Greater Raleigh Chamber Blog

By Georganne Sanders
Vice President, Operations and Business Development
​90 Degree Design



On the chilly morning of our last Leadership Raleigh Class 35 session, I woke up in my cozy bed in my heated home. I had a choice of several breakfast options out of my pantry and drove in my car to the Chamber. My expectations for the day were to learn more about people experiencing hunger, homelessness and addiction while visiting some of the organizations providing services to those individuals.
 
What I didn’t expect was the gut and reality check, and the emotions associated with witnessing those challenges and opportunities for improvement in our community. The bubble that I was raised in and live in daily is not something I generally think about, but my experiences from that day changed that.
 
Firsthand Experience
Our first stop was the Raleigh Rescue Mission, which provides “long-term and emergency shelter, nourishing meals, counseling, medical care, educational opportunities, job training, and an on-site preschool center” to those in need. The Mission was one of the few places in Raleigh where women and children could be served. They currently have 240 women and children on their waiting list.
 
John Luckett, Raleigh Rescue Mission’s CEO, and his team have implemented a two-year program with the goal of stable employment and housing upon completion.
 
Around the corner from the Raleigh Rescue Mission is the Oak City Outreach Center, which generously opened its doors to our LR class for a poverty simulation by United Way. Each of us was provided with a back story. There were single parents, people dealing with disabilities, senior citizens on their own or raising grandchildren, and children trying to handle difficult situations at school and home. Over a simulated month-long period, we were to navigate keeping our homes, paying our bills, feeding ourselves and our families, finding and keeping jobs if we were able, finding affordable child care, and getting our kids to school.
 
There were far more takeaways than I have time to share, but needless to say, it was incredibly eye opening to see the difficulty associated with not just knowing what services were available to oneself, but with accessing those resources. It was easy to see how people could get stuck in a cycle of poverty that seems impossible to get out of.
 
Coordinated Access
As we lined up for lunch in the cold, outside of the door to the Oak City Outreach Center, we experienced a small part of what the clients experience every weekend as they walk through the line and are served their meal. OCOC is under the umbrella of the Raleigh/Wake Partnership to End and Prevent Homelessness. Partnership Executive Director Shana Overdorf is one of the hardest working people I know (as well as one of my favorite humans.)
 
Shana shared with us that on any given weekend at OCOC, between 300 and 400 unique individuals receive 1,300-1,700 meals. As of Dec. 3, the 69 groups which coordinate, prepare, and provide these meals had served 275,279 meals to the OCOC guests. Over 200 volunteers served at least one four-hour shift. Among those volunteers were 50 Raleigh Police Department officers who regularly signed up for shifts at the center.
 
Volunteers and community members have transformed the OCOC from a relatively stark building to a welcoming environment, including a colorful mural, paintings, toys, a small library, and a beautified outdoor space.
 
One of the takeaways of our simulation was that what contributed to the difficulty of many people’s situations was accessing services which were located in many different locations. One way that the Partnership along with our local government is working to address this issue is through the development of the Oak City Multiservice Center. The new center “will provide coordinated access to the countywide homeless services system during weekdays (which) will alleviate the burden on the client of having to navigate the system on their own.” The current target open date is January 2019.
 
Striving for Recovery
Our next visit was with Healing Transitions, a “peer-based recovery oriented service to homeless and under served individuals with alcoholism and other drug addictions ... specifically designed to rekindle a person’s desire and ability to return to a meaningful and productive life." We were given tours in small groups by men who were working through the program. It made it so much more meaningful to hear firsthand the experiences of people who were striving daily for long term recovery. We were able to see where they started in detox, moved into the shelter, and then the progress they made as they successfully achieved milestones in the process.
 
Afterwards, Dexter Hebert, executive director for Southeast Raleigh for the YMCA of the Triangle led us on a bus tour of Southeast Raleigh. This historically African-American area of the city is seeing a lot of growth and development. Of particular concern is ensuring that the populations represented in the area are not pushed out, but are part of the economic recovery.  Part of the development, led by Dexter and his team, is a 32-acre site that will house a YMCA facility, an elementary school, and other services. They have been working hard at fundraising the $20 million they will need to complete the project. It is going to be a positive addition to the neighborhood.
 
Making Our Community Better
We rounded out the day with a panel including Dexter, Joey Powell, executive director of the Me Fine Foundation, and Brad Turlington, who is involved with F3 and Healing Transitions. These men are working daily to make our community a better place
 
The day after our LR35 Human Services day, I woke up in my cozy bed in my heated home. I had a choice of several breakfast options out of my pantry and drove in my car to work. But that day and each day since has been a little different. I’ve been asking myself, “How will I contribute to ensuring our community provides opportunities for growth for everyone and services for those who are striving for a better life?” I have some ideas and I hope you do too.

t​Innovate Raleigh announced today that Bridget Harrington has been named as the organization’s new executive director. Beginning on Dec. 19, Harrington will lead the organization’s efforts to support Raleigh’s innovation ecosystem and drive the area to be one of the top five innovation hubs in the U.S. She most recently served in financial services for KPMG, LLP.
 
