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The Southern Sector Initiative
A Council for a New Economy Workforce Project

 

The Southern Sector Initiative promotes the use of sector strategies as a tool to build the region’s knowledge economy workforce. A joint venture of Southern Growth Policies Board’s Council for a New Economy Workforce, the National Network of Sector Partners, the National Governor’s Association the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and the Foundation for the Mid South, the Southern Sector Initiative is designed to help states become more efficient in serving high-growth, high-wage industries by combining workforce, education and economic development resources to provide workers with the training and support that leads to upward mobility and job growth. 

The Council for a New Economy Workforce endorses sector initiatives as a process for implementing the policy recommendations presented in Southern Growth’s 2002 Report on the Future of the South, The Mercedes and the Magnolia and EnterpriseSouth.biz, the 2007 Report on the Future of the South. 

 

Overview

The Council for a New Economy Workforce and its partners support the Southern Sector Initiative by providing technical assistance, organizing regional meetings and learning labs and documenting best practices. Examples of best practices include Arkansas' Career Pathway Initiative, North Carolina’s Allied Health Sector Strategy and Oklahoma’s Grow Oklahoma Strategic Plan. The first Southern Sector Initiative meeting was held in Jackson, Mississippi on September 13, 2007 with more than 80 regional professionals in attendance. As a next step in the project, Southern Growth is developing a white paper for a network of Southern and national foundations that will include recommendations from the meeting and results from a regional survey on “state-level” sector activities.


Partners

The National Network of Sector Partners
The National Governors Association
The Charles Stewart Mott Foundation
The Foundation for the Mid South


Meeting Materials from September 13th, 2007

Meeting Agenda


Presentations


Overview of the Southern Sector Initiative
Dexter Ligot-Gordon, Program Manager, National Network of Sector Partners

Why the Southern Sector Initiative Matters to the South
Sandra Johnson, Senior Policy Analyst, Southern Growth Policies Board

Accelerating State Adoption of Sector Strategies
Sarah Oldmixon, Senior Policy Analyst, National Governors Association

Economic Development Issues
Norma Noble, Deputy Secretary of Commerce, Workforce Solutions,
Oklahoma Department of Commerce

Advancement of Low Income Workers and Sustaining Middle Class Jobs
Anne Shelton-Clark, Dean of Career and Technical Education, Coahoma
Community College

Leveraging and Aligning Resources
Angela Duran, President, Southern Good Faith Fund

 

 


 


Find us on:






Southern Growth Policies Board, P.O. Box 12293, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709
Phone: (919) 941-5145, Fax: (919) 941-5594, Email: info@southern.org