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On Wednesday, December 6, 2023, the Greater Dubuque Development Future Leadership Team met for a regularly scheduled meeting. This 30-person advisory team, made up of up-and-coming leaders representing area employers, meets quarterly to discuss relevant economic development topics and how Greater Dubuque Development and the community can be most effective in addressing challenges and opportunities.
Attendees were welcomed by Mandi Dolson, Director of Workforce Recruitment & Retention for Greater Dubuque Development, who then turned the meeting over to Rick Dickinson, President & CEO.
Rick shared a sneak peak of results from the NEXT GEN Perceptions Survey that Greater Dubuque had opened for responses on November 1, 2023. As of November 30, 2023, 1,488 responses had been received with 72.4% coming from targeted respondents of age of under 40.
Preliminary results point to the following as the top 5 out of 14 community factor priorities:
Responses go on to identify significant gaps in how the Greater Dubuque region is performing on all 5 priorities versus respondent expectations.
Preliminary results point to the following as the top 5 of 21 quality of life amenity priorities:
Responses go on to identify the most significant gaps in how the Greater Dubuque region is performing in relation to 1) Variety of Restaurants and 2) Shopping/Commercial District versus respondent expectations.
Rick noted the survey will accept responses through Friday, December 15, 2023. Demographic information collected thus far demonstrates that additional outreach to diverse populations is needed by the Greater Dubuque team, with Future Leadership Team invited to help spread the word through their employers and networks.
Comments from Nic Hockenberry, Director of Workforce Programming, followed, building on soft infrastructure priorities of Housing and Child Care called out in the NEXT GEN Perceptions Survey. Nic provided an overview of successes to date in how the Greater Dubuque region has worked collectively to tackle the need for workforce housing as well as a status update on the number of new housing units in-progress or under construction.
Nic also touched on defining the need for child care and outlining the work that Greater Dubuque Development has undertaken as of recent in conjunction with numerous community partners to address the issue. In addition to fostering the creation of new child care facilities thus increasing the number of available child care slots in the county, Nic announced our receipt of a $560,000 grant from the State of Iowa being matched up to $280,000 by local employers. The grant will be applied to creating a wage enhancement program aimed at boosting efforts to recruit and retention more child care professionals.
A group discussion followed where Future Leadership Team members addressed the following questions:
After a lively discussion, Mandi reminded attendees of Workforce Solutions resources offered by Greater Dubuque including the HR Professionals Cohort, the YOU can be great here Community of Colleges Series, Distinctively Dubuque, and the Workforce Solutions Monthly email newsletter. The meeting wrapped with distributing copies of the Fall 2023 City Focus. Future quarterly meetings for the Future Leadership Team are scheduled for Wednesday, March 6, 2024 and Wednesday, June 5, 2024 at 8:00 a.m. at Greater Dubuque Development’s office in Dubuque’s Historic Millwork District.
The 30 members of the Future Leadership Team serve staggered 24-month terms and provide feedback to the Greater Dubuque Development Board of Directors and management team on annual and long-range strategies to achieve the objectives of Greater Dubuque Development. One member of the Future Leadership Team, Nicole Breitbach of Black Hills Energy, serves as a voting member of the Greater Dubuque Development Board of Directors.
View a list of Future Leadership Team members.
For more information about the Future Leadership Team, contact Nic Hockenberry, Director of Workforce Programming at nicolash@greaterdubuque.org or 563-557-9049.
Your support can be great here.