Bibliography

Coes, Christopher; Vey, Jennifer; Hadden Loh, Tracy. The Great Real Estate Reset: A Data-Driven Initiative to Remake How and What We Build. Brookings, 2020.

• Real estate is subject to periodic market ‘resets’, which are often overcome by a variety of factors (e.g., time, bailouts, corporate pivots); current cycle was triggered by the reset from the subprime mortgage lending crisis of 2007-2009, but the next reset will be different.
• Typical real estate consumer is a middle-class white family; following trends are disrupting this: persistent segregation, changing demographics, housing market destabilization, future of work, disruptions to retail.
• Need to create more “communities of opportunity.”

• Separate and unequal: persistent residential segregation is sustaining racial and economic injustice in the US.
• Modernizing family: America’s demographics are transforming, but our housing supply is not.
• Risky (housing) business: distorted and destabilized housing markets are pushing households into climate-risky, low-opportunity communities.
• The office, reimagined: the nature of office work is shifting, and so must downtowns.
• Retail revolution: the new rules of retail call for small business empowerment.

• Nearly half of Californians are renters, including the majority of Black, Latinx, and multiracial residents.
• Without sufficient eviction protection, debt relief, and financial support, Covid-impacted renters will be left behind as the state begins its path to recovery.
• Protecting renters is an economic and public health necessity.

• No California renter should be evicted or burdened with years of debt for rent or utilities they were unable to pay during the pandemic.
• Rent debt due to the pandemic should be fully forgiven and should not be conditioned on landlord’s’ acceptance of funds.
• Financial assistance to landlords should address the fiscal needs of landlords in danger of going out of business due to lost rent, with a particular focus on keeping small community-based landlords and nonprofit affordable housing operators solvent.
• Local municipalities’ authority to pass stronger eviction and debt protection should be preserved.
• Landlords should continue to fulfill their legal obligations to tenants regardless of receiving assistance, including maintaining habitable premises, refraining from harassment and retaliation, and respecting tenants’ legal rights.

• This report defines health and social equity in terms of real estate and housing.
• Case studies and examples are provided that showcase real estate and hosuing projects that have equity as a core principle.
• Ongoing work is underway to assign and track metrics, scale programs to entire portfolios, and continue adding to innovative health and social equity offerings.

• Engage its supply chain partners to encourage diverse hiring practices in their companies.
• Increased inclusion of health and social equity–focused questions on tenant surveys to better track occupant preferences on health and social equity.
• Eviction prevention programs.
• Significantly increase the number of businesses owned by women and minorities, with a particular focus on black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC), and work with contractors and service providers who share the commitment to engaging minority-owned and female-owned businesses.

• California’s policy decisions are often driven by the interests and political goals of the state’s large, coastal, urban centers with little regard as to how such policies may help or hurt the interior regions of the state.
• The differences between the state’s coastal and inland economies are leading to an incorrect assumption and labeling of one as a success and the other as a failure.
• In reality, Inland California appears in a much more favorable economic light, and this shift in understanding should, in turn, inform any policies the state devises to help inland regions continue to prosper. 

• California does need to pay more attention to its inland regions, but not because they represent a problem the state needs to solve. Rather, these regions need more attention because in many ways they are the future of growth in California, offering middle class residents a quality of life they are unable to obtain along the coast.
• These economies need to be better supported through state policy and investment because the state needs these economies to flourish.
• This includes major issues such as the minimum wage which clearly should be different in Fresno and San Francisco, or transit priorities inasmuch as light rail is simply not an effective solution in the less dense inland regions. Local strategies and decision making can play a vital role in helping Inland California attract more high skilled industries and grow in a more balanced way into the future.

• Recovery from great recession exacerbated racial disparities.
• Black workers took longer than others to regain lost ground on employment and earnings.
• Even by 2019, Black and Latino homeownership rates remained below their 2006 levels, and roughly 50% lower for white households.
• These outcomes reflect long-standing status-quo economic development approaches that prioritize short-term job creation.

• Set goals to increase prosperity and racial equity; adopt a framework to achieve these goals.
• Build new institutional capacity.

• Equitable economic development that dismantles barriers and expands opportunities for low-income people and communities of color is good for the economy.

• Community wealth generation.
• Connecting the local to the global.
• Investment from within and outside communities.
• Quality jobs for those without secondary education.
• Building wealth for lower-income residents and historically disenfranchised communities.
• Public accountability and transparency.

• Job openings have fallen sharply.
• POCs are overrepresented in non-essential jobs.
• Jobs with highest risk of exposure will likely come back last.
• Essential jobs have not been as heavily impacted by slowing growth.
• Higher demand jobs in the downturn could be a pathway for economic security.
• Healthcare jobs openings have been relatively stable, but also is the industry with large gender and wage gaps.
• Metros with strong pre-pandemic economic diversity and growth experienced milder job-market impacts.

• Resources and support should go to populations most in need.
• Protect essential workers.
• Support dislocated workers.
• Anticipate and plan for a changed jobs and economic landscape.

• Although at the beginning of 2020 the LA regional economy was experiencing a long expansionary period, there were many underlying issues (e.g., homelessness, income inequality, racial inequities.
• Aid from the County and partners should focus on those hit hardest by the pandemic, specifically those who have the fewest resources to fall back on (e.g., workers with at most a HS degree, often Black or Hispanic, typically young <35, small businesses, often non-white businesses, and in services).

Institute for the Future (IFTF) for the California Future of Work Commission. A New Social Compact for Work and Workers. CA Future of Work Commission, 2021.

• Identified several four broad categories of challenges: inequity, economic mobility, and low-quality work; work-adjacent issues and quality of life; challenges in the future of work; exacerbated and highlighted by the COVID-19 crisis.

• Social Compact core principles and values: equity, empowerment, harness full capabilities and collaboration, forward-looking, ambitious goals .
• Ensure there are jobs for everyone who wants to work.
• Eliminate working poverty.
• Create a 21st century worker benefits model and safety net.
• Raise the standard and share of quality jobs.
• Future-proof California with jobs and skills (to prepare for technology, climate, and other shocks).

• Labor should be considered an investment rather than a cost – and investments in growing, diversifying, and upskilling California’s workforce can positively affect returns on climate mitigation efforts.
• California can achieve greater social equity in labor market outcomes for disadvantaged workers and communities when policymakers pay attention to job quality.
• Deliberative policy interventions are necessary in order to advance job quality and social equity.

• Demand-side: standards (e.g., wage, skill, responsible employer), project labor agreements, community workforce agreements, inclusive policies (e.g., procurement, contracts, grants), inclusive hiring, retention, labor law enforcement.
• Supply-side: inclusion/career pathways, education and training (new, incumbent, upskilling/skill upgrading).
• Protecting workers and their communities: new opportunities for workers (e.g., explore alternatives to immediate plant closures), identification of priority transition assistance (e.g., sector vulnerability assessment).

Koh, Harvey; King, Samantha; Irfan, Ahmed; Agarwal, Rishi; Dayal, Ashvin; Brown, Anna. Shaping Inclusive Markets: How Funders and Intermediaries can Help Markets Move toward Greater Economic Inclusion. FSG, 2020

• Truly inclusive markets result in more broadly shared prosperity, particularly for those most vulnerable.
• Scaling a single innovation is not enough to shift the market.
• Innovations can occur in: business models/practices, formal regulations, informal societal norms.
• Work requires an iterative approach with continuous strategy refinement in response to increased system understanding (and as the system itself evolves).

• Harnessing market system innovations: learn from the past journey of the system; envisage inclusion goals; surface potentialities; support innovators & innovations.
• Organizational frameworks and systems that focus on continual learning.
• Carefully considering our own ability to anchor support to the market system.

Southern California Association of Regional Governments (SCAG). Regional Briefing Book. December 2020.

• Represents a first step toward a more comprehensive framework for an inclusive economic recovery.
• Acknowledges the need for broader approaches that address social, economic, and environmental factors that influence the economy.
• Provides data on the current economic state of the SCAG region and a future outlook.

