As first revealed in the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service earlier this week, the four counties of the Rio Grande Valley are applying for an $85 million grant from the US Department of Commerce.
The four counties, working with various educational institutions and other stakeholders, are calling themselves the RGV Recompete Coalition.
According to the Department of Commerce, the Recompete Pilot Program will invest $200 million toward projects that spur economic activity in geographically diverse and persistently distressed communities across the country. Specifically, this program targets areas where prime-age (25-54 years) employment significantly trails the national average. The program aims to close this gap through by utilizing EDA’s place-based approach and delivering large, highly flexible grants based on community-driven strategies to address unique workforce and economic development needs of individual communities or regions.”
Hidalgo County Judge Richard Cortez said the numerous Valley organizations that have come together to apply for the Recompete grant are hoping to secure $85 million. He said the entity taking the lead on the grant application is UT-Rio Grande Valley and specifically its associate vice president for workforce and economic development, Ron Garza (pictured above).
An explanation on how the money would be used is contained in the second half of the RGV Recompete Coalition's executive summary. Here is the explanation:
The RGVWorX plan is comprehensive, developed for stringent sustainability, and built upon the vision of numerous stakeholders. We firmly believe that the RGV will not thrive without implementing a plan which equitably and inclusively serves residents of each of the four-county areas. RGVWorX is directly aligned with our region’s current Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS) and leverages existing services within the area.
In addition to our defined outputs and outcomes, RGVWorX strategies were specifically designed to meet the individual challenges of our area and include four overarching goals:
Goal 1. Improve Educational Attainment Rate
The RGV’s path to prosperity is achieved by increasing our rate of educational attainment and building the skills of our local workforce. RGV students, many who live in poverty, have numerous barriers to college access, graduation, and obtaining high wage employment. RGVWorX targets these barriers by integrating a dynamic level of case management into our educational workforce infrastructure which addresses current service gaps, resource accessibility, and plays a more active role in the local job placement process.
Goal 2. Improve the Longevity of Locally Owned Businesses
The RGV region has a recognizable entrepreneurial spirit; however, many locally owned businesses lack the capacity and resilience to remain operational over me. RGVWorX will create a long-run, accessible, distributed model of business support infrastructure.
Goal 3. Improve the RGV’s capacity to Recruit New Industries
Long-term prosperity can only be achieved by recruiting and developing new industries. Considering the RGV’s history of siloed marketing, lack of accessible and reliable data, and internal competition, RGVWorX proposes the development of data resources and unified outreach programs to build long-run capacity in attracting new high-wage job opportunities.
Goal 4. Develop Sustainable Policies & Practices
Without focusing on the development of operational infrastructure and policies that are sustainable and long-standing, our economic distress index could falter after the grant resources have been exhausted. Sustainability is, therefore, the highest priority goal.
Our multi-year RGVWorX recompete plan utilizes a three-pronged strategy to reducing PAEG:
Strategy 1 projects develop the operational infrastructure, polices, and procedures to sustainably connect students to local, high-wage jobs. We aim to achieve this by identifying chronically unfilled positions, building a network of local industry, supporting credential completion (through wrap-around services), and providing direct job placement. This strategy addresses current service limitations to supporting credential completion while increasing collaboration between higher education, Economic Development Organizations (EDO), and industry.
Project 1.1. Identify Local, High-Wage Jobs
This strategy would begin by conducting a comprehensive data analysis utilizing new and existing resources while building a process to maintain the ability to identify local, high-wage employment opportunities. The benchmark for high-wage qualification is jobs that pay at or above $20.00 per hour, aiming to exceed the current Texas Per Capita Income of $34,255.
Project 1.2 Develop the Employer Network
Once the analysis is complete, a collaboration with the region’s over 30 economic development corporations will establish a network of CEOs and hiring managers. Target companies will have qualifying vacancies that have remained unfilled for significant periods of me, providing a new level of clarity of local, high-wage job opportunities and workforce gaps within the region.
Project 1.3 Identify, Train, & Place
Project 1.3, the principal project of our overall Recompete Plan would entail building the operational infrastructure of each of the RGV’s “5-IHE” to sustainably connect students to jobs and provide a wide array of support services and experiential learning that lead to job retention through supported job placement. Implementation funds would be sub-awarded across the “5- IHE” utilizing tiered distribution based on enrollment.
The project would first design and implement new models of college access such as community recruitment events at flea market locations, shopping centers, and career fairs. Wrap-around support services would then be conducted using a case management model to efficiently leverage currently available resources while expanding service scope. Support would include a wide array of highly individualized services,
This approach, targeting historically underserved populations, mirrors the proven intervention model of the community-based organization Valley Initiative for Development and Advancement (VIDA). VIDA, a member of our Recompete Coalition, has aided area low-income, unemployed, or underemployed residents since 1995 in gaining skills to secure high-wage professions. VIDA’s outcomes include a training completion rate of 85%, a credentialing rate of 90%, and an unsubsidized employment rate of 95%. VIDA will be utilized as a service resource to help build the “5 IHE” internal student support and job placement infrastructure.
