KCCI: Tallahassee

Overview

In January 2007, the Knight Creative Communities Initiative (KCCI), a partnership between the Knight Foundation and Richard Florida’s Creative Class Group, selected Tallahassee as one of three regions in the nation to participate in a community-driven project that aimed to build sustained regional economic prosperity. Tallahassee was chosen due to its high concentration of jobs in government and education and its consistent inability to attract and retain members of the creative sector, which social theorist Richard Florida argues is the driving force of economic development.

Thirty-one community “catalysts” were selected to assess the region’s potential for economic growth, establish a broad community vision and determine key initiatives that would bring greater economic prosperity to the region based on trend research submitted by the Creative Class Group. These community volunteers worked to educate, engage and empower other area residents to assist in helping each initiative achieve success.

Relevance to the State of Florida

Tallahassee wants to serve as a model for the state in terms of a passionate community taking ownership of its economic future. With continued community involvement and the support of local and state leaders, KCCI hopes to bring unprecedented economic benefits to the region by attracting and retaining members of the creative sector, which will in turn benefit the state as a whole by creating jobs and transforming the state capital into a thriving economic region. Tallahassee community catalysts met with Governor Charlie Crist, who commended and encouraged the effort.

Richard Florida’s Research

According to The Rise of the Creative Class, members of the creative sector work in the fields of technology, research and development, arts and culture, professional and managerial, and education and training. This sector makes up 30 percent of the U.S. workforce, accounts for nearly 50 percent of the country’s wages, and is expected to create 10 million jobs in the next decade.

Richard Florida’s economic research maintains that the ability of a region to attract and retain members of the creative sector and stimulate economic prosperity depends on a balance of the “4T’s”:

1. Tolerance: A supportive environment for diverse self-expression; a sense of inclusiveness; diversity
2. Technology: Innovation; accessible mechanisms for people to turn their talent into marketable goods
3. Territorial Assets: Quality of place; the things that make Tallahassee great
4. Talent: The workforce

To attract and retain talent, a community needs a high concentration of tolerance, technology and territorial assets. A talented workforce will fuel continued economic growth.

Click here to learn more about Richard Florida’s research.

How Tallahassee Measures Up

In terms of talent, while Tallahassee’s potential for future talent is significantly above the national average and leads other similar-sized regions, its brain drain index, or its current ability to attract and retain talent, lags significantly behind the rest of the nation and cities with a comparable population.

Measures of tolerance, technology and territorial assets also show Tallahassee is lagging in these areas compared to the nation and cities of a similar size. Tolerance indicators include racial, ethnic and gay populations, while technology measures take the concentration of high tech firms and local patents into account, and territorial assets consider factors such as crime, annual sunny days, arts establishments, health care costs and commute time.

KCCI Tallahassee Initiatives

After careful review of regional data and global trends, the pilot project’s catalyst team created four key initiatives that aimed to build sustained regional economic prosperity by addressing the 4T’s. The catalysts then broke up into groups and attempted to take each initiative from merely a grand idea to tangible and self-sustaining realities.

∙     Greenovation: This initiative set out to establish Tallahassee as the world leader in existing and emerging “green” technologies that benefit the environment and spur economic development. Facets of this initiative included taking an inventory of existing technologies and activities within the region, establishing policy and regulation to promote energy conservation and sustainable design, and developing a strategic plan to create the infrastructure to support intellectual and entrepreneurial development.

Throughout the year, Greenovation established previously non-existent partnerships among the city, county, K-12 schools and local universities that focused on “green” initiatives, especially recycling. They also established a park-and-ride pilot program and generated local buzz about community-wide efforts to “go green.”

The team formed a 501(c)(3) organization called Sustainable Tallahassee, a resource center offering the public a “how to” on green construction, as well as green resources, products, vendors and funding sources for green building including solar energy. It educates and certifies builders and professionals, certifies green buildings and pursues grants for research development. Ultimately, it will be the engine that continuously enables and encourages Tallahassee to be “green.” This membership organization now encompasses an executive director, a board of directors and bylaws, and volunteers who continue to raise money to fulfill its mission.

∙ Tallahassee Film Festival: This three-day event showcases regional and national talent in the film industry by harnessing the creativity of university students and others that excel in production, cinematography, acting, directing and everything in between. The festival offers screenings and educational seminars, provides increased tourism during a typically slow time of year, promotes North Florida as a desirable location for film, television and music production, and capitalizes on Florida State University’s top-ranked film school.

