Learning How to Better Serve our Community in Southern Lancaster City
ASSETS Research Project
This summer ASSETS Lancaster will be conducting a research project with a specific focus on the southern half of Lancaster City. This area of the city faces unique challenges as a low-income, low-wealth area, and businesses in these neighborhoods can lack access to capital, networks, and education which could help grow their business. The purpose of this research project is to shed light on the unique difficulties encountered by entrepreneurs operating in South Lancaster City, while simultaneously highlighting the opportunities for business growth amongst existing and new businesses. Research through available databases will be supplemented with the use of a survey. Starting in the spring and continuing through the summer, ASSETS Lancaster will canvas the community to conduct surveys of the local businesses to acquire data. The ability to conduct the survey ourselves will allow us to not only strengthen ties between us and the community, but also ensure the retrieval of accurate data.
The overall goals of this project are to 1) Map existing economic and entrepreneurial activity in the study area 2) Foster the growth of direct connections with the existing businesses 3) Detect opportunities for collaboration/networking to spur business growth 4) Highlight the programmatic opportunities for ASSETS and other economic development organizations to support the underserved community of Lancaster City. Through the collection and analysis of more accurate data ASSETS believes that it can improve its outreach and assistance in the economic and community development process in Lancaster City.
Randy Berridge
Research Associate at ASSETS
Focus Area: Part 1
