There are many aspects to the prosperity of a geographical area, with thriving industries and successful, resilient businesses being a key factor. Sometimes, as we saw in 2020, industries and businesses were hit hard by an outside impact mostly beyond their control – the COVID-19 pandemic. In such times, the important interface between the public and private sectors, their cross-communication and partnering, and their support for each other becomes more evident in seeing what it really takes to drive a successful local or regional economy.

As a resource for resiliency and prosperity-building for Northern Santa Barbara County industries, businesses, and communities, EconAlliance has developed partnerships, programs, forums, and resources to assist these stakeholders in sustaining, expanding, and growing.

Northern Santa Barbara County and environs became a community prosperity area (Allan Hancock College Center of Community Prosperity) in 2019, after a joint Rural Prosperity Summit co-hosted by USDA, EconAlliance and Allan Hancock College. In early 2020, after a fall 2019 visit to USDA as part of its North County in DC week, EconAlliance was designated by USDA as a Community Prosperity Council facilitator for the area.

The Resiliency/Prosperity Initiative is designed to allow EconAlliance to take the opportunities it discovers to meet the North County cross-industry, cross-jurisdictional, and/or cross-domain challenges presented in a strategic, effective way. Here we highlight some key activities.

Videos for the 2020 Community Prosperity Summit sessions, Rural/Community Prosperity information and more recent Community Prosperity activities can be found in our Video Resource Library, linked here.