“Community development” is what Northern Kentucky Area Development District Executive Director Tara Johnson-Noem said is the true purpose of the organization.
A collaboration between local leaders in Boone, Campbell, Carroll, Gallatin, Grant, Kenton, Owen and Pendleton counties, the development district works to “address big issues that don’t make sense for an individual city or county to handle on their own,” said Johnson-Noem.
The group, which is part of a larger organization of 15 development districts throughout the state, focuses on three main areas: aging and disability services, local government services and workforce development. It is also the fiscal agent for the NKY Office of Drug Control Policy.
Johnson-Noem said the district’s focus is on “having a comprehensive and holistic approach to some of these bigger topics.”
The organization is funded through various means. Johnson-Noem said that roughly 60% of the funds come from state grants, 20% from federal dollars and the rest through several sources, including local donations and money for running specific programs for counties, like transportation planning.
“Basically, if there’s something in local government that needs to be done regionally, or someone doesn’t have the scale to do it themselves to ADD [Area Development District] is usually the one the help,” said Matt Elberfeld, County Administrator for Campbell County and NKY Area Development District board chair.
The district’s board is made up of all eight county judges/executives, several mayors that represent varying sizes of cities within the region as well as citizen members from each county based on population size.
The areas that the district focuses on come from what the board sees as important, “Ultimately, most of what we do is really about ‘what does that board see as a need in our community?’” said Johnson-Noem.
What does the NKY Area Development District do?
“We’re a bit unique because we are both looking at big regional topics and plans in some of our areas of focus. And then in other areas, we’re providing direct service,” said Johnson-Noem.
For example, Johnson-Noem said that on the workforce development front, they are handling federal workforce dollars and staffing the regional workforce investments board while also running a program helping individuals on public assistance find jobs.
The district recently launched NKY Works, which focuses on workforce development in the region. Correy Eimer, associate director of workforce development at the NKY Area Development District, said the organization features five pillars for success: early childhood education, career readiness, work-ready adults, talent attraction and retention and employer policies and practices.
NKY Works is replacing GROW NKY as the region’s primary workforce development office. The office’s responsibilities include developing and overseeing workforce policy and initiatives in Northern Kentucky while partnering with the region’s employers, educational institutions, and other agencies to implement strategies that address workforce challenges.
“The work done through GROW’s pillars is not coming to an end,” Eimer said. “Northern Kentucky Works is the next iteration of GROW. The five pillars will continue. What is changing is our emphasis on the private sector.”
Elberfeld said another area for the district that is a growing focus is housing, ” It is a new and evolving area and the ADD is going to serve as a leader for housing policy decisions.”
In September, the development district released a study of housing in Boone, Kenton, Campbell, Gallatin, Carroll, Owen, Grant and Pendleton counties that revealed some troubling trends for housing in the region.
Conducted in partnership with the county fiscal courts, the engineering firm Stantec, as well as local businesses and civic organizations, the study suggested that the above counties need “to build 6,650 housing units to support economic development in the next five years, which equates to 1,330 units per year.”
Elberfeld said that the district’s strength is running programs that municipalities don’t have, specifically aging and disability services. For example, Elberfeld said, most local governments have planning departments, “ A lot of the governments have their own planners but a lot of those aging disability services, the ADD is it for the region.”
Find more information about the NKY Area Development District’s programs here:
- Aging and Disability Resource Center (ADRC) – 859-692-2480 nkadd.org/adrc/
- NKY Career Center (Jobseekers) – 859-292-6666 nkcareercenter.org/job-seekers/
- NKYWorks (Employers) – 859-657-WRKS (9757) nkyworks.org
- NKY Helpline – 859-415-9280 nkyodcp.org/nky-helpline/