New challenge coming to Rhode Island with help of Boston Fed

Kelcy Dolan
Posted 10/6/15

“I know you’ve done great things in Massachusetts, but you haven’t seen anything yet,” Gov. Gina Raimondo said Tuesday at the University of Rhode Island’s Providence Campus, after it was …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

E-mail
Password
Log in

New challenge coming to Rhode Island with help of Boston Fed

Posted

“I know you’ve done great things in Massachusetts, but you haven’t seen anything yet,” Gov. Gina Raimondo said Tuesday at the University of Rhode Island’s Providence Campus, after it was announced Rhode Island was chosen as the next state to participate in the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston’s (Boston Fed) Working Cities Challenge.

The grant competition, which began in 2013, has been very successful in Massachusetts, seeing smaller post-industrial cities such as Lawrence, Fitchburg and Chelsea make great municipal progress over the past year. In 2014, after a proposal process, six cities, including those already mentioned, received a combined $1.8 million in funding to address projects to improve the low-income communities.

Research by the Boston Fed, which stands as the foundation for the Working Cities Challenge, found that “cross-sector collaboration and leadership” were crucial in revitalizing smaller cities across the country.

“This started as a competition between cities and now it’s a competition between states, and I am happy to say Rhode Island has won the latest round,” Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren said.

Because Rhode Island was so hard hit by the recession, Rosengren believes it could benefit greatly from the program. Over the next few months, the state will be working closely with the Boston Fed, local municipalities, and the non-profit and business sectors to see how to best launch the program in the Ocean State.

The next steps, according to Rosengren, are taking the lessons learned in Massachusetts and “tailoring” them to Rhode Island.

In Massachusetts, municipalities submitted proposals on one initiative they would like to tackle within their community to compete for both funding over three years and “research and data analysis support.”

“This is less about the money and more about communities coming together with a single vision and working to see it become a reality,” Rosengren said.

“The timing is fantastic because it comes at a time of a robust economic development effort,” Raimondo said.

She said the state is on a mission not only to move the economy forward but to make Rhode Island the best state in the country. Raimondo acknowledged, however, that a comeback such as this would be impossible without the involvement of the state’s municipalities.

Commerce Secretary Stefan Pryor believes the state’s involvement in the Working Cities Challenge will provide added momentum behind the efforts already in place to see great economic improvement across the state, to “grow jobs at a faster rate.”

Deputy vhairman for Boston Fed John Fish said in programs like these, when everyone at the table cares about “driving prosperity, it makes all the difference in the world.”

The key is to creating the “right type” of jobs that will not only improve the quality of life for everyone but will help to ensure the state’s economic recovery.

“What is good for Massachusetts is good for Rhode Island, and what is good for Rhode Island is good for Massachusetts,” he said. “We are in this together.”

For more information on the Working Cities Challenge, visit bostonfed.org/workingcities.

Comments

No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here