• SCAG will engage with regional partners across the business, philanthropic, community and economic development sectors, as well as the municipalities it represents, to craft a more focused set of policy recommendations for inclusive economic recovery.
• This will include best practices and policy and programmatic concepts, a resource hub for information, and a state and federal legislative strategy in support or a robust, inclusive, and equitable economic recovery strategy.
• No specific recommendations in this report, only data.

• The Advancing Workforce Equity project supports regional workforce partners to develop explicit, data-driven equity strategies.
• This report focuses on the Boston area.
• The report identifies the key drivers of inequity, and prioritize actionable strategies to advance equity through policy efforts, programs, and investments.

• Use sector-based workforce development strategies to build pathways for workers of color into good jobs.
• Leverage the development boom and sectoral growth to increase union participation, expand apprenticeship programs, and secure public financing for social programs.
• Mediate the relationship between educational institutions  and employers to transition from degree-based hiring to skills- based hiring.
• Improve job quality through systems-changing pubic and private sector employment policies.
• Make racial equity a priority, and develop systems to track and measure progress and ensure accountability.

PolicyLink, ERI, and Burning Glass Technologies. Advancing Workforce Equity in Chicago: A Blueprint for Action. PolicyLink and USC Equity Research Institute, 2021.

• The Advancing Workforce Equity project supports regional workforce partners to develop explicit, data-driven equity strategies.
• This report focuses on the Chicago area.
• The report identifies the key drivers of inequity, and prioritize actionable strategies to advance equity through policy efforts, programs, and investments.

• Elevate and amplify worker voice and worker power.
• Use sector-based workforce development strategies to build pathways into good jobs for workers of color.
• Improve job quality and economic security for workers of color.
• Develop strategies to close racial gaps in the social determinants of work.

PolicyLink, ERI, and Burning Glass Technologies. Advancing Workforce Equity in Dallas and Collin Counties: A Blueprint for Action. PolicyLink and USC Equity Research Institute, 2021.

• The Advancing Workforce Equity project supports regional workforce partners to develop explicit, data-driven equity strategies.
• This report focuses on the Dallas and Collins counties region.
• The report identifies the key drivers of inequity, and prioritize actionable strategies to advance equity through policy efforts, programs, and investments.

• Increase the number of good jobs available to frontline workers of color.
•  Increase the number of workers of color in pre-apprenticeships and apprenticeships so that they have pipelines to occupations in industries where they are underrepresented.
• Use skills-based hiring, retention, and advancement strategies to reduce occupational segregation fueled by hiring bias and degree inflation.
• Invest in community-based digital literacy, adult literacy, and integrated learning programs to remove barriers to entry and advancement in the labor market.Increase investment in wraparound supports like accessible childcare, affordable housing, and efficient transportation options to facilitate labor-market advancement and educational attainment for workers of color.
• Disaggregate participant outcomes from education and workforce programs by race to identify the workforce development interventions that help workers of color succeed in the labor market.
• Align workforce development initiatives and worker rights projects to improve workers’ basic protections and increase opportunities for advancement available.
• Strengthen coordination between the workforce development and housing systems to reduce the housing burden for workers of color and to ensure they can access opportunity jobs.

PolicyLink, ERI, and Burning Glass Technologies. Advancing Workforce Equity in the Bay Area: A Blueprint for Action. PolicyLink and USC Equity Research Institute, 2021.

• The Advancing Workforce Equity project supports regional workforce partners to develop explicit, data-driven equity strategies.
• This report focuses on the Boston area.
• The report identifies the key drivers of inequity, and prioritize actionable strategies to advance equity through policy efforts, programs, and investments.

• Create a health and wellness scorecard.
• Establish a worker bill of rights.
• Invest in community-centered economic planning.
• Strengthen the social safety net and worker benefits.
• Design workforce training programs to empower workers.
• Redistribute funder power.

PolicyLink, ERI, and Burning Glass Technologies. Advancing Workforce Equity in Seattle: A Blueprint for Action. PolicyLink and USC Equity Research Institute, 2021.

• The Advancing Workforce Equity project supports regional workforce partners to develop explicit, data-driven equity strategies.
• This report focuses on the Seattle area.
• The report identifies the key drivers of inequity, and prioritize actionable strategies to advance equity through policy efforts, programs, and investments.

• Partner with employers and industry to implement equitable recovery commitments.
• Develop systems to measure and track equity metrics as the economy recovers.
• Invest in community-based research and collaboration to remove structural barriers to work.
• Build meaningful and sustainable community influence and power in the workforce development system.
• Advance sector-based strategies and partnerships that prioritize opportunity sectors in the region.
• Co-create and co-invest in equitable, high-demand career pathways.

• In the Bay Area, rapidly escalating housing costs, long commutes and growing inequality have priced out many longtime residents, diminished migration by people seeking upward mobility and threatened one of the world’s most vibrant economies.
• This report introduces a suite of potential strategies for shaping the Bay Area’s future housing and job growth while creating a more affordable, connected, diverse and environmentally sustainable region.
• The strategies are intended to spur discussion about the Bay Area’s long- range regional growth framework, which for a decade has sought to focus development in transit-served Priority Development Areas (PDAs) nominated by cities and counties, and to protect open space, including Priority Conservation Areas (PCAs) nominated by local governments and open space districts.

• Take into account the successes and shortcomings of the Bay Area’s current PDA- focused framework.
• Respond to the broader aspirations of Bay Area residents, as reflected in the Horizon Guiding Principles.
• Offer a viable path toward meeting the region’s full housing needs and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction targets.

• Nov 2020 CPS data suggests disproportionate impact on minorities, women, younger workers, those with lower educational attainment, low-wage workers.

• Integrated services.
• Local job creation.
• Address disparities and unique barriers to employment.
• Inclusive set of targeted outcomes.
• Balance near-term interventions with reality of long-term outcomes.

• Lower wage workers face significant barriers to higher-wage employment.
• Middle-wage jobs are declining as a share of total employment.
• Jobs at the lower end of the wage scale are likely to grow over time, and workers typically remain in these jobs for their entire career.

• Helping lower-wage workers seek middle-wage employment.
• Focusing on the number of jobs that pay middle wages.
• Improving the quality of jobs for current and future lower-wage workers.

• Equitable development increases the capacity of POCs to strengthen their and their communities’ future.
• A systematic approach can address two major obstacles: involuntary displacement (economic, cultural) and inequitable access to key determinants of well-being.
• Foundational equity elements are: “strong communities and people,” and “great places with equitable access.“

• Advance economic opportunity.
• Prevent displacement..
• Preserve and expand affordable housing options.
• Understand and respond to local context.
• Promote broader mobility and connectivity.
• Practice meaningful community engagement.
• Develop healthy and safe communities.
• Promote environmental justice.
• Achieve full accessibility.

• Recovery from great recession exacerbated racial disparities.
• Black workers took longer than others to regain lost ground on employment and earnings.
• Even by 2019, Black and Latino homeownership rates remained below their 2006 levels, and roughly 50% lower for white households.
• These outcomes reflect long-standing status-quo economic development approaches that prioritize short-term job creation.

• Set goals to increase prosperity and racial equity; adopt a framework to achieve these goals.
• Build new institutional capacity.

• Equitable economic development that dismantles barriers and expands opportunities for low-income people and communities of color is good for the economy.

• Community wealth generation.
• Connecting the local to the global.
• Investment from within and outside communities.
• Quality jobs for those without secondary education.
• Building wealth for lower-income residents and historically disenfranchised communities.
• Public accountability and transparency.

• Job openings have fallen sharply.
• POCs are overrepresented in non-essential jobs.
• Jobs with highest risk of exposure will likely come back last.
• Essential jobs have not been as heavily impacted by slowing growth.
• Higher demand jobs in the downturn could be a pathway for economic security.
• Healthcare jobs openings have been relatively stable, but also is the industry with large gender and wage gaps.
• Metros with strong pre-pandemic economic diversity and growth experienced milder job-market impacts.

