Other Resources

Commonwealth of Massachusetts (Mass.Gov)
The official website for the state of Massachusetts provides news, updates and all the information and links to useful state agencies and offices.

Mass Development
MassDevelopment works with businesses, nonprofits, and local, state, and federal officials and agencies to strengthen the Massachusetts economy. Through this collaboration they help create jobs, increase the number of housing units, eliminate blight, and address the overarching challenges that limit economic growth, such as transportation, energy, and other infrastructure deficiencies.

Massachusetts Downtown Initiative (MDI)
The Massachusetts Downtown Initiative (MDI) offers a range of services and assistance to communities seeking help on how to revitalize their downtowns. The primary mission of the MDI is to make downtown revitalization an integral part of community development in cities and towns across the Commonwealth.

MassEcon
The Massachusetts Alliance for Economic Development (MassEcon) is a private, non-profit partnership of business, industry leaders, and government dedicated to the economic growth of Massachusetts.

Massachusetts Economic Development Council (MEDC)
MEDC is the professional association of economic development practitioners serving the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Established in 1963, the Council provides an opportunity for professional development through Council Committees, programs, and has as its primary objective the promotion and development of the economic welfare of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts through industrial and economic development.

Metro West Economic Research Center (MERC)
The MetroWest Economic Research Center (MERC) at Framingham State College, established in 1991, collects and analyzes data related to economic conditions in several Massachusetts regions including the MetroWest, and South Shore, and Cohesive Commercial Statistical Areas (CCSA), as well as the Greater Marlborough Region. MERC provides data and analyses on economic issues of vital interest to these regions.

Massachusetts Office of Business Development (MOBD)
MOBD is committed to helping companies create and retain jobs, as well as promote private investment in our state. MOBD facilitates simplified, timely access to a host of governmental and non-governmental resources and incentive programs that will help businesses grow faster and stronger in Massachusetts.

Massachusetts Small Business Development Center, Clark University
The Massachusetts Small Business Development Center Network is a partnership program with the U.S. Small Business Administration and the Massachusetts Department of Business Development. The MSBDC provides free and confidential one-to-one management advice and technical assistance to prospective and existing small businesses.

495/Metro West Partnership
The 495/MetroWest Partnership, through an unique public-private collaboration with businesses, municipalities, and other stakeholders, is the regional leader for creating an environment that prepares for and cultivates sustainable growth.

Preservation Nation
The National Trust for Historic Preservation is a non-profit membership organization bringing people together to protect, enhance and enjoy the places that matter to them. By saving the places where great moments from history – and the important moments of everyday life – took place, the National Trust for Historic Preservation helps revitalize neighborhoods and communities, spark economic development and promote environmental sustainability.

Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC)
The Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) is a regional planning agency serving the people who live and work in Metropolitan Boston. Its mission is to promote smart growth and regional collaboration, which includes protecting the environment, supporting economic development, encouraging sustainable land use, improving transportation, bolstering affordable housing, ensuring public safety, advancing equity and opportunity among people of all backgrounds, and fostering collaboration among municipalities.

Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO)
The Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) is responsible for conducting the federally required metropolitan transportation-planning process (often called the 3C —continuing, cooperative, and comprehensive—process) for the Boston metropolitan area. The MPO uses this process to develop a vision for the region and then decides how to allocate federal and some state transportation funds to programs and projects—roadway, transit, bicycle, and pedestrian—that support that vision.

Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation
CEDAC was created to serve as a vital resource for organizations engaged in community economic development. CEDAC is a public-private, community development finance institution that provides technical assistance, pre-development lending, and consulting services to non-profit organizations involved in housing development, workforce development, neighborhood economic development, and capital improvements to child care facilities.

UMass Donahue Institute
The University of Massachusetts Donahue Institute provides government, business, and non-profit organizations with effective solutions in the areas of research, organizational development, training, and technical assistance.

Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy
The Kitty and Michael Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy conducts interdisciplinary research, in collaboration with civic leaders and scholars both within and beyond Northeastern University, to identify and implement real solutions to the critical challenges facing urban areas throughout Greater Boston, the Commonwealth, and the nation.

National Development Council
The National Development Council is the oldest national non-profit community and economic development organizations in the U.S.  It was founded in 1969 with one purpose:  increasing the flow of capital for investment, jobs and community development to underserved urban and rural areas across the country.

The Arts Alliance
Incorporated in March of 1991, the Arts Alliance is a non-profit organization which has spurred the area’s vibrant cultural and artistic resources to flourish, administered by a resourceful staff of two full-time and two part-time professionals under founder Jan Patterson’s direction. Supported by a volunteer board of enthusiastic directors and more than 350 members from 30 area communities, the Arts Alliance offers a broad array of dynamic arts activities in which thousands of adults and children participate.

The Assabet River Rail Trail, Inc. (ARRT)
The Assabet River Rail Trail, Inc. (ARRT) is a non-profit organization formed for the purpose of promoting the creation of a multi-use recreational rail trail that will pass through the communities of Marlborough, Hudson, Stow, Maynard and Acton.

Massachusetts Workforce Board Association
The Massachusetts Workforce Board Association is a business-led organization representing the 16 member regional workforce board’s employers, representatives of labor, higher education, business and industry associations, economic development and workforce organizations, which provides leadership in workforce development in each region across the Commonwealth.

Massachusetts Workforce Alliance
The Massachusetts Workforce Alliance unites individuals, organizations and coalitions to advance sensible workforce development policy that creates true economic opportunity for low-income people.

Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MTC)
The Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MTC) is an initiative of the Massachusetts Technology Park Corporation (MTPC), an independent instrumentality of the Commonwealth created in 1982 to advance the growth of the technology sector of the Massachusetts economy through collaborative activities among industry, universities and state government.

Sustainable Community Development Group, Inc. (SCDG)
CDG is a not-for-profit corporation at the forefront of working with the public, private and community sectors to advance environmental sustainability, equitable development and global smart growth.

Metro South/West Regional Employment Board
The MSWREB provides structure in a labor market where there is no formal system for the exchange of information about the labor market itself or for developing effective strategies to address labor market problems. Members of MSWREB are business and community leaders, prominent educators, and organized labor officials.

Economic Development Administration (EDA)
EDA is an agency within the U.S. Department of Commerce that partners with distressed communities throughout the United States to foster job creation, collaboration and innovation.

U.S. Commercial Service
The U.S. Commercial Service, an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce, has been assisting U.S. companies with the challenges of growing and prospering in the international marketplace. Clients  are primarily internationally minded executives of small and medium sized businesses looking to enhance their skills, expertise, and networks in order to improve their company’s international sales performance.