Best Practices
One goal of the New England Futures project is to identify existing projects in New England, or around the United States, that represent innovative and proven models for public participation and regional collaboration. We invite you to submit projects that you believe represent a best practice in the area of regional collaboration to info@newenglandfutures.com.
New England's Knowledge Corridor
New England’s Knowledge Corridor is an integrated economic area that straddles the Massachusetts-Connecticut border in the Hartford-Springfield interstate region. This region became known as "New England’s Knowledge Corridor" because 26 colleges and universities are concentrated in this area. The collaborative efforts of the Hartford-Springfield Economic Partnership, which was formed in 2002, made headlines as being one of the first cross-state of its kind.
At the time of this collaboration, Massachusett's former Governor Paul Cellucci had this to say about the partnerships efforts: "In this era of globalization, the borders between states have come down. To fuel a strong New England economy, we need to focus on forging regional partnerships. The Hartford-Springfield Economic Partnership will help us pool our resources and work cooperatively in areas such as marketing and promotion, transportation and infrastructure, economic development, and federal assistance."
For more information on how this region's political, business and government leaders have cooperated in order to advance the region's economy and quality of life, go to www.hartfordspringfield.com.
Read also What Makes the Knowledge Corridor a Region?, an article by Jeff Blodgett, Vice President, Research, CERC, which published in CT Magazine in November 2002.
Pioneer Valley Plan for Progress
The Pioneer Valley consists of the 69 cities and towns composing the Franklin, Hampden, and Hampshire county areas of western Massachusetts. This region is also linked also linked economically to northern Connecticut, as residents of both regions frequently cross state borders to both work and shop. In reaction to the recession that hit this region particularly hard in the early 1990s, the region recognized the need to collaborate in order to reach its economic potential. The 1994 Plan for Progress was developed in order to create a blueprint for blueprint for growth and development of the region.
A new plan was developed in 2004 that is designed to build upon the progress
made by the 1994 plan, and be broader in scope. For detailed informaiton about
the 2004 Plan for Progress, go to www.planforprogress.org.
Innovation Valley
The Innovation Valley Initiative of the Merrimack Valley Region of Massachusetts seeks to inspire a new era of economic growth in the region that was the birthplace of America's industrial revolution. The initiative seeks to do this through the application of innovative practices across all germane sectors - including: housing, industry, transportation, energy, and civic planning. The initiative envisions the entire Merrimack Valley, from Lowell to Newburyport, as a single innovative region, employing a full swath of best practices and creating in the process corridors of innovation. Go to www.ivalley.org for more information about this initiative.
Envision Utah
In January 1997, the Envision Utah Public/Private Partnership was formed to guide the development of a broadly and publicly supported Quality Growth Strategy - a vision to protect Utah's environment, economic strength, and quality of life for generations to come. The project covers a narrow corridor stretching one hundred miles north and south of Salt Lake City on both sides of the Wasatch Mountain Range, which encompasses 10 counties, 91 cities and towns and more than 157 special service districts.
Faced with a population that was expected to surge from 1.6 million in 1995 to 2.7 million in 2020, insightful leaders knew that they needed to work together today to in order to preserve the quality of life in their growing communities for their children and grandchildren.
For more information on how this grass-roots effort is working to involve key decision-makers as well as members of the community to gain support at the ground level, go to www.envisionutah.org.
Southern Growth Policies Board
Southern Growth Policies Board is a non-partisan public policy think tank based in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. Formed by the region's governors in 1971, Southern Growth Policies Board develops and advances visionary economic development policies by providing a forum for partnership and dialog among a diverse cross-section of the region's governors, legislators, business and academic leaders and the economic- and community-development sectors. This unique public-private partnership is devoted to strengthening the South's economy and creating the highest possible quality of life.
Western Governors’ Association
WGA addresses important policy and governance issues in the West, advances the role of the Western states in the federal system, and strengthens the social and economic fabric of the region. WGA develops policy and carries out programs in the areas of natural resources, the environment, human services, economic development, international relations and state governance. WGA acts as a center of innovation and promotes shared development of solutions to regional problems.