User Spotlight

Roberto Gallardo:

PCRD’s vision is to be a leader in innovative and adaptive partnerships empowering regions to find solutions for equitable, sustainable and resilient development. This vision will be accomplished by collaborating with people to listen, identify and enhance assets unique to their story resulting in prosperity and quality of life.

A couple of ongoing projects exemplify this mission. First, PCRD has been able to retain its Economic Development Administration University Center (EDA UC) designation. PCRD has been an EDA UC since its inception in 2005. During this time, PCRD has been able to establish two-way trusted partnerships with members of the Indiana Association of Regional Councils (IARC) as well as multiple state and federal agencies, including the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs, the Indiana Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and others. These partnerships have resulted in projects that empower regions to find solutions for equitable, sustainable, and resilient development. For example, research on economic resilience was completed working with an IARC region resulting in valuable knowledge and tools that are now used by other regions. Likewise, the state’s first-ever regional digital inclusion plan was developed in partnership with another IARC member. Now, PCRD is spearheading the state’s first-ever digital equity plan.

Another project that exemplifies PCRD’s mission is our involvement in a national team and effort to evaluate and research the impact of EDA’s Build Back Better Regional Challenge (BBBRC) program. The BBBRC is investing $1 billion across 21 coalitions in several states. PCRD’s role is to monitor several macro indicators, conduct a quarterly impact survey and annual Ripple Effect Mapping sessions to better document the impact of this place-based economic development strategy. PCRD will take what it learns and/or develops and apply it to regions in Indiana and the Midwest.

Being an EDA UC provides PCRD with several benefits. Perhaps its most significant benefit is to be part of a network of EDA UCs in the region and around the country. This provides PCRD with networking opportunities where PCRD learns from other EDA UCs and showcases its work. In turn, this results in improved strategies, innovative research questions, and pooled resources, including intellectual capital to address very complex problems, also known as “wicked” problems. Another important benefit is that this designation must be renewed every five years through a highly competitive process. This positions PCRD to be innovative, competitive, and efficient to ensure, above all, that it is well-attuned to the needs of regions in Indiana and across the country and align EDA priorities and resources accordingly.

The Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program—part of the IIJA—is a historic investment in broadband. Indiana individuals and communities can participate in this program to ensure funds are used in areas that need it the most. First, it is very important to educate leaders and residents on what broadband is and what this program entails. Second, individuals need to go to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) broadband map and make sure that their address and broadband service available are accurate. If there are any discrepancies, they can challenge both a location (based on their address) and/or a service (broadband offered). Third, individuals and communities can also participate in upcoming meetings (more than likely in April) across the state—required by the program—to provide input as to what Indiana’s broadband plan should include, including area eligibility and type of data allowed to challenge what providers are reporting. Reach out to Indiana’s Broadband Office to learn more about dates and locations. Lastly, community leaders and/or local broadband taskforces need to work with their Internet Service Providers (ISP) and ask them what they need from the community to apply for BEAD funds. Projects where broadband investment priority areas have been identified need to be updated and worked with providers so they can potentially use for BEAD funds.

Related to BEAD, and also part of the IIJA, is the Digital Equity plan. PCRD is spearheading this effort and individuals and communities can participate in several ways. First, we need help identifying digital assets across the state—locations that have public computers, internet access, room space for workshops, offer some sort of digital literacy training, etc. Second, there will also be six regional solutions sessions across the state in July and August. Dates and locations are still being defined, but reach out to PCRD via email to learn more: pcrd-web@purdue.edu.

The digital divide is a very complex and, at times, abstract issue. Before COVID, it was not as well-understood and pressing an issue as it is now. Both tools were developed pre-COVID to help communities understand their digital landscape.

The Digital Divide Index consists of three scores. One score refers to the infrastructure/adoption landscape and includes variables such as average speeds, percent of homes without internet access, etc. The second score refers to socioeconomic and demographic characteristics that are known to impact technology adoption, such as poverty, older adults, less education, etc. Together, these two scores contribute to the overall DDI score. Scores range from 0 to 100 and a higher score denotes a larger divide. The idea is to not only provide a way to measure and understand the concept, but also to help prioritize. For example, if the socioeconomic score is higher than the infrastructure/adoption score, perhaps the community needs to focus on digital literacy and technology relevance. If the opposite is true, then the community may want to focus on improving infrastructure and adoption rates.

Another metric we developed is called Digital Distress. The name was inspired by a well-known term by economic developers: economic distress. Digital distress refers to a higher share of households that do not have internet access, rely solely on limited cellular data to access the internet, have only mobile devices, or have no devices. While not as robust as the DDI, digital distress allows community leaders and residents to know which areas in their communities have a higher share of households in digital distress.

This is a great question. Fortunately, we are in the middle of a transition to better emphasize place-based economic development. Before, economic development programs generally targeted individuals and businesses. This led to tremendous geographic inequality as the winners tended to be in the same places time and time again, leaving all other places out. Place-based economic development, on the other hand, focuses on a specific location. It attempts to ensure everybody in that location thrives. Through this emphasis, communities of color, low-income populations, and rural areas benefit from these investments. In other words, it can result in inclusive development.

Regional economic developers need to engage with these populations when identifying, designing, and implementing these place-based policies. This will ensure that the initiatives have local buy-in, exponentially increasing their chance of success but, more importantly, embedding a sustainability component that many times is left out. This is critical, since it will take years, if not decades, for these left-out groups and places to turn the corner.