EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
KANA has updated the 2021 to 2026 Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS) for the 3rd Annual update in 2024. Information gathered for this CEDS has occurred directly through stakeholder engagement and indirectly through research and observation. This performance period began on July 1, 2023, with a truncated grant period ending on March 31, 2024. Stakeholder engagement for this annual update focused on confirming content validity with community and organization leaders.
Creating and maintaining a Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy is a continual process that requires observation, reflection, and participation in conferences, work groups, and boards. The compilation of large amounts of information gathered from talking to people; reading reports, newspapers, journals, and books; and many more sources is only the start. Arranging all of the ideas, concepts, and information into a logical order and developing meaningful goals and objectives that provide a roadmap to improving the economic conditions of the region is the main focus of the CEDS document.
The DRAFT version of the CEDS is submitted to the EDA for review on May 1, 2024. While the DRAFT CEDS is not due to workgroup stakeholders until May 31, 2024, the plan is to post the DRAFT CEDS to the KANA website and circulate it amongst workgroup stakeholders before this time. The public comment period of 30 days is established and the official new CEDS is planned to be released on June 30, 2024.
This CEDS contains a new section on the economic impact of nonprofit organizations in Kodiak and throughout Alaska. Nonprofit organizations are, according to a report by Foraker, the third largest employer (as an aggregated sector), behind the Oil and Gas and the Seafood sectors.
KEY FINDINGS
Three significant challenges related to workforce availability continue to be challenges in the Kodiak region. Housing shortages for mid-income professionals, lack of available and affordable childcare, and a declining population were all factors that stakeholders, and in particular employers, placed responsibility on for the workforce shortages in the Kodiak Region.
In response to these significant challenges, KANA submitted a grant application through the EDA Recompete program to specifically address the population loss of the Prime-age group of 25 to 54 in the six village communities in the Kodiak region. The EDA awarded KANA funding to develop a Recompete Strategic Development Plan with the ultimate goal of creating new jobs; training workers to fill new and existing jobs, and identifying how this target age group can return home to their village communities.