• Resources and support should go to populations most in need.
• Protect essential workers.
• Support dislocated workers.
• Anticipate and plan for a changed jobs and economic landscape.

Los Angeles County Department of Workforce Development, Aging and Community Services (WDACS). Pathways for Economic Resiliency: 2021-2026. December 2020.

• Although at the beginning of 2020 the LA regional economy was experiencing a long expansionary period, there were many underlying issues (e.g., homelessness, income inequality, racial inequities.
• Aid from the County and partners should focus on those hit hardest by the pandemic, specifically those who have the fewest resources to fall back on (e.g., workers with at most a HS degree, often Black or Hispanic, typically young <35, small businesses, often non-white businesses, and in services).

• Training for high growth industries.
• Placing dislocated workers in high growth industries.
• Increase opportunities for employees.
• Covid-19 safety (e.g., expand educational awareness campaign, expand access to PPE, help small businesses secure PPE.
• Business reopening assistance.
• Land use optimization.
• Digital divide (e.g., subsidies for internet access, streamline permitting process for developing) broadband infrastructure.
• Child care (e.g., utilize voucher programs to expand child care access, provide additional funding for childcare-related wraparound services).

Wheeler, Tom. Connecting the Unconnected in Rural America. Brookings, 2021.

• Due to the the COVID-19 pandemic, majority of Americans believe that the internet is “essential.”
• Two-part broadband challenge: accessibility (e.g., no network), and adoption (unable to afford a network).

• Need to redefine network speed definition for “broadband” to address that as broadband speeds go up, coverage calculations decrease.
• Coverage is reported by the broadband industry, but this ends up being too broad, and inevitably leads to access under-counting and thus under-reporting.
• Rural Digital Opportunity Funds (RDOF; rename of the reverse auction of the Obama-era Connect America Fund (CAF-II auction)) were not completely spent; Biden administration may have up to $11B ($7B to allocate and a residual $4.4B previously identified for the next round of funding).

• Identified several four broad categories of challenges: inequity, economic mobility, and low-quality work; work-adjacent issues and quality of life; challenges in the future of work; exacerbated and highlighted by the COVID-19 crisis.

• Social Compact core principles and values: equity, empowerment, harness full capabilities and collaboration, forward-looking, ambitious goals .
• Ensure there are jobs for everyone who wants to work.
• Eliminate working poverty.
• Create a 21st century worker benefits model and safety net.
• Raise the standard and share of quality jobs.
• Future-proof California with jobs and skills (to prepare for technology, climate, and other shocks).

The California Workforce Development Board (CWDB). Putting California on the High Road: A Jobs Climate Action Plan for 2030. Governor’s Office of Planning and Research, 2020.

• Labor should be considered an investment rather than a cost – and investments in growing, diversifying, and upskilling California’s workforce can positively affect returns on climate mitigation efforts.
• California can achieve greater social equity in labor market outcomes for disadvantaged workers and communities when policymakers pay attention to job quality.
• Deliberative policy interventions are necessary in order to advance job quality and social equity.

• Demand-side: standards (e.g., wage, skill, responsible employer), project labor agreements, community workforce agreements, inclusive policies (e.g., procurement, contracts, grants), inclusive hiring, retention, labor law enforcement.
• Supply-side: inclusion/career pathways, education and training (new, incumbent, upskilling/skill upgrading).
• Protecting workers and their communities: new opportunities for workers (e.g., explore alternatives to immediate plant closures), identification of priority transition assistance (e.g., sector vulnerability assessment).

• The economic and job creation analysis estimates the economic impact of the 2020 Regional Transportation Plan and Sustainable Communities Strategies (2020 RTP/SCS, Connect SoCal) at the regional and county levels.
• Connect SoCal impacts the economy 1) by creating jobs through transportation expenditure of direct investment in construction, maintenance and operation and 2) by making our region a more attractive place to live and to do business through enhancing network efficiency.
• The contribution of Connect SoCal to GHG emission reduction and climate risk mitigation could bring economic benefits by avoiding future costs and smoother transition to a low-carbon economy. Such efforts to meet GHG emissions targets will serve to mitigate the risks posed by a rapidly warming globe and furthering both economic vitality and sustainability of the region. 

• Provide jobs for persons in highway and rail construction, operation and maintenance.
• Boost the economic competitiveness of the SCAG region by making it a more attractive place to do business.
• The economic analysis shows that across SCAG’s six-county region, an annual average of more than 168,400 jobs will be generated by the construction, maintenance and operations expenditures that are specified in Connect SoCal program and the indirect and induced jobs that flow from those expenditures. When investments are made in the transportation system, the economic benefits go far beyond the jobs created by building it, operating it and maintaining it.
• Projects that reduce congestion may help firms  produce at lower costs, or allow those firms to reach larger markets or hire more capable employees. An economy with a well-functioning transportation system can be a more attractive place for firms to do business, enhancing the economic competitiveness of the SCAG region.

American Jobs Project. The California Offshore Wind Project: A Vision for Industry Growth. 2019.

• Offshore wind can be California’s next legacy—a new industry, built from the ground up, that invites shared prosperity, spurs innovation, and respects our natural treasures.
• Although California typically leads on climate and renewable energy issues, we are late to the game on offshore wind.
• Offshore wind has already taken off in Europe, Asia, and now the United States. Governors from New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and others are competing for this new market—setting offshore wind targets, creating new programs, and recruiting firms to their state
• California can still lead, especially in the deployment of floating offshore wind turbines on the Pacific Coast.

• Appoint a California Offshore Wind Czar.
• Set a Market Acceleration Target and Establish a Comprehensive Approach to Offshore Wind Studies.
• Establish a Phased Approach to Offshore Wind Workforce Development.
• Align Innovation and Access to Capital Policies with Industry Needs.
• Upgrade Ports and Establish Port Innovation Districts.
• Promote community investment funds.

• The Southern California Economic Recovery and Job Creation Strategy concentrates on expanding the region’s economic base to increase the flow of funds driving the area’s economy.
• The report is based upon the region’s job creation needs given its unique competitive advantages and demographics.
• Several sectors emerge as crucial: international trade and logistics, film and related sectors, high tech and traditional manufacturing, construction, health care, and leisure industries. The aim is to create conditions encouraging job creation in these sectors in the immediate, short and longer terms as well as preserving the businesses in the region.
• Essential to the strategy is the notion that stronger economic growth will help every community.

• Oppose new legislation that negatively impacts jobs in the private sector.
• Support legislation that allows agencies, cities, and counties the flexibility to finance early delivery of projects and at the same time create jobs.
• Eliminate or reduce regulations that inhibit expedited project delivery.
• State accepting federal NEPA environmental delegation to save agency review time;  improve efficiency of environmental reviews and reduce time by collapsing reviewing agencies environmental approval from NEPA approval and also again at permitting approval; encourage environmental review through electronic means;  encourage DOT to shorten FTIP project amendment approval process; expand authority to agencies to allow pre-award of contracts that are currently permitted by FTA to FHWA projects).

• Truly inclusive markets result in more broadly shared prosperity, particularly for those most vulnerable.
• Scaling a single innovation is not enough to shift the market.
• Innovations can occur in: business models/practices, formal regulations, informal societal norms.
• Work requires an iterative approach with continuous strategy refinement in response to increased system understanding (and as the system itself evolves).

• Harnessing market system innovations: learn from the past journey of the system; envisage inclusion goals; surface potentialities; support innovators & innovations.
• Organizational frameworks and systems that focus on continual learning.
• Carefully considering our own ability to anchor support to the market system.

• Represents a first step toward a more comprehensive framework for an inclusive economic recovery.
• Acknowledges the need for broader approaches that address social, economic, and environmental factors that influence the economy.
• Provides data on the current economic state of the SCAG region and a future outlook.

