Investors gathered last month to celebrate key milestones in the Opportunity NOW initiative. Bill Ferguson, Central Bank of the Midwest President & CEO and Chair of Opportunity NOW, announced the initiative has just completed year two of its implementation and shared the top ten things to know about its progress thus far:

1. The staff team is nearly complete! Opportunity NOW’s resources added a workforce development department, a marketing director, and a team of contract lobbyists to expand our capacity. The final Opportunity NOW hire will be posted this quarter.
2. Our first Workforce Summit convened employers and stakeholders, dove deep into AI as a productivity tool, and offered sessions about workforce culture, apprenticeships, and childcare to enhance the talent pipeline.
3. Workforce Study recommends data-driven solutions to Talent Council with the first-ever comprehensive local talent analysis. These recommendations guide our strategies to attract, anchor, and align talent.
4. Concierge services created to attract out-of-market talent. Our full suite of services helps you recruit talent – from community tours, customized community data dashboards, welcome baskets, community onboarding, newcomer events and career assistance for trailing partners.
5. Overland Park selected as a Love, KS pilot city. We elevated Overland Park and our state’s profile through a national campaign and local pop-up events targeting “boomerangs” to come home to Kansas.
6. $46 million in new capital investment in 2024! The economic development team, together with the City of Overland Park and our partners, celebrated 368 new jobs and more than 1,000 retained jobs this past year. Check out the Economic Development Council’s annual report here for more details.
7. Programming focused on small business success. We partnered with JCCC to deliver programming to help early and second-stage entrepreneurs plan for success, while our Small Business Council focused its programming on small businesses at all stages.
8. Marketing was strategic and targeted. We hyper-focused marketing resources on Highland Plaza’s businesses when they were hit hard by the lengthy closure at U.S. 69/119th street, including a custom website, social media campaign and one-on-one marketing assistance to drive traffic to the center. Also new was our Small Business Season, which highlights local businesses and interesting holiday experiences.
9. Policy team scores pro-biz wins. Notable 2024 wins include workers’ comp and unemployment comp reforms, new tools to fight organized retail crime and successfully fighting off attempts to weaken or eliminate valuable economic development tools that help our community grow, like HPIP and PEAK.
10. Your bold voice at all levels of government. Our expanded capacity means we attend every Planning Commission and City Council meeting and provide summaries of major actions taken. We meet with candidates and prospective candidates for office at all levels to represent your priorities. Whether from the lectern or behind the scenes, your agenda is regularly shared with public officials.

The business community’s prosperity is foundational to Overland Park, so your voice must be represented. We’re proud to share the full report of our progress here.

If you’d like to know more about Opportunity NOW, contact me at tosborne@opchamber.org. This critical work is making a difference in our community, and I’d love to talk with you about how you can get involved.