RALEIGH – Raleigh is one of the best performing cities by the Milken Institute, ranking in the top 5, but …
Just because the regional economy is working for some doesn’t mean it’s working for all, said Danya Perry, director of Equitable Economic Development at Wake County Economic Development.
“Not all residents share the same high quality of life in this region, and that fact is due to systemic racism,” he said while presenting an update on Equitable Economic Development from Wake County Economic Development in a meeting with the Wake County Board of Commissioners on Monday.
Launched as a core focus for the organization throughout the past three years, the focus on equitable economic development imagines a future where the full potential of a local economy is unlocked through the dismantling of barriers and the expansion of opportunities for lower-income citizens and communities of emphasis.
Wake County Economic Development, a program of the Raleigh Chamber, has worked with Wake County government to better understand the county’s most vulnerable communities and how to support and promote economic mobility for these targeted growth areas.
Report: Wake’s travel economy is recovering – but thousands of hospitality jobs remain at risk
“Our work has evolved,” said Perry. “We have two big buckets.”
Those two buckets are supporting current organizations in their efforts to better understand and implement their own diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies, said Perry. “On top of that the other big bucket is how we support our historically underrepresented and underutilized small businesses,” he added.
Through collaboration with leaders across Wake County, and with RTI International, Wake County Economic Development worked to identify portions of the county as “targeted areas for economic growth.”
These were identified through using an index provided by the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey that measures poverty, unemployment, demographics, housing, and education. Once identified, the organization is working to expand scope and build capacity to focus on community sustainability and place- and people-based strategies within those communities.
The group, along with more than 50 commitments from companies including Biogen, Red Hat, WakeMed, SAS, Bank of America, Pendo, and Raleigh Founded, also recently launched the A Better Wake initiative.
“It’s a self assessment that will really help us move forward,” said Perry. “We have launched a study, with RTI, we were able to solicit RTI to do a research project that will identify systemic disparities, and to offer recommendations.”
“This will be our offering to the community, a set of recommendations and resources,” he added. The final product, which is scheduled for delivery in September, after completing three distinct phases, includes a blueprint and a dashboard that will be community-facing, said Perry.
The current phase, phase one, includes an internal look at existing research and data from within the region, and concludes later in March.
