Correspondence: Letter from Shorefast Re: South Island Prosperity Project
A letter of support from Zita Cobb of Shorefast for the South Island Prosperity Partnership (SIPP).
June 13, 2022
Mayor David Screech Town Of View Royal 45 View Royal Avenue Victoria, B.C. V9B-1A6
Dear Mayor Screech,
It was a pleasure to meet you and your colleagues earlier this spring. As you know, Victoria is one of five ‘Prototype Communities’ participating in Shorefast’s Community Economies Pilot. Together, we are working to identify the root-cause interventions that are needed to build strong and resilient local economies.
Our shared on-the-ground experience confirms what we suspected from the outset of the Pilot: that communities don’t have adequate access to financial capital to develop their assets and fuel their economies; that there isn’t visibility to understand where and how money circulates; that data to support local economic development is inaccessible; and that communities are not positioned to collaborate effectively with large companies or governments. Our Pilot is particularly interested in Victoria’s enterprising solutions through your economic development collaborative, South Island Prosperity Partnership (SIPP). We believe the architecture for collaboration SIPP has developed holds important learnings that are relevant to communities across Canada.
When I read the research analysis on structures of economic development initiatives across Canada’s Census Metropolitan Areas, I was struck by SIPP’s comparatively low funding investment relative to that required in other municipalities. It underscores just how effective and impactful SIPP is. Knowing rigorous academic research is key to advancing and strengthening approaches to community economic development, we have engaged Dr. Audrey Jamal at the University of Guelph to research case studies on Fogo Island’s Economic Development Partnership and SIPP. We look forward to making the results available.
In the meantime, please feel free to share this letter of support for SIPP. It’s important that your collaborative continue to learn, adapt and share in order to strengthen your region’s economic development as well as contribute to a national network of economically empowered and place-specific communities.
Sincerely,
Zita Cobb Founder & CEO