JCCI Study Committee chair, Elaine Brown, held audiences captivated yesterday afternoon at a lunchtime meeting at the Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront. Elaine was presenting the findings of nearly 4 months of research.
The Recession, Recovery…and Beyond study was the 71st JCCI community study conducted to discover where and how new jobs could be created to help the Northeast Florida area recover from the devastating blow of the recession.
What the Study Committee found was that there is immense opportunity in Northeast Florida for job growth with Duval County as the economic driver.
The recommendations in the study included growing and attracting small businesses, providing better education to future members of the workforce, and nurturing the valuable industries already in place in the area.
According to Brown, Northeast Florida holds tremendous business opportunities in the following fields: port logistics, health and medical sciences, and associated industries, aviation/aerospace and defense contracting, and financial services.
However, the lack of consistent leadership in the region makes it difficult to implement lasting policies and therefore, to foster sustainable growth. Northeast Florida needs to develop a consistent shared vision and support proactive leaders who think regionally when developing and implementing public policy.
Elaine Brown took the wheel with regards to steering the Study Committee. She started the journey not knowing where the research would lead her. For her extraordinary leadership, Elaine Brown was awarded with an antique captain’s wheel.
As Brown stood behind the podium, she urged the community leaders and elected officials from the seven different counties in the region to do what she had demonstrated could be done.
The seven counties of Northeast Florida need to come together to support standardized leadership and to unify the region under one common goal – recovering from and moving beyond the effects of the recession.
To learn more about JCCI’s recommendations or to join the committee’s Implementation Task Force, contact Steve Rankin, at 904.396.3052 or steve@jcci.org.
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