Project Rising Tide

The mission of the Rising Tide initiative is to provide communities with the tools they need to design and build a successful economic framework. It supports vibrant, thriving communities to attract business investment and talent by creating a sustainable path toward economic stability and growth.

The Michigan Economic Development Corporation, Talent Investment Agency, and Michigan State Housing Development Authority–collectively, the Talent and Economic Development (TED) (currently known as Labor and Economic Opportunity department - LEO) team–have committed their assets to engaging specific communities across the state in order to empower them to shape their future and maximize economic potential. For each of two “rounds” of the program, one community was selected in each of the ten Michigan Prosperity Regions using the following data, cross-matched by population: poverty, unemployment, labor participation, renter occupancy, vacancy, households receiving assistance.

MEDC’s Redevelopment Ready Communities program provided the initial mechanism to develop and support the Rising Tide platform. The communities develop an Action Strategy outlining tasks, ownership, and deliverables to take place over the course of 9-12 months. The TED team, along with a consortium of consultants, support the implementation phase by offering capacity, advice, and expertise from a team of consultants selected for their successful experience with Michigan redevelopment projects. The implementation approach is centered on building capacity within the Rising Tide communities.

Manistee began participating in 2018. As part of round two of the program, each community received a full-time Community Development Fellow, tasked with identifying the community needs and work with the technical assistance to continue developing the potential of the community and creating engagement with the community. 

Currently, the projects identified for the Project Rising Tide in Manistee are:

-    Economic Development: Working with Place+Main Advisors to identify a common vision for Economic Development across different community organization, providing specific strategies, steps and recommendations to build a sustainable path for development in Manistee. 

-    Board Training and Development: Focused on general roles and responsibilities of boards, what it means to be an effective board member, and best management practices for working collaboratively on economic development. 

-    Branding and Marketing: with assistance from Arnett&Muldrow, identify an image for Manistee that reflects the community pride, engagement and messaging that supports economic development.  

-    Housing: works towards increasing the understanding of the housing needs in Manistee, the differences of the housing levels and programs available as well as connecting the community with housing initiatives. 

For each initiative, a plan or strategy was developed for implementation in the community.