Olds Institute is a Community Economic Development organization connecting people with purpose, creating a healthy, inspired, entrepreneurial community.
A local CED organization can help individuals and organizations in a region to work together toward common goals. This can happen when community members in the region join to determine appropriate strategies and actions to address common issues in a strategic, collaborative way.
The formal structure of a CED organization can allow communities to be more efficient and make progress more quickly on collective issues and needs.
Successful CED is strongly associated with having a local organization with a clear mandate and sufficient resources to engage development issues within the community.
What can OI do for my community?
- Plan for the future. Plan effectively for the future and then take an active role in addressing the community’s priorities and advantages.
- Act as a liaison. Act as a liaison for the community on economic development issues with the media, other community organizations and government departments and contacts.
- Provide advocacy. Provide mentoring and advocacy for the community with regards to effective economic development recommendations and policies.
- Create awareness. Raise awareness, prospect for opportunities, and build key networks by creating promotions, attending trade shows and representing the community at related conferences.
- Support business. Provide business assistance to local entrepreneurs, develop promotions for existing business, develop and maintain a business retention and expansion program and coordinate workshops and training on business issues and programs.
- Create a profile. Develop a community profile for promoting the community and understanding its key strengths.
- Monitor growth. Monitor the growth of the community and periodically revise community strategies for growth.
- Access grants. Access program grants and financial support.
We welcome the community to j{OI}n us! Our Annual General Meeting takes place at the Olds College Faculty Centre on Tuesday, May 7 at 6 pm, or email us for more information.