Toolkit: Mission Driven Industrial Development
This toolkit from Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development is designed to help communities implement mission driven strategies for urban industrial development.
Released by the association for Neighborhood & Housing Development (ANHD) and Urban Manufacturing Alliance (UMA), the Mission Driven Industrial Development Toolkit is designed to help practitioners foster the industrial development industry in urban areas, which may be key to helping communities recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Due to shifts in market trends, new technologies and participation, perceptions of the manufacturing industry has been changing over the last decade, and there has been a growing understanding of the need to foster job growth in the small batch manufacturing and light industry in urban areas to increase employment opportunities among the middle class and workforce.
This toolkit presents a New York City case study to illustrate how practitioners can create and preserve mission driven industrial development sites in urban setting. Readers can expect to learn more about some key questions for consideration, and to see recommendations from individuals leading this work. Some key findings include:
- Stakeholders involved in mission driven industrial development are willing to grow and change to meet the current and future market demands
- Everyone has resources - anything from capital for funding technical assistance to a collection of manufacturing businesses interested in on-the-job training - that can be combined and leveraged to gain scale
- Long term success of industrial projects requires a commitment to a place and a community
- Stakeholders must advocate for their project and their communities