City of New Haven Buy Local Initiative

City of New Haven Buy Local Initiative

Phase 1: Executive Summary

next street

September 2013

The City of New Haven’s Office of Economic Development has recently completed the first phase of Mayor DeStefano’s “Buy Local Initiative,” which aims to foster local economic and job growth by strengthening New Haven’s small and minority owned businesses. In this initial phase, the City engaged an economic development consultancy, Next Street, to independently evaluate: 1) the amount of money the City spends on goods and services provided by local, small, and/or minority-owned businesses, and 2) opportunities for the City to further enhance its spend with these businesses.

The City’s procurement activities are driven by a range of policy, operational, and administrative dimensions with the ultimate goal of executing an efficient and financially prudent process, while supporting local businesses when possible. Within this context, this project was aimed to both assess the City’s baseline procurement spend and to develop strategies by which the City could enhance its procurement performance and local economic impact without compromising its other procurement goals. The results of this project will serve as a model for how other anchor institutions in New Haven can better support local businesses and their growth.

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