Raise The Bar

Raise the Bar has four components: Train, Assess, Compete, and Engage.

Raise the Bar–Train allows our partners to participate in group workshops or individual training sessions with Missouri Partnership. During these sessions, our partners learn and refine best practices for presenting materials and site submissions, enhancing their ability to compete for projects.

One of the program's long-term staples is Raise the Bar–Assess, where we retain a site selection consultant to conduct mock site visits and follow-up with analysis and evaluation for communities. This initiative enables the communities to be more prepared when a business attraction project evaluates them. During FY 2025, five communities participated, and the exercise mimicked a food and beverage business attraction project. We collaborated with the Missouri Department of Agriculture, Missouri Agricultural and Small Business Development Authority (MASBDA), and Missouri Farmers Care on the initiative. Hannibal, Jefferson City, Kirksville, Moberly, and Springfield participated in the program to sharpen their readiness for future food and ag investors.

Though we encourage a high level of preparedness for our communities, as a state, we tend to fall short when it comes to having large industrial sites. The multi-year initiative, Raise the Bar–Compete, engages in the search process to identify mega and premier sites. Currently, we have identified mega sites and premier sites. The ultimate long-term goal is to identify, control, improve, and market these sites to help Missouri effectively compete nationally. This effort continued in FY 2025.

Raise the Bar—Engage includes dozens of commitments throughout the state by our team to speak at various board meetings, participate in familiarization tours, attend roundtables, and participate in strategy sessions. When we visit our partners and stakeholders in their own communities, we create and further cement our partnerships. The word partnership is in our name and is paramount to our overall success.