Strengthening Stark Week
October 21 - 25

Mark your calendar for Strengthening Stark Week, held Monday, October 21 through Friday, October 25. It will be a week-long celebration highlighting economic development programs and initiatives with events centered on business growth, innovation and networking plus a job fair, county-wide community conversations and more. Details to follow!


Strengthening Stark Team

Join us in welcoming our new marketing intern Kevin Stillwell to the Strengthening Stark team! A McKinley High School graduate, Kevin is a senior majoring in business at Youngstown State University. This summer, he is helping broaden the awareness of Strengthening Stark through creative outlets such as Instagram.

Our Stark Story: The Coons

After buying their first historic building over 35 years ago in downtown Louisville, Steve and Jenny Coon have never looked back! Learn what they believe inspires people to want to live, work and play downtown.

Points to Ponder

In a series of columns in The Canton Repository, Ron Ponder shares his and others' viewpoints on Strengthening Stark.

 
Higher Education Key to Economic Development

Our community is fortunate to have strong institutions of higher education in our own backyard helping to recruit, educate and retain the next generation of leaders. In a series of articles from March through October in The Canton Repository, local colleges and universities partnering with Strengthening Stark share how they are helping reverse the troubling trends of our county becoming smaller, older and poorer.

Learn how three institutions are educating and training students for the jobs of today and tomorrow:

Aultman College

Stark State College

The University of Akron

The next commentary featuring Kent State University at Stark will be published on Sunday, June 30.

Paradox Prize

In early June, the Fund for Our Economic Future, the National Fund for Workforce Solutions, Greater Cleveland Partnership, The Lozick Family Foundation and DriveOhio launched The Paradox Prize –  a public call for big ideas that help Northeast Ohioans stranded economically by their geography connect to tens of thousands of open positions.

Funders anticipate investing up to $1 million in funding and technical assistance to support up to 15 pilots over the next three years. They are looking for ideas from across the region to break the "no car, no job; no job, no car" paradox. Proposals are now being accepted at www.paradoxprize.com . For more information, email paradoxprize@thefundneo.org .
Want to get involved? Let us know!

Contact us at (330) 453-562 8 or info@strengtheningstark.com if you want to get involved. We would love to chat about how you can play a role in Strengthening Stark County.

Do you know others who would be interested in learning about Strengthening Stark? Encourage them to sign up to receive our monthly email updates!

Need a crash course in Strengthening Stark? The Canton Repository has you covered! Visit the Rep's website for a quick and easy to access page with links to every Strengthening Stark story written by the paper since the initial report was published in 2017.