Boston Fed will work with Rhode Island communities to improve their economies

PROVIDENCE -- The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston is expanding a long-term effort to improve the economy in local communities  outside of Massachusetts and has selected Rhode Island as the next recipient of the bank's assistance.

The Boston Fed's Working Cities Challenge will collaborate with an unspecified number of Rhode Island cities and towns to use national research conducted by the Boston Fed to help them recover economically, said Tamar Kotelchuck, director of the Boston Fed's Working Cities Initiatives. 

Grant money to fund the Rhode Island work will come from a variety of partners but not the Fed, Kotelchuck said. The Fed expects grants in Rhode Island to total between $1.3 million and $1.5 million, spokesman Matthew C. Campion said. That would include awards to various communities of between $300,000 and $500,000.

Eric S. Rosengren, CEO of the Boston district within the nation's central bank system, expects to talk in Providence on Tuesday about the initiative at a gathering with Governor Raimondo, Commerce Secretary Stefan Pryor and Ben Hecht, the CEO of Living Cities, a national philanthropic foundation that will help fund the effort. 

Raimondo said she met with Rosengren several months ago, and she and her administration worked to convince the Boston Fed the program was ideal for Rhode Island. In an interview, she noted the program helps cities especially hurt by the loss of manufacturing and by de-industrialization: "And we have a lot of cities that fall into that category."