Gwinnett County, Georgia

Community and Economic Development Strategy (2006) and Strategic Update (2009)

Gwinnett County, one of the most populous counties in the Atlanta metropolitan area, has been one of the nation’s fastest growing counties for a number of years. With a stable and diversified economic base, quality schools and a competitive quality of life, Gwinnett continues to attract new investment, residents and visitors.

To ensure that the County’s positive trends continue, the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce contracted with Market Street to facilitate a process called, Partnership Gwinnett, A Shared Vision for the Future. This strategic visioning process laid the ground work for future community and economic development efforts in Gwinnett.

The process began with an extensive research process including quantitative and qualitative input focused on Gwinnett’s demographics and economy, its overall competitiveness, and top industrial growth sectors. That information was used to create an action plan and implementation guidelines.

The Gwinnett Chamber began its implementation process by focusing on enhancing its staff capacity to accommodate the more comprehensive approach to economic development for which the action plan called. Goals of Partnership Gwinnett address the areas of economic diversification and wealth creation, education and workforce excellence, quality of life enhancements, and marketing and outreach – each of which will be key for the County to achieve the Shared Vision.

After two years of implementation, the Gwinnett Chamber hired Market Street in 2009 to review the progress-to-date of strategic efforts, assess the relative attainment levels of performance benchmarks, determine if those benchmarks remain viable moving forward, and identify priority actions for years three to five of Partnership Gwinnett implementation. The strategic update resulted in a realignment and refocusing, and momentum continues to build as the community makes progress on many of its goals, including bringing quality jobs and significant corporate investment to the County in the midst of the recession of 2008-2010.

 

For more information, please see the project website: www.partnershipgwinnett.com.