Economic Development Week is May 9-13, 2022! TeamSTC is joining with communities across North America to celebrate the contributions of economic development professionals and the impact of the programs, initiatives and businesses they support have on their communities.
Economic development is the intentional practice of improving a community’s economic well-being and quality of life. It includes a broad-range of activities to attract, create, and retain jobs, and to foster a resilient, pro-growth tax base and an inclusive economy.
Our work centers around making our community a better place for everyone by helping to improve St. Catharines’ economic well-being and quality of life. Our strategic objectives include:
- Encouraging investments in our community for new developments and redevelopments
- Attracting, creating and retaining jobs
- Helping to foster a resilient and inclusive economy
Initiatives included:
- More than 35,000 hours of support to the business community
- 248 free webinars for small business
- More than $1 million in grants dispersed through number of initiatives supporting community recovery
- $325,000 in Digital Main Street funding supporting digital transformations 130 small business
- Robust 'support local' marketing campaign and website featuring 400 business listings
- More than 800 hours of open streets to create an outdoor downtown shopping and dinning district, supporting 232 storefront businesses
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TeamSTC is currently developing a new Economic Development Strategy and action plan to help prioritize and direct efforts for future growth. Early this year, TeamSTC partnered with home design, construction, retail and manufacturing businesses to launch of Design District, a one-stop destination for design, building and renovation needs. As a part of the launch, new Design District street signs have been erected to identify the district along with a new website www.designdistrictstc.ca to drive traffic to businesses in the area and help promote the many services and products offered.
St. Catharines was successful in its application to the My Main Street business accelerator program and will use the program to support new and existing businesses in Downtown St. Catharines and Merritton, particularly those led by BIPOC, women and LGBTQ+ in a effort ensure the community remains vibrant and reflects our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion.
With so much happening there’s a lot to celebrate! Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn this week as we showcase some of the initiatives we've been involved with that are helping to make our community stronger.
Webinars
The St. Catharines Enterprise Centre offers a variety of training and webinars, which are hosted by our team as well as guest speakers.
Check out these small business webinars
What better way to celebrate Economic Development Week than tapping into our expertise by attending one of this week's webinars or registering for a upcoming webinar later this month.
Created in 2016 by International Economic Development Council (IEDC), the largest international professional trade association for economic developers, Economic Development Week aims to increase awareness for local programs that create jobs, advance career development opportunities, and improve the quality of life in communities everywhere.
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