This initiative team formed a 501(c)(3) organization and secured more than $100,000 in private funding for each of the 2008 and 2009 festivals. Volunteers spend hours screening films, securing additional funding, developing marketing materials and coordinating a wide array of festival activities. For more information visit www.tallahasseefilmfestival.com.

∙ Get Gaines Going: This initiative was established to accelerate the ongoing efforts to revitalize and develop Gaines Street as an arts and entertainment district. Get Gaines Going planned to work with community leaders to create incentives that would move the project forward at a quicker pace and eliminate hurdles that previously caused delays. Richard Florida’s research shows that people are now choosing where to live before choosing where to work. The development of Gaines Street will help create a more vibrant sense of place and encourage members of the creative sector to locate in the region.

Throughout the year, this team operated as a non-funded political action committee, consistently meeting with city leaders and encouraging them to make decisions and take action in the best interest of the Gaines Street corridor. The team also supported businesses and individuals with an interest in Gaines Street to communicate better with one another. In the near future, the city will begin landscaping the street and moving forward with a number of redevelopment projects, including plans for a 90,000 square foot arts incubator in partnership with Artspace. As the catalysts’ year-long commitment ended, some team members chose to continue working with local leaders by sitting on the newly created Gaines Street Vitalization Committee, where they have a voice in the future of the corridor.

∙ Jump Start Plan X: This initiative was created to make Tallahassee a more small-business-friendly community. However, the team members had very different interpretations of the goal and could not agree on a primary direction and focus. Unfortunately, this team ultimately disbanded.

∙ Communications: This was not an initiative but rather a team of catalysts charged with informing the greater community about KCCI, while also managing media relations, responding to resident questions, building and maintaining the KCCI website and coordinating internal communication.

Moving Forward

In 2008, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation reviewed the success of the Tallahassee initiatives and awarded a five-year grant in the amount of $570,000 to begin the Knight Creative Communities Institute.  The institute strives to attract and retain young professionals and develop a more adaptable workforce for Florida’s capital city.  It will build on the momentum created by the successful Knight Creative pilot project over the last two years.

The newly created Knight Creative Communities Institute aims to be a national model. By developing a stronger creative sector, all of Tallahassee will benefit from new jobs and businesses.  It will be fueled by a group of “community catalysts,” or local leaders and advocates who will meet to devise new ways to help the city’s economy grow.

The institute is housed at Tallahassee Community College in the Center for Workforce Development and is managed by an executive director who was hired in May 2009.  KCCI also has an active advisory board who assists in planning and executing ideas for the program.

The institute is currently recruiting a new community catalyst class.  To apply, visit www.Tallahassee.com/kcci.  The deadline for applications is August 14^th at 5 p.m.  For more information, contact Laurie Hartsfield at (850) 201-6442 or hartsfil@tcc.fl.edu.

Catalysts will be selected in September and will begin their work in October.  They will participate in a three-day seminar to discuss the region’s strengths and needs along with global trends in economic prosperity, as well as the 4 T’s as outlined by Richard Florida in his book, The Rise of the Creative Class.  At the conclusion of the seminar, the catalysts will have created a unified vision of prosperity and an accompanying plan to help the community reach that vision.  Catalysts will commit one year to educate, engage and enable fellow citizens in their initiatives.

Partners

John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation promotes excellence in journalism worldwide and invests in the vitality of the U.S. communities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers.  Knight Foundation focuses on projects with the potential to create transformational change.  For more, visit www.knightfoundation.org.

Tallahassee Community College’s Center for Workforce Development

The Knight Creative Communities Institute is part of the Tallahassee Community College’s Center for Workforce Development.  TCC’s Center for Workforce Development reaches out to the Big Bend community by offering customized courses and services to enhance employees’ careers, programs to improve business effectiveness, and support for returning adult learners.  Tallahassee Community College is an open admission community college serving 25,000 students annually. Visit www.tcc.fl.edu for more information.

View this information in a PDF document here.

Pilot Project Catalysts 2007-2008

Lester Abberger
Chucha Barber
Kathy Bartlett
Bill Berlow
Dorothy Bland
Nolia Brandt
David Byrne
Tony Carvajal
Sheila M. Costigan
Jeanne Curtin
Allison DeFoor
Bryan Desloge
Stacey Getz
Matrell Hawkins
April Herrle Salter
Melanie Hicks
Stephen Hogge
Judy Jones-Colston
Bradford Lewis
T.J. Lewis
Nancy Marcus
Frank Mayernick
Mike McManus
Bill Moor
Mark O’Bryant
Andrea Oliver
Juli Puckett
Gloria Pugh
Todd Sperry
Buddy Streit