Star Assessment™

Welcome to STAR Assessment

STAR—Strategic and Technical Assessment of Resources—is a proprietary interactive economic assessment tool developed by Scruggs & Associates LLC and IronWolf Community Resources to cost-effectively assess a region’s capacity for economic and industry cluster development.

STAR can be used as a:

1
Baseline for strategic planning: Providing a comprehensive and multi-dimensional assessment of an economy or industry cluster in a condensed time period, allowing more focus on developing opportunities rather than collecting data.
2
Mid-point assessment to target ongoing efforts: Identifying leverage points that can focus economic or industry cluster strategies on areas with immediate opportunities and high return on investment for the community.
3
Resource allocation tool: Analyzing specific economic gaps between where you are now and where you want to be, AND understanding the level of effort required to those fill gaps and seize opportunities.
4
Community dialogue tool for economic development: Understanding how different stakeholders perceive current and future economic conditions to more effectively target communication and outreach efforts.

How does STAR work?

STAR uses a three-prong approach combining quantitative data analysis, best practice benchmarking, and input from community stakeholders. This systematic combination of data, performance and perception provides a comprehensive assessment of a community or an industry sector, and allows each region or industry to quickly and objectively examine the interaction of various economic factors and identify key gaps and opportunities.

Who should use STAR?

Economic development organizations & chambers, industry groups, local governments, workforce development board, community redevelopment authorities (CRAs), and others.