• SCAG will engage with regional partners across the business, philanthropic, community and economic development sectors, as well as the municipalities it represents, to craft a more focused set of policy recommendations for inclusive economic recovery.
• This will include best practices and policy and programmatic concepts, a resource hub for information, and a state and federal legislative strategy in support or a robust, inclusive, and equitable economic recovery strategy.
• No specific recommendations in this report, only data.

PolicyLink, ERI, and Burning Glass Technologies. Advancing Workforce Equity in Boston: A Blueprint for Action. PolicyLink and USC Equity Research Institute, 2021.

• The Advancing Workforce Equity project supports regional workforce partners to develop explicit, data-driven equity strategies.
• This report focuses on the Boston area.
• The report identifies the key drivers of inequity, and prioritize actionable strategies to advance equity through policy efforts, programs, and investments.

• Use sector-based workforce development strategies to build pathways for workers of color into good jobs.
• Leverage the development boom and sectoral growth to increase union participation, expand apprenticeship programs, and secure public financing for social programs.
• Mediate the relationship between educational institutions  and employers to transition from degree-based hiring to skills- based hiring.
• Improve job quality through systems-changing pubic and private sector employment policies.
• Make racial equity a priority, and develop systems to track and measure progress and ensure accountability.

• The Advancing Workforce Equity project supports regional workforce partners to develop explicit, data-driven equity strategies.
• This report focuses on the Chicago area.
• The report identifies the key drivers of inequity, and prioritize actionable strategies to advance equity through policy efforts, programs, and investments.

• Elevate and amplify worker voice and worker power.
• Use sector-based workforce development strategies to build pathways into good jobs for workers of color.
• Improve job quality and economic security for workers of color.
• Develop strategies to close racial gaps in the social determinants of work.

• The Advancing Workforce Equity project supports regional workforce partners to develop explicit, data-driven equity strategies.
• This report focuses on the Dallas and Collins counties region.
• The report identifies the key drivers of inequity, and prioritize actionable strategies to advance equity through policy efforts, programs, and investments.

• Increase the number of good jobs available to frontline workers of color.
•  Increase the number of workers of color in pre-apprenticeships and apprenticeships so that they have pipelines to occupations in industries where they are underrepresented.
• Use skills-based hiring, retention, and advancement strategies to reduce occupational segregation fueled by hiring bias and degree inflation.
• Invest in community-based digital literacy, adult literacy, and integrated learning programs to remove barriers to entry and advancement in the labor market.Increase investment in wraparound supports like accessible childcare, affordable housing, and efficient transportation options to facilitate labor-market advancement and educational attainment for workers of color.
• Disaggregate participant outcomes from education and workforce programs by race to identify the workforce development interventions that help workers of color succeed in the labor market.
• Align workforce development initiatives and worker rights projects to improve workers’ basic protections and increase opportunities for advancement available.
• Strengthen coordination between the workforce development and housing systems to reduce the housing burden for workers of color and to ensure they can access opportunity jobs.

• The Advancing Workforce Equity project supports regional workforce partners to develop explicit, data-driven equity strategies.
• This report focuses on the Boston area.
• The report identifies the key drivers of inequity, and prioritize actionable strategies to advance equity through policy efforts, programs, and investments.

• Create a health and wellness scorecard.
• Establish a worker bill of rights.
• Invest in community-centered economic planning.
• Strengthen the social safety net and worker benefits.
• Design workforce training programs to empower workers.
• Redistribute funder power.

• The Advancing Workforce Equity project supports regional workforce partners to develop explicit, data-driven equity strategies.
• This report focuses on the Seattle area.
• The report identifies the key drivers of inequity, and prioritize actionable strategies to advance equity through policy efforts, programs, and investments.

• Partner with employers and industry to implement equitable recovery commitments.
• Develop systems to measure and track equity metrics as the economy recovers.
• Invest in community-based research and collaboration to remove structural barriers to work.
• Build meaningful and sustainable community influence and power in the workforce development system.
• Advance sector-based strategies and partnerships that prioritize opportunity sectors in the region.
• Co-create and co-invest in equitable, high-demand career pathways.

Association of Bay Area Governments, Metropolitan Transportation Commission. Regional Growth Strategies: Perspective Paper. Horizon, 2019.

• In the Bay Area, rapidly escalating housing costs, long commutes and growing inequality have priced out many longtime residents, diminished migration by people seeking upward mobility and threatened one of the world’s most vibrant economies.
• This report introduces a suite of potential strategies for shaping the Bay Area’s future housing and job growth while creating a more affordable, connected, diverse and environmentally sustainable region.
• The strategies are intended to spur discussion about the Bay Area’s long- range regional growth framework, which for a decade has sought to focus development in transit-served Priority Development Areas (PDAs) nominated by cities and counties, and to protect open space, including Priority Conservation Areas (PCAs) nominated by local governments and open space districts.

• Take into account the successes and shortcomings of the Bay Area’s current PDA- focused framework.
• Respond to the broader aspirations of Bay Area residents, as reflected in the Horizon Guiding Principles.
• Offer a viable path toward meeting the region’s full housing needs and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction targets.

Price, Carter C., and Kathryn A. Edwards. Trends in Income from 1975 to 2018. RAND, 2020.

• Explores income inequality since 1975.
• Benefits of economic growth have not been evenly shared; labor, capital, pre-tax and post-tax income has been concentrated at the top of the distribution since the middle of the 20th century.
• Rise in inequality has been attributed to many things, including technological advancement, decline in union membership, and globalization.
• The bottom 90% of adults would have had an additional $2.5T in cumulative income over the period 1975-2018, had their income kept pace with GDP.
• For Black men, the median wage in 2018 was $45K; if it had increased at the same pace as the economy it should have been $83K.
• Overall aim of paper is to identify groups that have seen lower income growth.

• Although education is frequently referenced as a solution to rising income inequality, incomes failed to grow at the same rate as the economy for the majority of college graduates; cautions that the ‘valuation’ of a college degree may be more a function of avoiding negative outcomes of not having one, and also that more analysis is needed regarding associated debt.
• Highlights the slow pace of income growth in rural areas as compared with urban and suburban areas; also highlights a decline in the overall health of rural areas; points out that positive trends in urban areas (primarily looks at urban high earners) may be more indicative of income segregation and gentrification.

• Discusses wealth inequality and the effects of COVID-19 pandemic.
• Lays out an arguement about how promoting racial equity in tech ecosystems can help close the gap. 
• Argues that economic recovery is a chance to uplift and historically marginalized communities, ultimately benefiting the entire economy and society.

• Inclusive tech ecosystems.
• Entrepreneurship strategies that lead to economic recovery and racial and economic justice.
• Entrepreneurship ecosystem building.

• President Biden’s economic recovery plan, with the goal of having a just and equitable recovery.
• Plan focuses on jobs, infrastructure, supporting the workforce, and the future of work with racial equity as a core principle.
• Economic recovery funding from the federal government focused on these goals will be coming to state and municipalities.

• The Build Back Better Plan is a projected $7 trillion COVID-19 relief, future economic, and infrastructure package proposed by President Joe Biden.
• It will include investments in infrastructure, and is projected to create 10 million clean-energy jobs.
• Expenditures would also include government funds on housing, education, economic fairness and health care.
• The plan is divided into three parts: The American Rescue Plan, a COVID-19 relief package passed in March 2021; the American Jobs Plan, a proposal to rebuild America’s infrastructure and create jobs; and the American Families Plan, a proposal to invest in areas related to childcare and education.
• Inclusive tech ecosystems.

• Nov 2020 CPS data suggests disproportionate impact on minorities, women, younger workers, those with lower educational attainment, low-wage workers.

• Integrated services.
• Local job creation.
• Address disparities and unique barriers to employment.
• Inclusive set of targeted outcomes.
• Balance near-term interventions with reality of long-term outcomes.

