What Works

What the signs are telling us....

Like many “Rust Belt” communities, Erie is experiencing difficulty producing highly skilled workers and retaining them locally to apply their skills and invest long-term in the community. The community has been subject to this “brain drain” for over a generation, a downward spiral in which lack of jobs produces a flight of talent and the flight of talent further ensures the erosion of employment.

To arrest this cycle and have more talented workers and young graduates commit to this region, Erie must:

• Graduate more students from high school, graduate more students from college, and keep those graduates working in the area.
• Create and sustain a business climate that is friendly to entrepreneurial activity.
• Invest in and nurture the “quality of life” strengths that are treasured locally: a wholesome, clean environment and a low-density family-friendly atmosphere.
• Make a commitment to join the “creative economy” and become the kind of creative community that is attractive to young talent.

What Works: Traffic Patterns, Promising Practices, and Pilots

From a national scan of programs led by nonprofits that are making a difference in other communities, we see hope in:

Building a culture of academic success

Transforming our public schools into places filled with engaged learners who are achieving at high levels and experiencing success is a long-term, multi-faceted agenda that is driven largely by public funding and visionary leadership. Yet in communities across the country, a variety of school-community partnerships have developed that have produced a set of best practices in building cultures of academic success within the targeted populations with whom they work. Common themes and features among successful, best-practice programs are:

• Having high expectations and involving the students in rigorous, college preparatory coursework.
• Cultivating the momentum of a movement and building a community to sustain it.
• Extending learning time through afterschool and weekend engagement.
• Visiting campuses regularly to build a comfort level and sense of connection.
• Building long-term involvement and loyalty through strong personal relationships with involved students.
• Creating a wide array of social and academic supports to nurture and support students.

Model programs that successfully build a culture of academic success and graduate students from high school and college include:

Entrepreneur-Friendly Business Environments

Because small businesses and entrepreneurs are the engines for innovation, start-up, and job creation, creating business environments that are friendly to start-up enterprises is of paramount importance. Traditional and tech-oriented small business incubators are important, of course, and Erie certainly features stellar ones at Knowledge Park at the Penn State Behrend campus and the Erie Technology Incubator at Gannon University. Erie is also home to Brain Gain LLC, a source of technical assistance and support for entrepreneurs and the gateway to the Angel Investor network. The state of the economy and the job market today, however, is requiring more of an entrepreneurial orientation on the part of all nonprofits whose mission is to guide their clientele into workforce opportunities. A notable example within the greater region is the entrepreneurial focus being undertaken by the community action agency for Chautauqua County in New York, Chautauqua Opportunities, Inc. With an in-house incubator, technical assistance, and a focus on cottage industries, COI is finding opportunities for residents to succeed by creatively matching their interests and skills with niche opportunities in the local marketplace.

Joining the creative economy

A major element in the attraction and retention of young people with talent and in succeeding in the brain gain quest is to develop the attributes of the creative city with the amenities sought by skilled professionals: arts and culture, a wholesome environment with recreational opportunities, a variety of unique and creative restaurants and clubs, access to continuing educational opportunities in higher education, and an ethos of hope and optimism in the larger community.

As further discussed in the Cultural Vitality section of Erie Vital Signs, there are burgeoning examples of cities in all parts of the country that are embracing the creative economy and piecing together the elements that make the city desirable. Since Erie begins with natural advantages regarding climate, a pristine environment with access to water and nearby mountains, low housing costs, and a celebrated family-friendly atmosphere, it has a key building block. The consortium of universities throughout the county: Edinboro, Gannon, LECOM, Mercyhurst, and Penn State Behrend all have growing community engagement programs. A cornerstone of the arts community, the Erie Art Museum, is unveiling a showpiece facility that can be a building block for more pieces of the creative city as one promising element leverages the next. Sparked by the Knight Creative Communities initiative, Tallahassee, Florida is harnessing its hub for government and higher education to a creative communities engine.

A critical element in this mix is the ingredient of hope and optimism, a factor that Entrepreneur magazine cites as being present in the re-birth effort in nearby Youngstown, Ohio. Young leadership and the “shrink to grow” ethos present in that city may provide examples for the Erie region.

Philanthropic On-Ramps

Modest, strategic investments of grant funds that can help move “Brain Gain” strategies into the fast lane include:

Academic support and student engagement activities

Initiatives by nonprofits to offer compelling, rigorous, and engaging educational activities for students in out-of-school time that build strong relationships and cultivate a climate of high expectation and academic success are at the core of a movement to work toward high academic achievement from the outside in. By engaging learners and fostering their long-term commitment to success, coupled with higher education exploration and campus visits, outreach to their homes and neighborhoods, and advocacy with their schools, students stay on track to graduate from high school and go on to higher education.

Among the best-practice models that can serve as catalysts for student achievement are:

• Rigorous, project-based learning activities conducted in school-based and community-based after-school programs. Visit www.citizenschools.org.
• Weekend and summer academies for at-risk 8-10th grade students to engage students in learning, build skills and relationships, and cultivate the path toward high education.
• Strong professional and peer support networks for students to help navigate the application, SAT, financial aid, and transition to college steps. Visit www.possefoundation.org.
• Best-practice mentoring programs that pair middle and high school students intensively and long-term with high quality mentors that can help navigate the stormy waters of adolescence, the academic challenges of school, and the apprehension about higher education. Visit www.mentoringpittsburgh.org.

Engines of entrepreneurial activity

Incubators that can nurture and support emerging business ideas, both university-linked and community-based, are needed to attract and retain the talent needed in the Erie region. The expansion of current efforts in technology and the arts are welcome, but social enterprise in the nonprofit sector, and incubators for other industries are needed if Erie is to compete effectively for talent and successfully nurture the best local ideas for business ventures.