The Edward Lowe Foundation, which promotes entrepreneurship as the strategy for economic growth, has contracted with the University of Central Florida\u2019s successful GrowFL team to provide economic-gardening services for other communities and states.<\/p>\n
The Florida Economic Gardening Institute at UCF, which administers the GrowFL Program, is the first organization in the nation to be certified by the Michigan foundation as a Level III top-ranking economic-gardening provider.\u00a0 As a result of that certification, the UCF program was selected to work as part of Lowe\u2019s National Strategic Research Team to help share techniques about economic gardening.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we\u2019ve seen in Florida is an impressive capability and level of experience that fosters the growth of second-stage companies using the certified GrowFL team and the economic-gardening tools and techniques they are now deploying,\u201d said Mark Lange, executive director of the foundation based in Cassopolis, Mich.\u00a0 \u201cWe want to harness the enthusiasm, energy and expertise of the UCF team to help other states and regions to implement an economic-gardening initiative and perhaps turn the corner during these difficult economic times.\u201d<\/p>\n
Working with the National Center for Economic Gardening, the UCF GrowFL team\u2019s first assignment will be in Indiana, where the team will provide services for second-stage companies as part of the Elevate Ventures Economic Gardening Pilot Program. The services will include assistance in business strategy, market research, competitive analysis, web\/social media strategy, and search engine optimization.<\/p>\n
The Edward Lowe Foundation is providing GrowFL with $249,375 for six months of service, which will be provided by GrowFL\u2019s staff and advisers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are honored that the Edward Lowe Foundation is turning to UCF and the GrowFL team to help even more states and communities with their successful strategy of assisting growth-oriented companies to grow,\u201d said Tom O\u2019Neal, associate vice president for research & commercialization at UCF and executive director of the Florida Economic Gardening Institute.<\/p>\n
The institute\u2019s GrowFL program has worked with more than 400 companies in Florida since 2009. An economic-impact study released in August found that GrowFL helped more than 300 companies create 3,285 jobs and has contributed more than $510.4 million to Florida\u2019s economy. In September, state funding for the initiative ended and the program began working directly with communities to tailor offerings to meet the needs of their particular industries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Edward Lowe Foundation, which promotes entrepreneurship as the strategy for economic growth, has contracted with the University of Central Florida\u2019s successful GrowFL team to provide economic-gardening services for other communities and states. The Florida Economic Gardening Institute at UCF, which administers the GrowFL Program, is the first organization in the nation to be certified by the Michigan foundation as…","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-twocol.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"lazy_load_responsive_images_disabled":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"tu_author":[],"class_list":["post-31879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business"],"yoast_head":"\n