Sen. Jesse Helms dies at 86
Spotted at the Cityfolk Festival
July 4th celebrations nationwide
Leaders sought to be catalysts in region's creative class initiative
Sunday, January 20, 2008
DAYTON — — The money is raised, the consultant is hired and Richard Florida himself will be here in March to train Daytonians on how to build and sustain "creative class" growth here in the Miami Valley.
The Creative Region Initiative, the moniker given to the local effort begun a year ago by the Southwestern Ohio Council for Higher Education and a task force of 20 community groups, kicks off today with a call for 30 volunteers to be trained by Florida's consulting company, the Creative Class Group.
Extras
Since announcing the idea in October, SOCHE and the task force have raised $130,000 of the $150,000 in cash needed for the effort, along with a $25,000 in-kind donation to pay the salary of a project manager.
Now they're looking for volunteer emerging leaders, which Florida's company calls "catalysts," to study economic and demographic data gathered by Florida's group, inventory efforts already in the works and learn community building practices and a framework for building regional prosperity, SOCHE said Friday.
After they're selected, the 30 catalysts will meet March 5-6 at the Cannery Art and Design Center downtown with Florida and then work for a year to foster new ideas for the area, said Sean Creighton, executive director of SOCHE and chair of the task force.
The goal is to foster an environment that retains a talented work force, attracts new talent from around the globe and empowers the region.
Florida, author of the bestseller "Rise of the Creative Class" and an urban theorist based in Toronto, argues that the presence of a "high bohemian" class of artists, engineers, musicians, high-tech workers and creative thinkers drives economic growth more than the older approach of attracting companies.
Creative class workers — people who "think" for a living and which he estimates at over 30 percent of the nation's population — are key to the future of any region hoping to take advantage of the changes afoot across the global economy, Florida argues.
They look to live in areas with robust labor markets, a variety of lifestyles, venues for social interaction, diversity and "authenticity," a city's unique sense of place.
Greg Brumitt, recreation director at Five Rivers MetroParks and a member of the task force, said that while Florida's other community clients — Tallahassee, Tacoma and El Paso — are still too early in the process to show any results, he has seen first hand in other cities how "a vibrant work force is attracted to places that are thinking progressively," he said.
The creative class approach "is not a substitute for classic economic development, but it's a layer of it," Brumitt said.
Arts organizations have rallied behind the idea since October, said Denise Reig, president of CultureWorks, an arts funding and services agency.
"We in the arts community have been working for years to leverage what we have here and see this as a confirmation of the torch we are all already carrying," she said. "It's not about whether all the entities here are doing their job. It's how to make what they're doing part of the solution in attracting the creative class."
What is the creative class?
Occupations such as engineers, university professors, artists, poets, architects, health care professionals and business management in which a high degree of formal education and creativity are core components.
What makes a city creative?
The three T's: a talented, skilled, educated population; a tolerant, diverse community outlook; and a technological infrastructure necessary to support an entrepreneurial culture. In building a a creative class, there's a fourth T: Territorial assets.
To apply for the creative class initiative
Contact the Southwestern Council on Higher Education at (937) 258-8890. Download applications at www.soche.org.
Applications are due Feb. 8 and catalysts will be notified Feb. 18.