• The COVID-19 pandemic has brought infrastructure failures into focus.
• This brief proposes a four-part national stimulus program that drives new projects and enables the removal of old assets that no longer serve their purpose.
• In the new economy, infrastructure has a broad meaning including affordable options to travel to work/school, and to get clean water and other essentials. 

• Understand cost of inaction on legacy systems/infrastructure liabilities.
• Fund more virtual public engagement.
• Support interim uses and enable infrastructure experiments.

• Effects of current recession are disproportionately concentrated among low-income workers, African Americans, Latinos, and women.
• Many workers, especially in inland California, were struggling before the pandemic.

• State role in policy interventions.
• Target both stimulus and stabilization efforts towards those most affected.
• Need to comprehensively identify barriers to opportunity and proactively address these.

• Lower wage workers face significant barriers to higher-wage employment.
• Middle-wage jobs are declining as a share of total employment.
• Jobs at the lower end of the wage scale are likely to grow over time, and workers typically remain in these jobs for their entire career.

• Helping lower-wage workers seek middle-wage employment.
• Focusing on the number of jobs that pay middle wages.
• Improving the quality of jobs for current and future lower-wage workers.

• Black Americans can expect to earn $1M less than white Americans over their lifetimes.
• Black workers are unemployed at twice the rate of white workers; this holds even when controlling for education, duration of unemployment, and reason for unemployment.

• Highlights role of mainstream financial institutions and health insurance.

• Reducing disparities and opportunity differentials that limit potential is worth an estimated $8 trillion in GDP.
• Advancing racial equity can translate into consumer spending and tax revenue creation, and a reduction in social services and healthcare-related costs.

• Invest early to maximize health and educational achievement.
• Utilize mechanisms such as housing vouchers to empower social mobility.
• Leverage inclusionary zoning to increase economic growth.
• Neighborhood revitalization efforts can improve existing communities’ environment.
• Smart fiscal allocations should align resources with greatest need.
• Restorative justice can help keep children in school.
• Leverage community coalitions to address health disparities.
• Use of evidence-based sentencing reform to address non-violent crime.
• Re-entry programs can play a major role for returning citizens in successful transitions to society.
• Career-focused education can help connect youth to job skills.
• Support business development in underserved areas.
• Expanding access to capital and resources can help grow minority entrepreneurship.

Curren, Ryan, et al. “Equitable Development as a Tool to Advance Racial Equity.” (2016).

• Equitable development increases the capacity of POCs to strengthen their and their communities’ future.
• A systematic approach can address two major obstacles: involuntary displacement (economic, cultural) and inequitable access to key determinants of well-being.
• Foundational equity elements are: “strong communities and people,” and “great places with equitable access.“

• Advance economic opportunity.
• Prevent displacement..
• Preserve and expand affordable housing options.
• Understand and respond to local context.
• Promote broader mobility and connectivity.
• Practice meaningful community engagement.
• Develop healthy and safe communities.
• Promote environmental justice.
• Achieve full accessibility.

Badgett, MV Lee, Kees Waaldijk, and Yana van der Meulen Rodgers. “The relationship between LGBT inclusion and economic development: Macro-level evidence.” World Development 120 (2019): 1-14.

• Finds a correlation between increased legal rights for LGB persons and increase in real GDP.
• LGBT inclusion and economic development have a positively significant association.
• Harmful experiences of LGBT individuals results in economic costs (e.g., lost labor time and productivity, inefficient allocation of resources).

• Harmful experiences of LGBT people are harmful to the individuals but also to the economy.
• Excluding LGBT people causes economic harms; legal rights for LGB people are associated with higher economic development.
• Development programs and policies should acknowledge the link between economic development and LGBT rights.

• Promoting financial inclusion can help reduce inequality.
• Empowering women is key to sustainable economic development.
• Women’s participation in the financial system results in decrease in inequality gap, leading to higher economic development.

• Greater financial inclusion of women positively impacts economic development.
• Promote women’s financial literacy; this will also increase their financial inclusion.
• Female financial inclusion can help advance gender equality and promote sustainable growth.

• Reconceptualizing products and services in order to create new opportunities to better meet the needs of POCs.
• Leverage public policy influence to strengthen a supportive external business environment (e.t., policy change for large-scale impact, building trust and awareness).
• Financial sector’s success depends on acknowledging structural racism and learning from organizations led by POCs.

• Reconceive products and services to address the markets of color.
• Strengthen the external business context to help reduce the racial wealth gap.
• Internal catalysts: strong diversity and inclusion practices; leadership support, mindset, and structure that advance racial equity; mutually beneficial partnerships with organizations of color.

Hills, Greg; Iyer, Lakshmi; McAfee, Michael; Krischenbaum, Josh; Whittaker, Martin. A CEO Blueprint for Racial Equity. FSG, PolicyLink and JUST Capital, 2020.

• Public wants moral and economic corporate leadership, that leaves the next generation a more equitable legacy.

• Internal actions: design HR policies and practices to be actively anti racist; expand worker power and voice; design products and services to center racially equitable outcomes; design operations to center on racial equity.
• Community: redesign corporate philanthropy to address structural issues; advocate for policies that address structural inequities; support environmental justice.
• Societal: mobilize national level advocacy; invest strategically; ensure that communications advance racial equity.

How Companies Can Advance Racial Equity and Create Business Growth. PolicyLink, 2019.

• By 2040 POC will be the majority; a majority of youth are already POC.
• Majority of POC suffer worse socio-economic outcomes.

• Companies must offer products or services that effectively meet the distinctive needs of markets of color.
• Companies should work to reverse the effects of structural racism by strengthening the external business context – thus enabling their future growth.
• Companies must also ensure that internal organizational conditions support this work.

Visvizi, Anna, et al. “Policy making for smart cities: Innovation and social inclusive economic growth for sustainability.” Journal of Science and Technology Policy Management(2018).

• Sustainability and innovation are part of the same social challenge.
• Socially aware policymaking is a key component of smart cities’ research.

• There is no consensus from neither policy nor technical levels on the smart and sustainable city landscape.
• Connection between individuals’ well-being, their civic engagement, and smart city sustainability.
• Research on smart cities needs to focus on sustainable, global, and socially-aware policies.
• Happiness, quality of life, justice and respect of human rights are integral to any smart city approach.

Van Niekerk, Arno J. “Inclusive Economic Sustainability: SDGs and Global Inequality.” Sustainability 12.13 (2020): 5427.

• Inclusive paths to economic progress are crucial to address global economic crises.

• Critical integration of economic inclusivity into business models, public policy, and community development.
• Collaboration is essential to overcoming threats.
• Economic participation and resources should be collective, towards equal and equitable economic outcomes.
• People, corporations, and governments need to fully understand the reality of an interdependent world.

• Due to the the COVID-19 pandemic, majority of Americans believe that the internet is “essential.”
• Two-part broadband challenge: accessibility (e.g., no network), and adoption (unable to afford a network).

• Need to redefine network speed definition for “broadband” to address that as broadband speeds go up, coverage calculations decrease.
• Coverage is reported by the broadband industry, but this ends up being too broad, and inevitably leads to access under-counting and thus under-reporting.
• Rural Digital Opportunity Funds (RDOF; rename of the reverse auction of the Obama-era Connect America Fund (CAF-II auction)) were not completely spent; Biden administration may have up to $11B ($7B to allocate and a residual $4.4B previously identified for the next round of funding).

Wheeler, Tom. Boosting Broadband Adoption: Part 3 of Build Back Better with Biden FCC. Brookings TechTank, 2021.

• The COVID-19 pandemic has driven up the demand for broadband internet and highlighted inequities, deepening the digital divide.
• President Biden’s Build Back Better plan is an opportunity to close some of these gaps and build up much needed digital infrastructure that can support rural communities, remote learning, and underserved communities.
• Deployment of networks in unserved areas; subsidization of subscriptions and equipment; together with education efforts to promote internet literacy will all be necessary to make the promise of the internet manifest to all Americans.

• Get serious about broadband adoption, including reforming the Lifeline program and increasing enrollment.
• Support online education in every part of the country.
• Encourage internet usage.
• Invest in resilience.

