The Michigan Approach

Michigan's Cool Cities Initiative reviewed many best practices from leading thinkers and successful communities around the world to develop the "Michigan Model" for economic growth in the creative sector.

The Michigan Model is organized in four continuous and concurrent stages.

The first stage is "Listening. " We are committed to listening to what different people want in an ideal community. The tools we use include the Cool Cities survey, focus groups and the Governor's University Summits. We use the data generated to better understand what people of all backgrounds and demographics want in a community. We also facilitate discussions with individual communities using tools such as strategic planning sessions to identify strengths, barriers and opportunities so we have a better understanding of what initiatives and resources could be implemented. We recognize that an important by-product is the dialogue that begins and continues within the communities once they are brought together.

The second stage is "Planning ." To further shape community development we use data indicators, trends and the results of our "listening" sessions to shape the initiatives and plans to further community improvement. We collected best practice initiatives from across Michigan and the country as examples of strategies and actions that address targeted opportunities. We also have prepared a toolkit of funding sources to assist in obtaining financial support. One specific example of funding opportunities includes the Cool City Pilot Program, which provides funds to various communities to address specific needs in neighborhoods. The grant serves as a catalyst for neighborhoods to use resources from multiple local, state, federal and private funds. In addition, the Cool Cities web site is a tool to connect people and sustain the learning and planning opportunities.

The third stage is "Acting ." We bring our learning, planning and funding to fruition with specific initiatives that help our communities grow, expand and attract more creative and talented people. We specifically want to focus efforts on embracing innovation, encouraging talent, welcoming diversity and enhancing the quality of life by creating environments that recognize the impact these characteristics have on ideas, events, places, organizations and people.

The fourth stage is "Measuring ." We use multiple data sources (i.e. census information, Bureau of Labor and Statistics, etc.) to objectively create benchmarks and perform analysis to identify opportunities and measure progress in our communities. The measures performed depend on the goals and objectives identified for your community and project. We recognize the value of many of the measurements Richard Florida uses in his book Rise of the Creative Class . Some of the measurements we employ include: 1) Innovation measurements such as number of businesses created, patent applications, national share of high-tech output, and concentration of high-tech output versus non high-tech output 2) Talent measurements such as the number of bachelor's degrees or better per capita and number of creative sector occupations per capita 3) Diversity measurements such as number of foreign born per capita, Gay and Lesbian index, Bohemian index (number of artists, musicians, etc.), percentage of people of color and integration index 4) Workforce measurements such as occupational clusters, industry clusters and creativity census.