Led by REACH, the EDC and MBEP, Uplift invited a group of 369 stakeholders across all of the regions to a working session. In adherence to the first step under the application guidelines, the sessions were held to develop a partnership and community approach for an inclusive economic development planning process across the six counties. At both sessions, Uplift discussed the framework of the project plan and broke into four working groups to dig into the core areas of project planning. The four working groups were:
- Governance – Developing a way of working to organize for inclusion and success
- Stakeholder Engagement – Mapping out thoughtful strategies and methods to engage residents in the planning process
- Data and Research – Understanding existing data on our region and potential gaps
- Capacity Building – Exploring ways to support organizations to participate and engage in the CERF planning process
