November 8, 2018
By Son Lam, Management Analyst, EDA
When I first arrived in America, I was a three-year-old refugee from Vietnam immediately following the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975. My earliest memories of my journey to America was staying in a large hanger on Camp Pendleton in California where Marines gave us clothes and food. I remember running around with the other kids but we would stop and salute the American flag high on its post. Ever since then, I always knew that I would be a soldier.
This led me on a lifelong road in the U.S. Army. I have served from the lowest rank, Buck Private, to my retirement rank of Major in 2014. In every position, I loved what I did no matter how hard it was because I was protecting my adopted country. It was not only a sense of Patriotism but a sense of paying back for the freedoms my family has enjoyed and been given.
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October 2018 Newsletter
October 5th kicked off Manufacturing Month with Manufacturing Day, a day to recognize the progress the U.S. has made on its growing manufacturing revival. The Trump Administration is celebrating this month by focusing on leveling the playing field and encouraging innovative opportunities to create more jobs across the country. According to an op-ed written by U.S. Commerce Department Secretary Wilbur Ross, since January 2017, the manufacturing sector has added 348,000 jobs, with year-over-year manufacturing job growth in 2018 increasing at the fastest rate since 1995. In 2017, U.S. manufacturers produced over $6 trillion in gross output, nearing the largest production values on record.
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October 2018 Newsletter
When Hartford, Connecticut’s Swift Factory closed its doors in 2005, the city lost a large business anchor. M. Swift & Sons, a leading source of gold leafing for state capitol buildings and historic landmarks across the country, was housed in the Swift Factory for 120 years. It employed many citizens in Hartford’s struggling north end neighborhood. In 2017, EDA awarded $2.8 million to non-profit company Community Solutions, Inc to revitalize the vacant industrial building.
Renovations on the Swift Factory began this past summer, and development of a brand-new 19,000 square-foot food manufacturing center and business incubator is currently underway. The Swift Community Food and Business Development Center will bring economic opportunity and prosperity to the north end of the city. The neighborhood is predominantly African-American and Latino, and the revitalized Center will provide new life to the community through new jobs and opportunities for local residents to gain skills they need to grow and progress.
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October 2018 Newsletter
Founded in 1936 and currently the only deep-water port located on the U.S.-Mexico border, the Port of Brownsville handles a wide variety of cargo including steel products, liquid, break bulk, and dry bulk commodities. With the facilities and knowledge to handle international cargo, the port facilitates efficient movement of goods between the United States and Mexico. This enables the promotion of international and retail trade, tourism, and manufacturing along the U.S.-Mexico border.
With the help of EDA’s investment, the port will now be better able to assist partners in the ship building industry and future companies with their construction and cargo operations needs. New economic opportunities at the Port of Brownsville will diversify capabilities and opportunities, increase the Rio Grande Valley’s economic vitality, and help expand the U.S. manufacturing industry.
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September 25, 2018
In 2017, the South Texas Development Council joined EDA’s VISTA Corps program and selected VISTA Member Angela Bonner to address educational attainment and workforce development capacity needs for South Texas. Bonner was assigned to meet and work with community members to identify community needs through data collection and by assisting in the development of a comprehensive plan outlining resources to support local workforce development efforts.
Throughout her service year, Bonner has gathered quantitative and qualitative data to gain better insights on the community. She developed and conducted surveys with community members to identify social and economic barriers prohibiting educational attainment. She has also conducted a number of interviews with educational institutions, local business, city officials, and community stakeholders.
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September 2018 Newsletter
This month, we mark the one-year anniversary of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria that devastated parts of Texas, the Southeast U.S., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Over the past year, EDA’s regional offices have been working closely with Economic Development Districts (EDDs), federal, state and local officials and other partners in areas impacted by the hurricanes to assist with economic recovery and growth. Supporting local efforts to boost businesses is a major priority for EDA, and we are proud to assist our nation in building back better and stronger.
As the coordinator of the Economic Recovery Support Function (ERSF) under the National Disaster Recovery Framework (NDRF), EDA deployed to four hurricane-impacted locations simultaneously.
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September 2018 Newsletter
Hurricane Harvey hit southeast Texas as a Category 4 storm on August 25, 2017. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has stated that Harvey was “the most significant tropical cyclone rainfall event” in U.S. history with up to 48-60 inches of rain over five days. 300,000 structures were flooded, the storm surge crested at over seven feet, and winds in excess of 130 mph caused significant damage. Current estimates place the total damage from Hurricane Harvey at $125 billion, making it one of the costliest natural disasters in U.S. history. The Presidential Disaster Declaration included 41 counties for individual assistance and 53 counties for public assistance.
For Hurricane Harvey, EDA’s Austin Regional Office (AURO) recognized that economic recovery activities should be led locally, devoting both staffing and Economic Development Assistance Program (EDAP) resources to this task.
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September 2018 Newsletter
One year after Hurricanes Irma and Maria ripped through Puerto Rico, much is still being done to rebuild and revitalize the communities that suffered from the storms. With more resources and unwavering commitment to helping rebuild after these natural disasters, EDA’s focus on the area is as strong as ever.
EDA has contributed by making several recent FY18 Disaster Supplemental investments in Puerto Rico to support technical assistance, entrepreneurial programs, manufacturing, tourism, and research and development. These grants are project to save or create over 1200 jobs.
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August 7, 2018
East Arkansas Planning & Development District (EAPDD) is a regional planning and development agency serving a 12-county area in eastern Arkansas. This district includes Clay, Craighead, Crittenden, Cross, Greene, Lawrence, Lee, Mississippi, Phillips, Poinsett, Randolph, and St. Francis counties. EAPDD develops programming that addresses areas such as unemployment and distressed economic conditions in their region. To carry out such long-term research and planning functions, EAPDD joined the EDA VISTA Corps program to onboard an AmeriCorps VISTA member to cultivate community buy-in in rural communities.
EAPDD’s selected VISTA member, Camille Labatut, has built local capacity through the creation of an economic database. Data collected includes figures related to top regional employers, business inventories, student enrollment trends, total number of police calls, number of residential water hookups, and community center utilization figures.
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July 2018 Newsletter
Supporting American manufacturing is a major priority for the Trump Administration.
As the President has said, “Made in America is more than a label or a product… It’s a stamp of excellence. It’s a badge of honor and a tribute to the tremendous skill of the working men and women who design and build these incredible masterpieces and different products of all types.”
In St. Louis, Ranken Technical College is working to ensure that the world’s best products will be Made in America by turning out a steady stream of graduates that provide local manufacturers, including those in the automotive, architecture, construction, electrical, and information technology industries, with the skilled workforce they need to succeed.
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