• Real estate is subject to periodic market ‘resets’, which are often overcome by a variety of factors (e.g., time, bailouts, corporate pivots); current cycle was triggered by the reset from the subprime mortgage lending crisis of 2007-2009, but the next reset will be different.
• Typical real estate consumer is a middle-class white family; following trends are disrupting this: persistent segregation, changing demographics, housing market destabilization, future of work, disruptions to retail.
• Need to create more “communities of opportunity.”

• Separate and unequal: persistent residential segregation is sustaining racial and economic injustice in the US.
• Modernizing family: America’s demographics are transforming, but our housing supply is not.
• Risky (housing) business: distorted and destabilized housing markets are pushing households into climate-risky, low-opportunity communities.
• The office, reimagined: the nature of office work is shifting, and so must downtowns.
• Retail revolution: the new rules of retail call for small business empowerment.

Davies, Sharon; Reece, Jason; Rogers, Christy. The Opportunity Communities Program: Building Opportunity Rich Neighborhoods and Developing Pathways to Opportunity. Kirwan Institute, 2020.

• This report highlights the Opportunity Communities Program, which seeks to identify and build understanding and eliminate racialized structural barrier to opportunity to build opportunity rich neighborhoods and communities.
• The Opportunity Communities model is a framework to address social and racial justice which intersects with community development, fair housing, public health, education, criminal justice, employment, and various other policy domains. 
• The Opportunity communities model advocates a fair investment in all of a region’s people and communities to improve the life outcomes of all citizens and to support a prosperous and healthy society. 

• Building capacity and guiding strategic interventions through opportunity mapping.
• Invest in innovative housing strategies that open pathways to opportunity.
• Invest in regional equity & sustainable development.
• Promote fair and equitable planning policy to support sustainable development.
• Invest in leadership in equitable development.
• Build and invest in healthy communities of opportunity.

Donahue, Ryan; Parilla, Joseph. Deploying Industry Advancement Services to Generate Quality Jobs. Brookings, 2020.

• Need to support “missing middle” businesses (10-99 employees).
• COVID-19 crisis exacerbating existing trends of low-quality jobs, slow wage growth, and racial disparities.
• To overcome COVID-19 businesses must execute strategic overhauls, though which most businesses do not have the capacity to take on.
• “Industry advancement services” could help address challenges; consist of infrastructure creation and delivery of a suite of customized business services.

• Build up business development infrastructure.
• Corps of industry experts whose job is to build relationships with businesses in key industries to understand business needs, design appropriate services, and generate demand for those services among businesses.
• A clear, shared definition of the region’s specific inclusion challenge and the ability to proactively target businesses whose growth would most directly address the challenges.
• Services: networking, talent management, process innovation, and product innovation.
• Criteria for prioritizing companies that will advance inclusion goals: size and industry, racial and economic inclusion (e.g., ownership demographics, workforce demographics, job quality, location)

Opportunity@Work. Navigate with STARs: Reimagining Equitable Pathways to Mobility. 2020

• Workers without a four-year degree have less income mobility.
• Argument that hiring should be based on skills as opposed to degrees; found that there was significant overlap between skills needed for low-wage jobs and higher-wage jobs.

• Moves to higher paying work typically combines “personal initiative, foundational skills and some additional preparation” (e.g., outside course or training).
• Increased public funding for skills training programs.
• Private sector must alter hiring habits and career development programs.

Koh, Harvey; Amaya, Laura; Rathi, Sujata. Seizing Opportunity: A Practitioner’s Guide to Supporting Market Systems Change toward Inclusion and Equity. FSG, 2020.

• Proposes “Market System Innovation” (MSI) approach to help philanthropy better understand and interact with market systems change; approach can be used in a range of situations.

• Understand the market system’s evolution so far.
• Consider both market players and market rules.
• Anchor on potentialities, not on barriers.
• Look out for diverse kinds of innovators including unusual suspects.
• Exploit the energy of external events.

Race and the Work of the Future: Advancing Workforce Equity in the United States. PolicyLink and USC Equity Research Institute, 2020.

• Nation is one generation away from being no longer majority white.
• Although the nation has grown more diverse, inequities persist and have deepened, the racial wealth gap has increased, gender pay gaps are persistent, and one in three were economically insecure before the economic recession caused by the COVID pandemic.
• Workforce equity is crucial to building an equitable economy.

• Make racial equity a priority – and develop systems to track and measure progress.
• Ensure people of color and low-income residents are prepared to enter and succeed in the labor market.
• Dismantle barriers and develop targeted strategies to connect people of color to quality employment opportunities.
• Invest in innovative training and credentialing models.
• Design programs and partnerships to address inequities in the social determinants of work.
• Engage employers to commit systems change in employment practices and culture.
• Proactively implement automation resiliency approaches that prioritize vulnerable workers.
• Ensure high standards of job quality for all workers.

Orange County Business Council, OC Education and Research Institute. Closing Orange County’s Skills Gap: Preparing to Meet Employer Demand for Middle-Skill Occupations. OCBC, 2020.

• Many Orange County residents still face tough economic challenges; filling open middle-skill positions could help residents participate in the current economic recovery.
• As technological advancements and business processes continue to evolve, the number of middle-skill occupations will continue to grow faster than the overall labor market and require an increasingly more educated and better prepared pool of workers to fill those positions. 

• Opportunity creating job growth by understanding key economic and workforce drivers.
• Employers articulate “in demand” middle-skills and incentivize on the job training.
• Educators and workforce professionals ongoing data-driven labor market analysis key to bridging the middle-skills gap.
• Engage and partner with business organizations educators develop comphrensive, adaptable middle-skill courses and certificate programs with transferable skills.
• Develop expanded infrastructure for internships, apprenticeships, and career technical education (CTE) programs.
• Employers and educators should consider veterans first.

The Prosperity Partnership. Our Path Forward: The Prosperity Strategy – A Bridge to Action for Inclusive Economic Recovery and Growth. 2020.

• This report includes a crisis and recovery framework, with a focus on inclusive economic growth.
• Strategies include: scaling businesses, supporting people and workers, and developing “place.”
• The document also provides reporting and accountability indicators, including ways to measure the outcome and impact of specific projects.

• Target infrastructure investment to support econmic clusters and market drivers.
• Expand demand-driven, sector-based workforce development, aligned to key opportunity clusters and a more inclusive workforce, prepared for the future of work.
• Create an environment to be the most business-friendly region in which to operate in the state of California.

Southern California Association of Regional Governments (SCAG). Racial Equity: Baseline Conditions Report. March 2021.

• This report provides data for the SCAG region in terms of racial equity.
• The report highlights past transportation and housing policies/practices that led to inequitable conditions.
• The baseline assessment should be used to inform future planning.

• SCAG considers potential impacts on people of color and low-income households in our regional growth, transportation, and economic development planning and analysis
• SCAG recognizes that more affirmative approaches that seek to counter the effects of historic practices, like those being pursued through state housing law to overcome patterns of segregation and foster inclusive communities, are needed to advance equity and social justice across the region.
• SCAG will engage with regional partners across the business, philanthropic, community and economic development sectors, as well as the municipalities it represents, to craft a more focused set of policy recommendations for inclusive economic recovery.

• Nearly half of Californians are renters, including the majority of Black, Latinx, and multiracial residents.
• Without sufficient eviction protection, debt relief, and financial support, Covid-impacted renters will be left behind as the state begins its path to recovery.
• Protecting renters is an economic and public health necessity.

• No California renter should be evicted or burdened with years of debt for rent or utilities they were unable to pay during the pandemic.
• Rent debt due to the pandemic should be fully forgiven and should not be conditioned on landlord’s’ acceptance of funds.
• Financial assistance to landlords should address the fiscal needs of landlords in danger of going out of business due to lost rent, with a particular focus on keeping small community-based landlords and nonprofit affordable housing operators solvent.
• Local municipalities’ authority to pass stronger eviction and debt protection should be preserved.
• Landlords should continue to fulfill their legal obligations to tenants regardless of receiving assistance, including maintaining habitable premises, refraining from harassment and retaliation, and respecting tenants’ legal rights.