“With more than 15 years of finance, operations, and marketing experience, Bridget brings extensive knowledge that will foster the growth of our entrepreneurial community,” Jason Widen, Innovate Raleigh co-founder.
 
As an entrepreneur herself, Harrington co-founded, built, and sold Syndicate Media Group, a marketing and communications firm. Most recently she has worked for global financial services provider KPMG, focusing on key venture capital and banking clients.
 
On Oct. 1, the Chamber and Innovate Raleigh began a new alliance that is designed to assist the startup community. “I am inspired by the diverse entrepreneurial talent in our city and look forward to working with the Chamber and the Innovate Raleigh community to make the Triangle one of the top centers for innovation in the country,” said Harrington.
 
Harrington received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism and Mass Communications from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Master of Science in Accountancy from San Francisco State University.
 
About the Greater Raleigh Chamber
The Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce is the Triangle’s largest nonprofit business membership organization made up of more than 2,200 member firms representing two-thirds of the private sector employment in Wake County. The Chamber builds a thriving regional economy, enhances the community’s quality of life, and strengthens member businesses.
 
About Innovate Raleigh
Innovate Raleigh serves as a catalyst for innovation and entrepreneurship in the region. Its goal is to serve as a collaborator, convener, and communicator to foster business and community development. The group was founded in 2011 to address gaps in services for entrepreneurs and partner with other organizations to promote the city’s growing innovation community.

Learn more about Innovate Raleigh here. 

By Michael Haley
Executive DIrector, Wake County Economic Development
Senior Vice President, Economic Development, Greater Raleigh Chamber




​Over the past two months North Carolina and Raleigh have been recognized as the best places for business by Forbes. The Raleigh metro was named the No. 2 Best Place for Business and Careers for 2017. A month later, Forbes ranked the State of North Carolina as the No. 1 Best State for Business in 2017. 
 
These prestigious rankings alone are enough to be proud of—and we certainly are! But I found something more important in these articles. Something that better relays what our community really is. Both of these articles noted—and “marveled at” might be a better description—the consistency of our economic performance. 
 
“The Tar Heel State is the only one to rank among the top five on Forbes’ Best States for Business for 12 straight years,” noted the article naming North Carolina No. 1. When Forbes ranked Raleigh as the No. 2 Best Place for Business and Careers, the article said the “Raleigh metro area has by far been the most consistent performer in our annual survey, finishing in the top three each of the past 15 years.”
 
Any of us living here over the past 15 years—or even if you are new to the region— would agree. This is one the strongest regional economies in the United States. But why? How can we better understand this prolonged, “consistent” excellence?
 
For me, these articles hone in on the same attributes that we focus on every day when describing our community to entrepreneurs, new companies that want to call Wake County home, or existing companies that want to expand: Talent; Innovation & Collaboration; Business Environment; and Quality of Place.    
​
​Talent
With over 189,000 people enrolled in higher education in our region and over 53,000 graduates each year, this is one of the most educated communities in the U.S. That’s exactly what Forbes noted in both of its articles about North Carolina and Raleigh. The magazine describes the population as “a young, educated workforce” and says that we “boast one of the country’s most educated labor forces.” 
 
When describing why Raleigh was named the No. 2 Best Place for Business and Careers, Forbes points to our continued ability to attract high levels of in-migration. We’ve all heard that Wake County is growing by 67 people every day and 47 (70 percent) of those are people moving into our community.  That’s nearly 25,000 people a year. Here’s another interesting note about our growth. Did you know that the number of people who move to Wake County every day from another part of North Carolina is about the same as the number of people who move here from another country?
 
Innovation & Collaboration
It’s impossible to talk about our community without talking about higher education. North Carolina State University, UNC Chapel Hill, and Duke University are three of the most prestigious schools in the world—and they are less than 30 miles apart in the Research Triangle. Not only do we have three tier one universities within close proximity, we also have a surrounding higher education ecosystem that drives our region. Schools like Wake Tech Community College, William Peace University, Shaw University, Meredith College, St. Augustine’s University, North Carolina Central University, and Campbell University all contribute to this thriving market. 
 
Business Environment
Wake County is known as a leader in information technology, life sciences, cleantech, and advanced manufacturing. This past year we’ve  seen expansions at Credit Suisse, INC Research, Citrix, MetLife, and many other companies, as well as new companies coming into our market like Trilliant and Infosys. In fact, Forbes highlights Infosys’ decision to create 2,000 new jobs in Raleigh as one of the key points in the decision to name us the No. 2 Best Place for Business and Careers. 
 
Quality of Place
Of course a great place to work is nothing if it’s not a great place to live and explore. With over 160 miles of greenways, museums, state parks, 35 breweries and counting, and 85 music venues we’ve got something for everyone. 

Being named the No. 2 Best Place for Business and Careers and the No. 1 State for Business is amazing. And it’s not without much consideration that both articles recognize the longstanding strength, the sustained excellence, and consistency of performance of our community—that’s the real story. 

Find more information on recent area rankings here.