Challenge: Silver Bay’s business community disconnected and unorganized; city looking to take its pulse as community goes through generational shift.
Northspan’s Role: Intensive round of business visits (all contacted; 28 visited) and presentation on results.
Results: Business community has continued to meet regularly; recent Northspan re-engagement for training, potential business park assistance.
Business retention and expansion (BR&E) programs are one example of a community engagement process that Northspan has frequently led, often with dramatic results. Through patient listening in our BR&E process in Silver Bay, the Northspan team brought out insights from a wide range of community members with diverging views, many of whom expressed gratitude over having an outlet to express their thoughts and concerns on their community for the first time in years, if ever. The aggregated results from these confidential visits gave the community an array of new insights, and it continues to hold-follow up meetings to bring businesses together in a way it had not before.
Reference: Lana Fralich, Silver Bay City Administrator, lanaf@silverbay.com, 218.226.4408
Contact Karl Schuettler at kschuettler@northspan.org for more information.