William Darity Jr., Darrick Hamilton, Mark Paul, Alan Aja, Anne Price, Antonio Moore, and Caterina Chiopris. What We Get Wrong About Closing the Racial Wealth Gap. Insight Center for Community Economic Development, 2018.

• This report addresses myths about the racial wealth gap in the U.S.
• The report flags several common “solutions” that ultimately will not achieve the goal of reducing inequities.
• The report indicates that closing the racial wealth gap requires an accurate assessment of the causes of the disparity and innovative action to produce systemic reform and lasting change. 

• Our nation’s underlying economic structure is supported by harmful narratives and unequal access to assets which begets unequal opportunities to preserve or increase wealth to be passed on to subsequent generations.
• Confronting the root causes of the racial wealth gap are the only way to address these systemic issues.

Blackwell, Angela Glover, et al. The Competitive Advantage of Racial Equity. FSG, 2017.

• There are completive advantages to employing racial equity.
• Employers have the opportunity to improve racial equity by (1) reconceiving products and markets, redefining productivity in the value chain, and strengthening the business context.
• This report makes the case that there are opportunities to create shared value by promoting racial equity at every point along a company’s value chain.

• Opportunities to create shared value by promoting racial equity occur at every point along a company’s value chain—from hiring, training, and advancing employees, to procurement, product design, and marketing, even including the company’s ownership and governance structure and its lobbying and philanthropy.
• As Porter and Kramer defined the concept, companies can create shared value at three levels. Each of these three levels offers opportunities to improve a company’s economic performance by advancing racial equity: Reconceiving products and markets, Better serving existing markets, or accessing new ones by developing innovative products and services that reduce inequities and meet the needs of people of color.
• Redefining productivity in the value chain.
• Reducing cost, increasing quality, and improving productivity through a company’s operations by advancing racial equity.
• Nurturing a reliable base of skilled human capital and external suppliers, increasing consumer demand, and improving the regulatory framework by creating opportunities for communities of color.

Equity in the Center. Awake to Woke to Work: Building a Race Equity Culture. ProInspire, 2018.

• This report outlines how to build a race equity culture, focused on proactively counteracting race inequities.
• This work requires an adaptive and transformational approach that impacts behaviors and mindsets as well as practices, programs, and processes.
• Three specific stages are outlined including: awake, woke, and work. This process can help an organization create a culture of race equity internally. 

• Leadership ranks hold a critical mass of people of color, whose perspectives are shifting how the organization fulfills its mission and reinforcing the organization’s commitment to race equity.
• Internal change around race equity is embraced. Staff members are supported in managing and integrating the changes, and the organization demonstrates courage to advance external outcomes.
• Staff, stakeholders, and leaders are confident and skilled at talking about race and racism and its implications for the organization and for society.
• Cultural norms and practices exist that promote positive and culturally responsible interpersonal relationships among staff. Individuals are encouraged to share their perspectives and experiences.
• Programs are culturally responsive and explicit about race, racism, and race equity.
• Communities are treated not merely as recipients of the organization’s services, but rather as stakeholders, leaders, and assets to the work.
• Expenditures on services, vendors, and consultants reflect organizational values and a commitment to race equity.
• Continuous improvement in race equity work is prioritized by requesting feedback from staff and the community.
• Evaluation efforts incorporate the disaggregation of data in order to surface and understand how every program, service, or benefit impacts every beneficiary.

• This report defines health and social equity in terms of real estate and housing.
• Case studies and examples are provided that showcase real estate and hosuing projects that have equity as a core principle.
• Ongoing work is underway to assign and track metrics, scale programs to entire portfolios, and continue adding to innovative health and social equity offerings.

• Engage its supply chain partners to encourage diverse hiring practices in their companies.
• Increased inclusion of health and social equity–focused questions on tenant surveys to better track occupant preferences on health and social equity.
• Eviction prevention programs.
• Significantly increase the number of businesses owned by women and minorities, with a particular focus on black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC), and work with contractors and service providers who share the commitment to engaging minority-owned and female-owned businesses.

Kelly, Marjorie; McKinley, Sarah. Cities Building Community Wealth. The Democracy Collaborative, 2015.

• Traditional economic development practices often leave out historically disenfranchised communities.
• This report highlights a new way to understand and achieve equitable economic development.
• The report flags the importance of building community wealth and provides concrete steps for community engagement in the process.

• Anchor procurement strategies.
• Financing strategies.
• Enterprise development and retention strategies.
• Land and real estate strategies.
• Ecological resilience strategies.
• Workforce development strategies.

Greater Portland Economic Recovery Plan: An Action-Focused Adaptable Framework to Address Small Business Recovery and Unemployment in Response to COVID-19. Greater Portland Economic Development District, 2020.

• The plan focuses on building opportunities for Black, Indigenous and other people of color and their businesses.
• This is a short-term, adaptable plan focusing on immediate actions.
• Throughout the development of the plan, stakeholders consistently conveyed the need to respond urgently to help those who have been impacted. Data-driven insights, validated by broad stakeholder input, defined the recovery plan development.

• Convene an implementation task force to help lead organizations turn recommended actions into reality and identify lead organizations for those actions still needing one.
• Convene a federal policy group to align efforts and secure resources for implementation Identify and catalog existing and related recovery efforts already underway across the region Identify immediate opportunities where the private sector can provide resources for proposed actions.
• The recovery plan identifies 47 actions in all, and identifies steps to begin implementation.

Los Angeles County Metro. A Path Forward: Metro’s Recovery Task Force. December 2020.

• This report stems from the Metro Recovery Task Force which was created as a response to COVID-19.
• The pandemic had a severe impact on mobility and transit in LA County. It also provided the opportunity to innovate.
• This report lays out a foundation for the future of mobility in LA County with a focus on equity and sustainability. 

• Run express buses on improved HOV/Express Lanes.
• Share data and information more openly and effectively.
• Expand broadband.
• Reimagine Destination Discounts.
• Identify funding for incentives to reduce car ownership.
• Accelerate networks of complete streets.
• Create green jobs and green infrastructure.
• Increase ventilation of vehicles.
• Fund and partner for more bike infrastructure.

• California’s policy decisions are often driven by the interests and political goals of the state’s large, coastal, urban centers with little regard as to how such policies may help or hurt the interior regions of the state.
• The differences between the state’s coastal and inland economies are leading to an incorrect assumption and labeling of one as a success and the other as a failure.
• In reality, Inland California appears in a much more favorable economic light, and this shift in understanding should, in turn, inform any policies the state devises to help inland regions continue to prosper. 

• California does need to pay more attention to its inland regions, but not because they represent a problem the state needs to solve. Rather, these regions need more attention because in many ways they are the future of growth in California, offering middle class residents a quality of life they are unable to obtain along the coast.
• These economies need to be better supported through state policy and investment because the state needs these economies to flourish.
• This includes major issues such as the minimum wage which clearly should be different in Fresno and San Francisco, or transit priorities inasmuch as light rail is simply not an effective solution in the less dense inland regions. Local strategies and decision making can play a vital role in helping Inland California attract more high skilled industries and grow in a more balanced way into the future.

The Democracy Collaborative. Policies for Community Wealth Building: Leveraging State and Local Resources. 2014.

• Fostering resilient communities and building wealth in today’s local economies is necessary to achieve individual, regional, and national economic security.
• Effective community wealth building requires rethinking present policies, redirecting resources, breaking old boundaries, and forging new alliances.
• A key need now is to develop and promote policies that can build upon, support, and codify these emerging strategies, especially at the state and local levels, where there are significant opportunities to enact progressive economic development and wealth building policies.
• Policies which mobilize broad coalitions of stakeholders in their implementation are much more robust than policies which are identified with the efforts of a single political actor. The report lays out recommendations that focus on “what works” and what works best when communities work together.

