MCEDC

Region Secures $3 million for entrepreneurship

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ELKHART, INDIANA, SEPTEMBER 20, 2012. – The Corporate Partnership for Economic Growth (CPEG) announced today that North Central Indiana has secured three million dollars to support entrepreneurship and venture development in the region.

Leading businesses and institutions from throughout the region are committing $1 million to fund the Regional Entrepreneurial Action Plan (REAP). The $1 million commitment will be matched by a $2 million investment by the Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC). This funding will be provided to Elevate Ventures, a venture development organization, to provide services to entrepreneurs in Elkhart, Kosciusko, Marshall and St. Joseph counties.

CPEG President and CEO Shawn Peterson led the fundraising effort in the region. “By raising the $1 million, our community confirmed its commitment to local entrepreneurs whose companies have high growth potential,” says Peterson. “I want to thank our donors for their leadership and vision in supporting Elevate Ventures. Together, we look forward to watching our local entrepreneurs build and expand their businesses in North Central Indiana.”

Contributors in North Central Indiana include the 1st Source Foundation, CB Richard Ellis, the Community Foundation of St. Joseph County, Crowe Horwath LLP, the Elkhart County Community Foundation, Elkhart General Hospital, Key Bank, Lake City Bank, McGladrey LLP, Memorial Hospital and Health System, Mutual Bank, NIPSCO, Old National Bank, StepStone Angels – Warsaw, the University of Notre Dame, and an anonymous donor.

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There’s still time to fill out the CPEG survey today!

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If you haven’t taken the time to fill out the CPEG survey, please do so.  It’s important that all local business participate to achieve the best results.  As of Wednesday, Marshall County had the poorest participation rate!  That’s not good!!!

You can read more about it and find the survey links in our previous post here (or just scroll down a couple of posts.)  The survey is scheduled to close today, so please take a few minutes to give us your input!

Coalition Launches First Step in Developing a Comprehensive Talent Strategy for Michiana

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Whether you employ sewing machine operators or software developers, teachers or technicians, CNC operators or CNAs, finding and developing talent is mission critical.  It’s also mission critical for the future growth of our region, and that is why your participation in this study is needed.

Marshall County Economic Development Corporation, the Corporate Partnership for Economic Growth (CPEG), and other regional economic development and education stakeholders are partnering in an effort to better understand the workforce needs of local business and industry. 

This collaborative Regional Workforce Initiative has three goals: 

  1. Fill specific existing positions – through recruitment, re-training, etc.
  2. Assess general workforce skills deficits to address through education and workforce programs
  3. Assess emerging industries and workforce needs to develop a complete workforce plan for 2020

You can be a part of this initiative by completing the workforce survey located here.  

The goal of the survey is to quantify the number of open positions, assess skills gaps, and identify barriers to company growth related to workforce issues.  

The survey will take approximately 15 minutes, and should be completed by business owners, managers, human resource managers or someone with in-depth knowledge of your company’s current and future hiring needs.  The survey requests information about current full-time openings and anticipated openings over the next 6 months, including salary, skills, and education requirements.  You cannot save your responses and return later. 

All information will be kept confidential.

The survey will be open until Friday, July 27th.  Results will be compiled to inform work sessions focused on identifying solutions to address the barriers to filling existing positions. Only companies in Marshall, Kosciusko, Elkhart, St. Joseph and Fulton Counties that complete the survey are eligible to participate in these work sessions.

Additional details about the Regional Workforce Initiative, including a list of the regional partners supporting this effort, can be found at www.cpeg.org.

Thank you for your time in completing the survey, and for helping to be a part of the solution!

MCEDC, Social Media and Just Being Awesome!

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One of my ToDo List items as Chairman of Marshall County Economic Development Corporation (MCEDC) was to see a new website up and running and get MCEDC tied into some of the social media outlets.  Thanks to Jennifer, Derek and Pam, this is one I can strike off my list.  (The benefits of Chairing organizations is that you can direct other people to do things and then take credit for their hard work.  Thanks guys!)  If you haven’t visited the new website, you can do so here.  It takes most of the good things from the old site and has added some functionality.  Some of these originated internally and some were the result of our work with Ady Voltedge on our marketing plan.

The website has been up since the first quarter of this year.  In the past month, Derek has added the social media connections.  MCEDC is now posting to Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter.  You can go to the MCEDC home page and there are a couple of places with the connection buttons for these services.  Visit the site!  More clicks there help our SEO (Search Engine Optimization) ratings and that could mean the difference in attracting new business to Marshall County.  If you Google it to find it, that helps even more…

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