CAMILLA, Ga. — As Southwest Georgia continues to recover from a hurricane and works its way through a pandemic, the Southwest Georgia Regional Commission has contracted with Georgia Tech to create a strategic plan to guide the region forward.

Beka Shiver, the commission’s economic development and transportation planning specialist, described the effort in an email to The Observer.

“Since the Great Recession, rural downtowns across the country have undergone a renaissance,” Shiver wrote. “While larger communities typically have physical amenities that draw talent, the overall cost of living to be ‘close to everything’ can be burdensome.”

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, rural communities are realizing that with the right infrastructure, they have a lot to offer, she said.

Recognizing the opportunity to capitalize on their assets, the Southwest Georgia Regional Commission contracted with the Georgia Institute of Technology’s Center for Economic Development Research to conduct a strategic plan to use as a roadmap to pursue the region’s economic development goals. 

“The Southwest Georgia region has been hit hard because of natural disasters, and more recently, sustained a significant community impact during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Shiver wrote. “During October 2018, Hurricane Michael impacted more than 20,000 businesses in Georgia. According to FEMA, southern Georgia sustained approximately $3 billion in damages in the agriculture industry alone (according to estimates from the Georgia Department of Agriculture, the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension Service and Georgia Forestry Commission). Most recently, several Southwest Georgia counties reported the highest COVID-19 case count per 100,000 people in the state, while unemployment claims had risen over 4,000 percent during April 2020.”

Under the CARES Act, the regional commission is conducting this strategic plan to prioritize the region’s most pressing economic needs, and to help inform their short and long-term economic resilience strategies, Shiver wrote. These strategies will help the commission to develop public-private partnerships as it strives to revitalize key industry sectors and attract people and investment.

As an EDA University Center, Georgia Tech is uniquely positioned to assist communities throughout the Southeast on various economic development initiatives, Shiver wrote. 

“The Economic Development Research Program (EDRP) is Georgia Tech’s signature program for providing affordable economic development research and analysis capacity for communities that need it the most,” she said. “CARES Act Recovery Assistance and EDRP are funded through the U.S. Economic Development Administration’s University Center grant program and administered by Georgia Tech. These funds are available to eligible communities across eight southeastern U.S. states.”