ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Regional Resiliency & Recovery

Regional Resiliency
& Recovery Efforts

MACOG is pursuing a variety of programs and resources to help our local governments and economic partners recover from the impacts of the pandemic as well as enhance the region’s economic resilience and competitiveness. These efforts include the collaborative process and relationship between the MACOG led regional resiliency plan, "Collaborting for Regional Resilience and Economic Growth" and the South Bend-Elkhart Regional Partnership administration of the Indiana READI grant award.

Collaborating for Regional Resilience & Economic Growth

In 2021, MACOG and Fourth Economy collaborated with local communities and economic leaders to create the region’s first disaster recovery and economic resiliency plan, “Collaborating for Regional Resilience and Economic Growth.” This plan provides a framework to guide the region’s recovery and economic resilience against future shocks and stresses. The plan will implement strategies set to create high quality and attractive communities, enhance the region’s supply chains, increase support for small business development and entrepreneurship, construct high quality infrastructure systems, and increase workforce development with attracting and retaining talent.

View the draft plan below and share your input using the comment form accessible here. On March 17, 2022 we held a Zoom public input session from 4:30 to 5:30 pm which included a presentation on the draft plan and opportunities to ask questions to a team member View the recording of the input session by clicking on the button below.

Final Plan Public Session Recording

Indiana READI


In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic toll, the state of Indiana has created the Indiana READI program. The program requires regions to collaboratively create a development plan for how to increase quality of place, quality of life, and quality of opportunity within the region. These objectives align closely with goals that will be explored in the Regional Disaster Recovery and Economic Resilience Plan. In partnership with the South Bend-Elkhart Regional Partnership, MACOG will use the Comprehensive Economic Development Strategies (CEDS) and the Regional Disaster Recovery and Economic Resiliency Plan described above to support the region’s effort in accessing this exciting funding opportunity from the state.

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How do these two efforts work together for the region?

These plans are collaborative, joint planning processes for the end goal of a stronger economy for the region’s tomorrow. However, they have distinct approaches and issues that each is dealing with in the coming months.

The Regional Disaster Recovery and Economic Resiliency Plan analyzes the region and past regional economic development frameworks through the perspectives of the inequities and underlying economic issues exposed during the COVID-19 pandemic. The plan will provide strategies for a stronger economy for tomorrow. In short, this plan looks at the “what” and “who” of economic recovery and resiliency in the region.

The Indiana READI application is a process led by the Regional Partnership that will use the analysis from the Disaster Recovery and Economic Resiliency Plan to identify shovel-ready projects and initiatives that will complement this updated economic development framework. This application will look at the “how” of economic recovery and resiliency in the region through the identification of tangible projects.