This feedback helped shape the Community Growth Academy— a new program that helps communities position themselves for a successful future.

Participants in the Community Growth Academy will receive technical assistance, opportunities for peer-to-peer learning, individualized technical assistance from a team of consultants, and ongoing support from State of Michigan staff to identify, test, and adopt strategies for economic growth and resilience. The program is designed to support communities that want to collaborate on locally designed projects, such as creating an economic diversification action plan, establishing a workforce retraining program, repurposing a vacant site, supporting entrepreneurship, or other projects designed to help their community thrive. 

Kate Bell, former CEDAM Community Development Fellow, is now the Transition Office’s Deputy Director and is overseeing the Community Growth Academy launch. 

“Across the state, whether you’re working for county government, a municipality, or you’re a public servant, we have an abundance of passionate leaders,” said Bell. “But those passionate leaders are often left with limited resources, forcing long-term planning and strategy development take a back burner. That’s where the Community Growth academy can help – offering added capacity to support local goals.”

Bell sees the Community Growth Academy as two phases:

1. Identify the coalitions of entities that come together to create a strong Community Growth Academy application with diverse stakeholders.
2. Launch the Fellowship in partnership with CEDAM to add capacity to each community with an individual whose sole responsibility is to work on actions related to the Community Growth Academy.