Strategy 2. Locally Owned Business and Entrepreneur Development
According to the August 2023 Census Bureau Annual Business Survey, it is estimated that the RGV has approximately 28,769 (65.9%) local, minority-owned businesses which have historically faced systemic barriers to maximizing profits and continued growth. Strategy 2 would implement proven business support intervention services in a more equitable, distributed regional model. This strategy’s goal would be to increase the regional capacity of the RGV’s existing and emerging locally owned businesses by providing programs and services which would support sales growth, job creation, and job retention. This strategy also addressed gaps in identifying locally owned businesses and creates more visible business support resources.
Project 2.1 Business Directory
This project, in collaboration with cities, EDOs, and chambers of commerce will develop a unified, technology-based platform for the purpose of creating an accurate, real-me directory of all businesses in operation within a city limit. Developing the directory will involve technical assistance and analysis of currently utilized platforms, potential ground-up development of a proprietary platform, and operational policies to ensure the directory remains sustainable and accurate. This project will yield a wide range of benefits, most notably the ability to engage and initiate interventions when businesses begin to struggle.
Project 2.2 Business Training Services
This project aims to provide direct training, consultation, and resources to build the resilience, capacity, and longevity of locally owned businesses within the region. For over 20 years, UTRGV has offered a wide array of programs which support start-ups, emerging enterprises, and those looking to grow their businesses, including historically-underutilized and veteran-owned businesses (www.utrgv.edu/economic-development). UTRGV also operates two incubator facilities and has recently committed $6M towards the construction of a third incubator aimed at accelerating emerging technology companies. Implementation funds would expand the current service model to build a more robust regional network aimed at increasing accessibility. The service scope would include business development workshops, seminars, training, incubation, business acceleration, and one-on-one advising.
Strategy 3. New Industry Recruitment, Development, & Technical Assistance
The first two RGVWorX strategies focus on local workforce and business development. Strategy 3 includes interventions designed to create new jobs by implementing an integrated industry outreach strategy and providing supporting technical assistance and resources. Conducting a unified regional approach to new industry recruitment has long been a challenge of the RGV; however, this strategy implements projects which address inadequate data availability, negative perceptions of the region, and siloed resources while showcasing our geographic location and its potential for attracting international business and reshoring opportunities.
Project 3.1 Regional Data Dashboard
Most notable corporate relocations or expansions begin with access to publicly generated data by site selection firms; however, due to difficulty in accurately accessing RGV data, we are generally not identified as a region of interest. Project 3.1 will build a highly visible, accessible platform to highlight the region’s assets from a data and analytics perspective. Additionally, this
technology resource would be instrumental in guiding strategic decisions, investment assessments, and would serve as a performance management system for our regional economy.
Project 3.2 Regional Marketing Campaign
The RGV Partnership, another key member of our Recompete Coalition, has worked to promote the region since 1944. The Partnership recently hosted a regional economic summit which resulted in several cities, EDO’s, and private partners pledging to support the “One Region, One Voice” regional marketing campaign. Project 3.2 leverages this regional partnership and delivers a robust, destination marketing campaign to attract new industry opportunities, highlight the region’s assets, and combat negative misperceptions of the region.
Project 3.3 Manufacturing Reshore Mapping
In 2022, the Manufacturing Reshoring Initiative for South Texas was launched through a consortium including UTRGV, the U.S. Mexico Foundation for Science, the Texas Manufacturing Assistance Center (TMAC), and other stakeholders. This project scope was limited to only preliminary asset mapping and gap analysis. Project 3.3 will continue the mapping process to specifically identify manufacturing opportunities and provide capacity consulting to local suppliers to level up supply chain readiness. This project will provide a deeper understanding of potential industry matches and build capacity for new and existing local suppliers.
Project 3.4 Global Landing Programs
In 2020, UTRGV launched an International Business Innovation Association (InBIA) certified Global LaunchPad program designed to provide services to foreign companies seeking to enter the U.S. market and commercialize new products. Leveraging UTRGV’s incubation facilities, the Global LaunchPad incubates and accelerates international companies with the objective of relocating their headquarters to the RGV area. Project 3.4 would expand this program, grow commercialization applied-research, partner with regional site selection events, and align regional EDOs to further its job creation potential.
Project 3.5 Recruitment Technical Assistance
To deliver the comprehensive and sustainable results required to eliminate historic distress, project 3.5 is aimed at providing a wide array of technical assistance to maters that directly impact business recruitment. One example is the need to analyze current platforms utilized by area EDOs. Each EDO uses various platforms which monitor items such as retail outlook, target markets, international trade, and main street data. Technical assistance will analyze these platforms with the goal of creating a higher level of uniformity across the region. Other technical assistance examples include policy development, analysis of MSA designations, designation of a regional business recruitment team, and site selector coordination with coalition EDO partners such as the Council for South Texas Economic Progress (COSTEP) to further advance industry recruitment.
