Economic Development Thriving In Cherokee County: Officials

CHEROKEE COUNTY, GA — Cherokee Office of Economic Development President Misti Martin gave plenty examples of why more businesses are choosing Cherokee County.

"Welcome to Atlanta’s fastest growing county and the nation’s No. 1 state in which to do business," Martin said Wednesday at the annual State of the County event. "Doesn’t that sound good? And isn’t it refreshing to hear that people understand the value of this community?"

Martin said many companies are starting new ventures or reimagining their business or their development.

"Just like in our Fresh Start Cherokee brand story, we are the 189 year-old startup community," she said. "You can see those words in The Circuit coworking space. Cherokee County has long been a place for fresh starts – an incubator of dreams. We are supporting those entrepreneurs who are big dreamers. From The Circuit, our partnership with Chattahoochee Tech and Woodstock Economic Development to our NAV program – the North Atlanta Venture Mentoring Service – principled and trained by MIT."

This is a team-based mentoring model and the first of its kind in the state, she said, including:

• 24 mentors / 7 ventures – those numbers will quickly rise as we have 11 additional ventures and 7 additional mentors who have applied to the program. The county has innovators ranging from a virtual reality health care startup to makers such as the American Cuckoo Clock Company
• 71 percent of ventures are minority or women led
• 6 different countries represented
• 25 percent of North Atlanta Venture Mentoring Service mentors are minorities

"We love the diversity and inclusion," Martin said. "We love the burst of joy that comes from these startups hitting milestones after getting good advice from mentors on growing their venture right here in Cherokee."

Martin said they are also serious about providing opportunities from kids to CEOs.

"We are not only an incubator for dreams, we are also an incubator for talent," she said. "We just heard from (Superintendent of Schools Brian) Hightower – what an asset we have in our school district. Since site location consultants reference quality of workforce as the number one priority for businesses when choosing an area to locate or expand, I’d say our future is definitely bright."

Leaders from across this community came together over three years ago to put together a unified workforce development strategy, and the Cherokee Workforce Collaborative was established, she said.

"This group is working to connect education and industry with real-world experiences and knowledge," Martin said. "Closing that soft skills gap and preparing young people for careers – whether it’s one that requires a four-year degree or a certification from a skilled trade. This year, a skilled professions awareness campaign will launch with community partners. This campaign will feature top trade jobs with 10 percent or more growth potential in Cherokee as well as an interactive mobile workforce workshop."

Another focus of Martin's is real world experiences.

"We all remember our first jobs and, even though we were low man on the totem pole, we still learned work ethic, how to be assertive, how to overcome failures and learn from mistakes," she said. "Companies in this community came together last summer and offered 13 paid high school internships. These are not 'fetch coffee' grunt jobs – these kids are getting to cross train through departments and run CNC machines or work in IT. They have all been so thankful, saying it was the experience of a lifetime."

Additionally, Martin said the county is also connecting creatives, filmmakers and future filmmakers with real-world experience through the Cherokee Film Summit. Last week, there were 121 students at the Student Film Summit and 240 attendees at the professional film summit.

"We know that we have a responsibility to develop our future workforce to fill high demand jobs, but we have a responsibility to our working population – especially those 78 percent who are commuting outside of Cherokee for work," Martin said. "We need to provide them opportunities to work at home and forget the commute."

To do that, the Cherokee Career Expo, in partnership with the Georgia Department of Labor, will be held at the Northside Hospital Cherokee Conference Room on March 18. Martin said more than 80 percent of the 410 people who attended last year were Cherokee residents, many who currently commute, and were looking for a job in their home community.

"We want those folks off the roads and spending time with their families," she said. "So besides making them aware of jobs close to home, what else can we do? We have to plan; we have to execute. Being the fastest growing county in metro Atlanta is phenomenal. People want to be here. They value this community. But we must preserve land in our county and cities for business growth. People want to work here, and 97 percent of out-commuters said they wanted to work in their home community. We have a fiscal and social responsibility to our residents to recruit and expand business. How do we do this? We take care of our existing businesses who are already in 'Cherokee By Choice.' I think we can all agree that Cherokee County is a special place. We will continue to grow and innovate without losing our authenticity. Thank you for believing in us. We are not just another bedroom community. We are Cherokee County."