Regional Competitiveness
A successful and vibrant heartland is one that attracts businesses, entrepreneurs and human capital all while maintaining a healthy workforce and quality of life. Heartland Forward is committed to ensuring the 20 states that comprise the heartland maintain their leadership role as the third-largest GDP in the world.
The No.1 economic issue of our time is having access to affordable high-speed internet.
The Connecting the Heartland initiative is a multi-state, multi-pronged initiative to boost internet availability, affordability and adoption rates for participation in online services that are key to economic opportunity.
Our goal is to be a resource to states and communities by emphasizing affordability and adoption alongside expanding infrastructure. This expansion is dependent on a workforce ready to step in and build out this infrastructure. We took action by creating the Connecting the Heartland Jobs Board to solve workforce challenges. In our modern economy connecting the heartland also means integrating and harnessing the power of artificial intelligence. We have been working to understand how best to harness that potential though first-of-its kind polling and convenings across the heartland.