Letter from our CEO: What to Expect in 2020
posted on Wednesday, January 22, 2020 in Grow Cedar Valley
2019 was a solid year for Grow Cedar Valley and provided a platform for us to strengthen the Cedar Valley brand in 2020!
While the organization underwent rebranding through listening and responding to our stakeholders, the Cedar Valley has been gaining traction and momentum to strengthen our economy. A healthy business environment both depends upon and contributes to healthy communities. Healthy communities both depend upon and contribute to business growth and economic development – therein lies the synergy of weaving together community and economic development. Our role is to make connections – bringing businesses and communities together to provide opportunities!
With this engagement through rebranding, we learned every story is unique, but the needs of the business community are consistent: increase the talent supply, improve the community image and ensure opportunities for all to participate in the economy.
This list can be daunting but we are committed to moving the needle and making progress. There are barriers to overcome and our team is collaborating regularly to find and provide solutions to help our businesses and communities thrive!
Looking ahead we know there is exciting work to do! Live the Valley has become a creative and effective outreach initiative that has expanded to include virtual reality as well as employer engagement - geared to promote and celebrate the Cedar Valley and packaged as a one-stop resource. The analytics documented are impressive with more than a million sets of eyes following Cedar Valley successes.
For current and future workforce, we create and support initiatives that help develop job readiness skills and address challenges like diversity/inclusion, transportation, childcare and more.
Communication internally and externally is critical for us to grow as an organization and community. Throughout the next several months you will be hearing from our team members sharing updates and progress with their specific areas of expertise. Because of your support, the Cedar Valley is moving in the right direction and we invite you to reach out to any of our staff team or board members with your feedback or needs – together we can grow and we’re here to help that happen!
- Cary Darrah, President & CEO
