Published: November 08, 2006 11:05 pm      

‘Can we build it? Yes, we can!’

WIRED: Building economic growth through cooperation

The two people named to help lead Meridian Community College’s participation in the WIRED grant met on campus Wednesday with business and civic leaders to outline its goals.

Ken Dupré and Michael Gibson are part of a team that encompasses 37 counties in East Mississippi and West Alabama.

WIRED stands for Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development.

The $15 million federal grant awarded in May is designed to give people incentives to work together in an economic development region — as opposed to fighting among themselves — to attract new businesses.

“Our focus is to create a 37-county region between East Mississippi and West Alabama that can compete globally,” Dupré said.

“We should work in cooperation rather than in competition, then we can be a much larger force in the global market.”

The responsibility for the grant is divided into two areas: The Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs is the fiscal agent, and the Meridian-based Montgomery Institute is the managing partner.

The grant allows community colleges in the grant area to designate two facilitators to help build a game plan for the future. MCC chose Gibson and Dupré, who laid out the WIRED initiative’s four major goals.

• Goal No. 1: Create a regional identity. This means getting all the leaders in the region to focus on a “build it” attitude, rather than a “fix it” attitude. The WIRED team wants people to think regionally, not locally.

• Goal No. 2: Build entrepreneurship and support this by creating people, places and programs that are friendly toward innovation. Celebrate the successes of entrepreneurs.

• Goal No. 3: Create a regionalized worker certification program. What that means: Students who receive training at any of the eight community colleges in the 37-county region have the skills to do a job, but they have something else as well — a certification recognized throughout the region.

And tracking these workers means an incoming business owner can make a call and know how many workers fit their requirements.

• Goal No. 4: Finally, the WIRED team wants to bring the program into the K-12 educational system — provide schools with programs that encourage entrepreneurship, innovation and skills needed for the future.

Dupré also talked about his 4-year-old son.

“My son’s favorite show is ‘Bob the Builder,’ and his saying in every show is, ‘Can we build it? Yes we can!’”

Dupré said the next step is learning this region’s strengths and comparing them to other regions — and then going forward with a plan for a cooperative structure.

For more information about the WIRED initiative, call Ken Dupré at (601) 481-1322 or Michael Gibson at (601) 481-1365.