Janelle Polcyn

Email: j.polcyn@ccdbusiness.com
Organization: CCD Business Development Corporation
Community: Coos, Curry, Douglas Region

Meet Janelle Polcyn (she/her/hers):

Janelle is an ENFP and an enneagram 7 and envies people who are aware of themselves inside and out. She’s broken three panes of glass at her parents’ home in a small town in Texas telling stories with her whole body and has knocked over more than one drink by jumping up in excitement when someone asks for her help. She is from Ohio by way of Texas, but moved to Oregon in 2018 to pursue a career in journalism after earning a degree from the University of Texas at Austin. She left journalism with a desire to be part of the work instead of writing about it. She served as the Economic Development Specialist at CCD Business Development Corporation in the Roseburg office where she helped business owners every day. She applied for RARE to explore the world of community development and city planning and is considering a masters to help her help her community more. She dreams of living in another country one day like her sisters before her but also has made Roseburg home and wants to make an impact here.

Community and Organization:

The community Janelle served in includes Coos, Curry, and Douglas counties. She served with CCD Business Development Corporation, focused on economic development and rural resiliency. CCD was founded in 1971 to support economic development and is the Economic Development District as recognized by the U.S. Economic Development Agency. The 8,259.71 square mile region covers Southwestern Oregon, including the entire southern Oregon coast and all of the Umpqua Watershed. The region is recognized for timber, salmon fishing, the Oregon Dunes, the coast, and the Umpqua Forest which leads to Crater Lake with more than 15 waterfalls along the way.
There are 198,392 people in the three counties, with Douglas County and the City of Roseburg carrying the “bulk” of the population as of the 2017 U.S. American Community Survey. The region leans older and more rural with the highest population density being in Coos County with 39.5 people per square mile and Curry County has a median age of 55.6 years old. The region has about a 15% poverty rate compared to 11.4% statewide.

Project:

Janelle served Coos, Curry, and Douglas counties with CCD as the Economic Development Specialist. She helped develop a Recovery and Resiliency plan with local stakeholders, strengthened and empowered local businesses owners with emergency preparedness planning and connected them to resources internally, regionally, and beyond, and supported the Rural Economic Development District network.