• Develop “Bank on” initiatives.
• Implement responsible banking ordinances.
• Pursue paths to public banking.
• Create city land banks.
• Support permanent affordability with community land trusts.
• Promote community investment funds.
• Leverage public pension funds for the public good.

Southern California Association of Regional Governments (SCAG). Plan Performance: Economic and Job Creation Analysis – Technical Report. 2020.

• The economic and job creation analysis estimates the economic impact of the 2020 Regional Transportation Plan and Sustainable Communities Strategies (2020 RTP/SCS, Connect SoCal) at the regional and county levels.
• Connect SoCal impacts the economy 1) by creating jobs through transportation expenditure of direct investment in construction, maintenance and operation and 2) by making our region a more attractive place to live and to do business through enhancing network efficiency.
• The contribution of Connect SoCal to GHG emission reduction and climate risk mitigation could bring economic benefits by avoiding future costs and smoother transition to a low-carbon economy. Such efforts to meet GHG emissions targets will serve to mitigate the risks posed by a rapidly warming globe and furthering both economic vitality and sustainability of the region. 

• Provide jobs for persons in highway and rail construction, operation and maintenance.
• Boost the economic competitiveness of the SCAG region by making it a more attractive place to do business.
• The economic analysis shows that across SCAG’s six-county region, an annual average of more than 168,400 jobs will be generated by the construction, maintenance and operations expenditures that are specified in Connect SoCal program and the indirect and induced jobs that flow from those expenditures. When investments are made in the transportation system, the economic benefits go far beyond the jobs created by building it, operating it and maintaining it.
• Projects that reduce congestion may help firms  produce at lower costs, or allow those firms to reach larger markets or hire more capable employees. An economy with a well-functioning transportation system can be a more attractive place for firms to do business, enhancing the economic competitiveness of the SCAG region.

• Offshore wind can be California’s next legacy—a new industry, built from the ground up, that invites shared prosperity, spurs innovation, and respects our natural treasures.
• Although California typically leads on climate and renewable energy issues, we are late to the game on offshore wind.
• Offshore wind has already taken off in Europe, Asia, and now the United States. Governors from New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and others are competing for this new market—setting offshore wind targets, creating new programs, and recruiting firms to their state
• California can still lead, especially in the deployment of floating offshore wind turbines on the Pacific Coast.

• Appoint a California Offshore Wind Czar.
• Set a Market Acceleration Target and Establish a Comprehensive Approach to Offshore Wind Studies.
• Establish a Phased Approach to Offshore Wind Workforce Development.
• Align Innovation and Access to Capital Policies with Industry Needs.
• Upgrade Ports and Establish Port Innovation Districts.
• Promote community investment funds.

Hubbard, Glenn; Furman, Jason; Kearney, Melissa; Geithner, Timothy. Taskforce Report: Promoting Economic Recovery After COVID-19. Aspen Economic Strategy Group, 2020.

• Many of the enacted economic recovery fiscal measures by the federal government begin to expire over the next two months. Continued policy action will be needed to promote economic recovery long-term.
• This report puts forward a set of policies that should be part of the next wave of fiscal policy aimed at bolstering individuals and workers, small and mid-sized businesses, and state and local governments during a sustained recovery.
• The report calls for income support for the unemployed, underemployed and the most vulnerable; targeted employment subsidies to reward and encourage work; reforming the Main Street Lending Program if necessary to increase lender and borrower participation; and federal support to state and local governments.

• Income support for the unemployed, underemployed, and most vulnerable.
• Reward and facilitate work: Temporary, targeted employment subsidies for workers to reward and incentivize employment and compensate workers who have continued to work during the pandemic in the form of a pandemic Earned Income Tax Credit.
• Lending support for small and mid-size businesses: Monitor the Main Street Lending Program and its effect on small and mid-sized businesses; adjust the program if necessary to increase lender and borrower participation.
• Federal support to state and local governments: (a) Provide a block grant for states and localities that cannot be used for tax cuts or pension increases; (b) Implement expansions in federal matching for state Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) that are adjusted automatically based on economic conditions; © Provide block grants to state governments for K-12 education spending; and (d) Extend federal block grants to public universities, four-year colleges, and community colleges.

Marshall, Leslie, Mirko Armiento, Michael Blackhurst, Chris Briem, Thomas Croft, Grant Ervin, Hersh Merenstein, Giuseppe Montesano, Carlo Papa, Robert Pollin, and Ernest Rajakone. 2020. Marshall Plan for Middle America Roadmap. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Center for Sustainable Business. 

• The Marshall Plan for Middle America (MP4MA) Roadmap is a non-partisan, data-driven research document created through the joint scientific efforts of academic and policy researchers based at the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the City of Pittsburgh, the Steel Valley Authority, the Heartland Capital Strategies Network, and the Enel Foundation.
• The MP4MA Roadmap is intended to provide a platform for regional cooperation across the Ohio Valley without regard for the political party or institutional affiliation of any specific stakeholder.
• Transitioning the regional economy from one built on fossil fuels to one built on renewable energy and innovations in infrastructure and manufacturing will include: (1) reliable research and evidence to help chart the path forward; (2) governing institutions with identifiable infrastructure needs and community ties; (3) companies to invest in long-term market development and support the transition to more sustainable business practices; (4) capital to finance development; and, (5) community oversight, transparency, and accountability

• Reliable research and evidence to help chart the path forward.
• Governing institutions with identifiable infrastructure needs and community ties.
• Companies to invest in long-term market development and support the transition to more sustainable business practices.
• Capital to finance development.
• Community oversight, transparency, and accountability.

Southern California Association of Regional Governments (SCAG). Southern California Economic Recovery and Job Creation Strategy. 2011.

• The Southern California Economic Recovery and Job Creation Strategy concentrates on expanding the region’s economic base to increase the flow of funds driving the area’s economy.
• The report is based upon the region’s job creation needs given its unique competitive advantages and demographics.
• Several sectors emerge as crucial: international trade and logistics, film and related sectors, high tech and traditional manufacturing, construction, health care, and leisure industries. The aim is to create conditions encouraging job creation in these sectors in the immediate, short and longer terms as well as preserving the businesses in the region.
• Essential to the strategy is the notion that stronger economic growth will help every community.

• Oppose new legislation that negatively impacts jobs in the private sector.
• Support legislation that allows agencies, cities, and counties the flexibility to finance early delivery of projects and at the same time create jobs.
• Eliminate or reduce regulations that inhibit expedited project delivery.
• State accepting federal NEPA environmental delegation to save agency review time;  improve efficiency of environmental reviews and reduce time by collapsing reviewing agencies environmental approval from NEPA approval and also again at permitting approval; encourage environmental review through electronic means;  encourage DOT to shorten FTIP project amendment approval process; expand authority to agencies to allow pre-award of contracts that are currently permitted by FTA to FHWA projects).

Shrimali, Bina. 2020. Child Care, COVID-19, and our Economic Future. Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Community Development Research Brief 2020-5.

• While child care in the U.S. is a piece of critical infrastructure, it is often invisible and undervalued. Straddling the lines between parenting, education, and small business, child care does not get the full attention and resources of any particular domain, and its contribution to the economy has been overlooked.
• As child care businesses struggle to weather the COVID-19 pandemic, this critical infrastructure for workforce and community development will likely be severely limited.
• This may hamper economic recovery, and the implications of widespread losses of child care will likely fall disproportionately on women and people of color, widening existing inequities.
• The COVID-19 crisis represents an opportunity to reassess and reimagine this vital sector of our economy. The goal of this report is to draw attention to the importance of child care to the economy, highlight shortfalls and challenges in this sector prior to COVID-19, and explore new issues that threaten the viability of the sector in the context of the pandemic.

• Provide supports for child care small businesses.
• Value child care as a workforce and community investment.
• Engage new partners in strengthening the child care sector.