic disruptions based on our physical, economic, and social vulnerabilities. These contingency plans will help us undertake mitigating actions to reduce the impact of different types of economic disruptions, whether they are anticipated or unexpected.

    • Develop Roadmap

      "Game out" potential economic disasters and develop tailored action plans to further prevent or temper.

  • Empowering Stakeholders

    Finally, the task force will help organize key organizations and stakeholders in preparation for the various stages of emergency response, restoration, reconstruction, and community betterment to ensure rapid and complete recovery after an economic disruption takes place.

    • Organized Response

      Mobilization of resources and coordination of relief in response to economic downturns.

Resilience Strategy

In all these activities we will emphasize the fact that, at the regional or community level, economic development practitioners are instrumental in building the capacity for economic resilience. Economic development professionals and organizations often become the focal point for post-incident coordination, information dissemination, responding to external inquiries, and the lead grant administrator for federally‐funded recovery initiatives.

The task force activities will be focused around:

  • Engaging in comprehensive planning efforts that includes the integration and/or alignment of other planning efforts (e.g., hazard mitigation plans) and funding sources;
  • Undertaking efforts to broaden the industrial base with diversification initiatives, such as targeting the development of emerging clusters or industries that (a) build on the region’s unique assets and competitive strengths; and (b) provide stability during downturns that disproportionately impact any single cluster or industry;
  • Adapting business retention and expansion programs (e.g., economic gardening or other enterprise supports) to assist firms with economic recovery post-disruption;
  • Building a resilient workforce that can better shift between jobs or industries when their core employment is threatened through job-driven skills strategies and support organizations;
  • Ensuring redundancy in telecommunications and broadband networks to protect commerce and public safety in the event of natural or manmade disasters;
  • Promoting business continuity and preparedness (i.e., ensuring businesses understand their vulnerabilities—including supply chains—in the face of disruptions and are prepared to take actions to resume operations after an event); and
  • Employing safe development practices in business districts and surrounding communities.