Longmont EDP secures $40,000 state grant

LONGMONT — The Longmont Economic Development Partnership has been awarded a $40,000 Economic Development Organization recovery grant from the Colorado Office of Economic Development & International Trade.

The grant award will be used to:

•  Launch the Longmont Entrepreneurial Hub, an Advance Longmont 2.0 strategic initiative to construct a “no wrong door” ecosystem for Longmont’s entrepreneurs.
• Support Longmont EDP’s national marketing efforts to attract talent and business investment to Longmont.
• Develop and deploy the Longmont Career Pathways platform, in partnership with local startup lndigo, to connect local job seekers to local education and professional development opportunities to set them on a pathway to pursue local employment opportunities that best fit their natural strengths and provide a higher standard of living.

 “We are thrilled to be awarded this grant and its potential for impact in our community,” Jessica Erickson, president and CEO of Longmont EDP, said in a prepared statement. “We are most proud of the fact that instead of each of the organizations in Longmont that were eligible for this grant submitting an application, we came together and took a collective impact approach to pursuing this funding for Longmont.

“Our shared goal is always to support as much opportunity as possible, to help as many people and businesses as possible, and to have the greatest impact on our community as a whole,” she added. “While Longmont EDP was the applicant for the grant, the Longmont Chamber, LDDA, and Innovate Longmont, collectively agreed to support the Longmont EDP application rather than pursuing funding individually. This ensured that we would not be competing against one another for funding. We went into the process knowing that this approach would ultimately benefit more people, more entrepreneurs, and more businesses than if we had each pursued the grant individually.”

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