National Average
We struggle to create jobs in Douglas County.
Over the last 25 years, Douglas County is 74% behind the national average in job creation and 20th out of 20 peer communities. Here’s a break-down of the data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
*Our Peers: communities with a major university between 20 and 100 miles from a major metro area.
This hurts us all.
Our ailing economy caused residential property taxes to rise (as incomes stayed flat) as city and county budgets struggled to keep up with the wants and needs of the community. Our citizens are frustrated and the root cause is our inability to grow the economy.
Residential
Property Taxes
City & County
Budget Cuts
Recruit Expanding Businesses
Start & Grow More
Local Businesses
We can recruit and/or grow from within.
We have tried (and struggled) to recruit growing businesses. This is hard because we lack the workforce and housing inventory. Growing from within via entrepreneurship is far more realistic and affordable.
We need comprehensive entrepreneur support.
We need a support system that helps ALL entrepreneurs (all stages, all industries, all demographics):
Get started
See the journey ahead of them
Make progress through stages
Measure their progress
We can recruit and/or grow from within.
We forecast that CORE’s programs will help entrepreneurs add $1.5B to the local economy between 2025 and 2040.