One Region releases Roadmap, outlines next steps for 2023

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As the tri-county region moves into a post-pandemic phase, issues including growth, infrastructure and economic uncertainty remain top-of-mind for residents and businesses. One Region Roadmap: Opportunities for All, an economic recovery and resiliency plan, provides a strategy to address the most significant foundations of a healthy community.

One Region is a partnership formed to strengthen the economy and produce opportunities for all residents in Berkeley, Charleston and Dorchester counties. Since its launch in 2016, One Region has worked to create actionable change that moves the community forward.

The Roadmap is the next evolution of the One Region initiative. At the onset of the pandemic, One Region focused its efforts on residents’ and businesses’ immediate economic recovery needs. The focus has since expanded to address longer-term priorities within the region. The One Region team released the Roadmap to the public in January 2023 after 18 months of discussions and public input in the form of surveys and focus groups. Using feedback gathered from nearly 5,000 respondents in the community members and the business, academic, nonprofit and government sectors, the Roadmap focuses on six action areas:

-Affordability
-Global Fluency
-Infrastructure
-Innovation & Entrepreneurship
-Talent
-Quality of Place

The Roadmap will integrate two critical overarching themes, Equity and Economic Momentum, across all action areas.

With the rollout of the Roadmap plan, One Region has also opened the selection process for lead agents – organizations whose missions align with One Region’s key dynamics – to carry out the work on an identified dynamic. Four lead agents have been identified at present: the Charleston Metro Chamber’s Regional Housing Coalition (Affordability), Tri-County Cradle to Career (Broadband Expansion), the Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester Council of Governments (Infrastructure) and the Harbor Entrepreneur Center (Innovation & Entrepreneurship). The One Region advisory committee plans to announce additional lead agents in the weeks to come. To access the lead agent application, or for more information, visit oneregionstrategy.com/one-region-roadmap-lead-agent-proposal/.

One Region is a joint venture partnership between the Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester Council of Governments, the Charleston Metro Chamber and the Charleston Regional Development Alliance. To view the One Region Roadmap, visit oneregionstrategy.com/roadmap/.