PITTSFIELD, Mass. — 1Berkshire, in partnership with the Berkshire Innovation Center (BIC), announced its selection as 1 of 65 inaugural host locations across the country for the International Economic Development Council (IEDC)'s Economic Recovery Corps (ERC) Fellowship program. 

 

This program, supported by the United States Economic Development Administration, assigns and funds fellows to host organizations for 2.5 years of intensive, project-focused work with the goal of making aneconomic impact on the service area. 1Berkshire was selected from over 500 organizations and communities that applied to be a host for this inaugural ERC class, and is 1 of only 4 hosts selected in all of New England.

 

1Berkshire and the BIC have focused the work of their fellow around several of the goals outlined in their work with the Berkshire Tech Impact Collaborative, a joint endeavor of 1Berkshire, the BIC, and Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Berkshire Community College (OLLI). Since 2020, this trio of organizations has been focusing attention and efforts on better understanding, growing, and supporting the tech and digitally-enabled economy of the region, bolstered with additional support from the Center on Rural Innovation (CORI). 

 

The 1Berkshire fellow, selected from an applicant pool from across the country, is already a familiar face in Berkshire County. Cody Chamberlain of North Adams was selected by the IEDC and matched with 1Berkshire over a five-month application process. He is a member of the North Adams Public Schools Committee.

 

With a dynamic background in tech and innovation startups in Boston, youth engagement, customer service, and program design, Cody brings not only skilled capacity, but additional thought leadership to the work of 1Berkshire and the Berkshire Innovation Center.

 

Cody will be working specifically around a set of functional areas that helps more inclusively grow the creative technology sector of the region by: supporting existing businesses, providing recruitment, technical assistance, and navigation for emergent startups, building partner and resource networks and referral systems, and engaging youth in startup development to foster workforce growth and entrepreneurial skill building for the next generation. Cumulatively this project's work, branded the "Berkshire Next Generation Entrepreneurial Bridge Initiative," will engage a breadth of regional and state partners, creating a powerful and sustained coalition. 

 

"It is incredibly exciting to have been selected as part of this highly-selective program, and it just goes to show that the potential and aspirations we hold here in the Berkshires are second to none," said Ben Lamb, 1Berkshire vice president of Economic Development. "With Cody on board, we now have the deepened capacity to launch these focused initiatives and efforts forward, and make even more effective and inclusive impacts on the region's innovation economy."