EDA UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR Regional Economic Innovation

This Co-Learning Plan examines how women workers and employers navigate the informal care and personal service sectors of the Detroit metropolitan region, focusing on immigrant and adjacent neighborhoods. The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic-based economic crisis has impacted women with layoffs in service...

As part of the 2021 Michigan State Practicum course, this project was completed by undergraduate and graduate students in the Urban and Regional Planning degree program. The Remote Working team worked in partnership...

The project examines how women workers and employers navigate the informal sector of Michigan’s economy. The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic and economic crisis has impacted women especially, with layoffs in service sector jobs and women leaving the labor force to care for children. Women engage the...

The Upper Peninsula is a unique place with unique challenges. Talent attraction and retention has long been one of the more prominent challenges. This project started by reviewing current literature on talent attraction efforts, gathered cost of living data in the Marquette, and later, put...

The talent disruption experienced by local communities is the number one economic development challenge of our time. Some of the causes of the disruption include a steady decline of the birth rate since 1957,...

The proposed action plan includes four primary projects designed to infuse more community benefits into Detroit development practice:

• Advocating for Detroit to adopt an incentive zoning policy
• Encouraging Detroit to adopt stronger engagement and noticing requirements...

Samantha Farr, Founder and Instructor to Women Who Weld, will be leading this Innovation Fellowship. Women Who Weld is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, based in Detroit, that teaches unemployed and underemployed women how to weld and find employment in the welding industry. Women Who Weld's 6-week...

Access to free or low-cost training programs that teach people skills needed for jobs that offer sustainable wages is critical for both human and economic development in Detroit. Farr provided free training in welding, career development, and communication skills, and hired a co-instructor, Ralph...

Over 22% of the Michigan workforce has "some college" but no degree. With the rapid increase of jobs requiring a post-secondary degree, creating programs that encourage the completion of a degree has the potential to improve workplace performance, career development, and the state's...

Opportunity Youth, or individuals aged 16-24 who are disconnected from both mainstream employment and a formal education setting, face obstacles that exceed the traditional dynamics associated with unemployment. In this Co-Learning Plan, the author examined the intersection of Evidence-Based...

Workforce Development is an important component in Economic Development and a primary focus for Michigan's political leaders. Determining success rates of various workforce Development models is incredibly important in properly spending on workforce programs. The Detroit Training Center...

This Co-Learning Plan discusses how to implement the Generation E model, a five step approach to developing youth entrepreneurship education in your community. Research was done to discover the regions that have the best climate for youth entrepreneurial development and programs will begin...

This Co-Learning Plan analyzed the demographics of returning veterans and military retirees, the range of skills these vets possess and the most common obstacles they will encounter. A list of programs serving veterans by state, including financing, training, assistance, etc. was compiled....

Women Who Weld, Detroit, MI. This project focused on further developing Women Who Weld, a program designed to teach women how to weld. Samantha Farr, the founder and lead instructor, recruited two women from COTS, the Coalition on Temporary Shelter, and spent a week teaching the two participants...

This project focused on real estate, business development, and community engagement/workforce development related to this specific Mt. Elliott industrial area, honing in on certain specific site or nodes within this expanse. Mt. Elliott includes the GM Poletown plan and many other industrial...

This research focuses on the skills gap in the Michigan manufacturing sector, with an emphasis on how producer firms can play a role to address workforce development obstacles by collaborating with institutions and actors in their local supply chains and industrial clusters.

Project...

This proposed study examined community service outreach centers (or programs) that are hosted by institutes of higher education in the distressed communities of Detroit, Michigan; Flint, Michigan and Grand Rapids, Michigan. The study will outline the current community based outreach programs...

Following up on 2012's Co-Learning Plan, this project built on previous research to develop the concept of "online academic abilities" and how states contribute to such an objective.

Project Updated As Of September 30th, 2013

This research built on national educational attainment and economic growth research and offers an analysis of Michigan efforts to promote investments in education and training that leads to sub-baccalaureate credentials tied to business and industry needs. It included strategies for increasing...

The purpose of this Co-Learning Plan was to examine the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) skills or "digital literacy" skills gap and its relationship to workforce and economic development in Michigan.

Project Updated As Of September 30th, 2013

The Pay it Forward Initiative connected people to opportunities in our shared communities. PIFI addresses a wide array of life challenges and helps clients overcome these hurdles. Founder Charlie Cavell shares client stories of achievement, disappointment, lessons learned and raises...

Michigan's public postsecondary institutions have long benefited from their constitutional autonomy. But, do the new digital conditions of higher education offer opportunities for innovative forms of collaboration, particularly those promoting degree attainment, and thus work force and...

This report explored an increase in educational attainment through academic programs, mentoring, and internships to improve the workforce and increase economic development activities.

Project Updated As Of September 30th, 2012

This Co-Learning Plan introduced new knowledge about internship programs in distressed communities. It examines best practices for creating internship programs that work with community development organizations and relates them back to Mr. Kaczynski's personal experiences at Saginaw Valley...