Elevate Greater Akron

Background

Elevate Greater Akron is the newly adopted economic development effort for the Greater Akron area. This initiative is the product of a first-ever collaboration between four entities (County of Summit, City of Akron, Greater Akron Chamber, and the GAR Foundation) who came together to create a transformative, high-functioning and collaborative economic development system for Akron. Each entity, in addition to other key partners and stakeholders, plays a unique and critical role in the execution of this initiative. The focus of this initiative is to embrace the new fundamentals of economic development - getting back to what works and working together to grow the region.

Overall Goal

To transform the culture of economic development to expand opportunity for all residents and position the Akron region on a new trajectory in an era of rapid global change.

Five Strategies

Five strategies were developed to better position the Greater Akron region for viability and success in the coming years.

• Increase the competitiveness of targeted scale-up and middle market companies
• Targeted relationship management

• Position the black population in Akron to engage in and share in the benefits of regional growth and prosperity
• Development of a comprehensive inclusion narrative for the region
• Build digital skills and provide connections to mid-tech jobs

• Reinvigorate Akron's innovation and startup potential
• Realize the potential of Bounce and focus on promising emerging firms

• Develop and grow Akron's Downtown and drive development and connectivity of our other identified job hubs

• Foster a unified, forward-looking culture of economic development in the region
• Establish a capacity for research and marketing to better identify trends and opportunities for the region, while raising awareness about the region's assets and accomplishments
• Encourage business ecosystem collaboration and identify/fill ecosystem gaps