This briefing provides a summary of Mainstreaming Community Economic Development and how community groups can use the approach in their work.

Why is Mainstreaming Community Economic Development important? 

This is about localising prosperity for everyone – by building upon an area’s existing strengths so that it can develop from within, maximising the local economic and social benefits for all. It is based on a virtuous circle of local empowerment, thriving local business and wellbeing:

For several years, researchers affiliated with the Leslie Harris Centre of Regional Policy and Development (The Harris Centre) at Memorial University, have been developing a new way for communities in Atlantic Canada to think about organizing their economic development efforts. The approach uses worker commuting data to identify local labour markets as the best unit for designing and implementing economic development strategies. Local labour markets developed from commuting data have seldom been used for smaller places where multiple communities make up the local labour market.