Equitable Solutions for the Next Generation of Cities: ICIC Launches What Works Campaign

Sharing the top solutions for creating jobs and economic prosperity in America's cities

BOSTON, Feb. 23, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC), a national non-profit research and strategy organization and the leading authority on inner city economies, announced today the launch of a campaign to aggregate successful urban economic and business development practices.

The need to create economic opportunity in America's cities is mounting: people are moving back downtown and reurbanizing our urban cores. Cities around the country are pushing forward, finding creative ways to accommodate growth and jumpstart local economic recovery.  ICIC's What Works campaign highlights these city solutions so all stakeholders - including public, private and non-profit leaders - are able to learn from each other and implement variations in their own cities.

What Works is a one-of-a-kind aggregation of case studies bridging the gap between urban economic development research and practical implementation.  The campaign's digital platform will allow stakeholders to share what has worked to create jobs and equitable business growth in their cities, discuss how to implement the best practices in their individual communities and address how to overcome the challenges inhibiting economic prosperity. 

"Our goal is to bring to light the practices and programs making a difference in our most economically distressed communities today - and uncover how they can be used as models for other cities," said Mary Kay Leonard, President and CEO of ICIC.  "Too often we focus on the challenges faced by our cities - it's time we start trumpeting some of the successes."

Highlights of the What Works: Solutions for Cities campaign include:

• A comprehensive digital index of best practices and innovative programs that will significantly impact job creation in America's depressed urban communities;
• An interface for engagement between on-the-ground practitioners and economic development thought leaders to facilitate the conversion of research into practice;
• Frequent expert training seminars providing attendees with the know-how and tools to successfully implement similar strategies in their own cities; and
• An annual Inner City Economic Summit each fall to convene a select group of experienced government, corporate and non-profit leaders to develop business-led strategies to foster urban economic and business development.   

The What Works digital catalogue will initially focus on the solutions offering the highest economic opportunity for urban centers: leveraging anchor institutions, transforming the industrial sector, supporting the growing food cluster, and strategically investing in local clusters.

The campaign's first training seminar will take place on March 1st where participants will learn how to better engage local anchor institutions in urban economic development efforts. Anchors, such as the "eds and meds," have a major presence in inner cities: they account for 11% of jobs and are the single largest employer in 66 of the 100 largest inner cities. Andrew Frank, Special Advisor to the President on Economic Development at Johns Hopkins University and former Deputy Mayor of Baltimore, will lead a discussion on how Hopkins and the City collaborated with stakeholders to create East Baltimore Development, Inc. - the organization responsible for the 88 acre redevelopment of the depressed Middle East neighborhood - and the strategies to overcome obstacles they faced in their ambitious initiative.

About ICIC: The Initiative for a Competitive Inner City is a non-profit research and strategy organization and the leading authority on U.S. inner city economies and the businesses that thrive there. Founded in 1994 by Harvard Business School Professor Michael Porter, ICIC expands inner city economies by providing businesses, governments and investors with the most comprehensive and actionable information in the field about urban market opportunities. ICIC's unique knowledge and expertise about inner city success factors and thriving companies is developed from specialized urban networks and path-breaking research. www.icic.org

SOURCE Initiative for a Competitive Inner City