Through the OCOG initiative, the community rallied around a single common vision to prepare Miami-Dade County for sustainable economic prosperity for all. This process brought the community together to build a robust strategic plan to keep the community competitive by creating good paying jobs and advancing the development of a world-class educational ecosystem. This included a competitive assessment, target industry identification, an education asset inventory and a five-year economic growth strategic plan.

Through the OCOG initiative, the community exceeded their five-year job growth goals for all sectors, and in the target industries. Between 2012 and 2017 more than 60,000 new jobs in target industries and more than 148,000 new jobs in all sectors were created.

Through the OCOG initiative, large established companies and startups explore options for business collaboration. Results include:

• Startups learned best practices;
• Established companies learned new technologies;
• Startups and large companies established customer/vendor relationships.

Through the OCOG initiative, the Academic Leaders Council made up of the Presidents of the six major higher education institutions and the Superintendent of Miami-Dade County Public Schools was created.  It is among the first of its kind in the US. The goal of the ALC is to create an educational ecosystem that aligns with the business community to ensure worker availability and skill-sets keep pace with business needs. They meet quarterly to focus on preparing students to enter the workforce with the skills needed for high paying jobs.

Through the OCOG initiative, the community (businesses, academic institutions and residents) participated in developing and implementing the plan. More than 5,000 people were involved through surveys and focus groups and the community logged more than 10,000 volunteer hours. Over five years, those numbers increased exponentially demonstrating its far-reaching community impact:

• 39,903   Total Volunteer Hours
• 5,305    Students Engaged
• 596      Companies Participating
• 209     C Level Executives Involved
• 51      Non- Profits Activated

Through the OCOG initiative, the Academic Leaders Council developed the One Community One Goal Talent Development Network (TDN).  TDN is a website that pairs students with employers for paid internships, so students discover job opportunities in this community… and stay here. TDN has received outstanding support from the community and lead sponsors Helios Education Foundation, JPMorgan Chase and the Miami Foundation.

Through the OCOG initiative, top leaders of the target industries meet through the Miami-Dade Beacon Council target industry committees to address industry challenges and opportunities. Successes include the International Air Transport Association’s prestigious Wings of Change aviation conference being held in Miami, and the creation of the Miami Innovation Working Group to support the growing technology industry in Miami.

Through the OCOG initiative, major community-wide topics were addressed through focused events on Physical Infrastructure & Resilience, Entrepreneurship & Innovation and Education & Workforce. These events were held around the community including downtown Miami, Doral, Homestead and elsewhere.

Through the OCOG initiative, academic institutions added, changed and adjusted programs and curriculum to reflect the new skills needed in the target industries so that students entering the workforce are ready for current and future jobs.

Through the OCOG initiative, business and community leaders were involved in a variety of educational programs including collaboration with the United Way, Urban League and the Miami-Dade County Public Schools for the Career Connection events, where students had the opportunity to hear from industry executives and entrepreneurs about their career paths. Programs also included target industry high school student summer camps and tech training programs at the college level were provided as no cost to students from low-income neighborhoods to give them skills for higher paying jobs.