National Equity Atlas Update

When you sign up for our email list (below right), you will receive updates about new Atlas content, events, and examples of equity data in action. 
 
Dear Bay Area Equity Atlas Users:
 
Happy July and welcome to our first monthly update! It has been a terrific first month for the Atlas. Since our June 4th launch, more than 3,000 people have visited the site and we are beginning to hear stories about how people are using Atlas data to inform their work to advance equity. Here is a roundup of our forthcoming events and latest activities.
 
Upcoming Webinar: Using Bay Area Equity Atlas Data to Prevent Displacement and Protect Renters
Data on how the housing crisis is affecting renters is a key ingredient in winning the strong tenant protections needed to stabilize renters and halt displacement. On July 23rd, from 3:00 - 4:00 p.m. PST, join the Atlas team and tenant advocates working in Concord, Hayward, Oakland, and San José to learn about how these local leaders are using Atlas data in their organizing and policy campaigns and what renter data you can find on the Atlas. Register here.
 
New Analysis: Bay Area Diversity Not Reflected Among Top Elected Leaders
The Bay Area is one of the most diverse regions in the country, but our analysis of the unique diversity of electeds dataset in the Atlas reveals that Whites (especially men) were overrepresented among elected officials while Latinx and Asian or Pacific Islanders were underrepresented. As of May 2018, 74 percent of top elected officials were White, while 40 percent of the population is White, and only 19 percent of electeds were Latinx or API, although those two groups represent half of the population. Read more.

Data Storytelling: New Partnership with Bay City News 
Helping journalists incorporate a strong equity analysis into their reporting through the use of disaggregated data is one of the Atlas team’s goals, so we are thrilled about our new partnership with Bay City News Service and sister LocalNewsMatters.org website to produce a series of 10 stories drawing on Atlas data. Check out the first two stories: Equity Ripples: Concord Feels the Weight of Bay Area Housing Crisis and Communities of Color Shifting to Suburbs, and follow #BayAreaEquityAtlas for upcoming stories.

Spreading the Equity Data
Our team was happy to conduct a training for the Northern California Grantmakers’ Racial Equity Action Institute cohort of leaders in business, government, nonprofits, and philanthropy. We also presented to the Power of 9 Committee and the Contra Costa Budget Justice Coalition workshop in Antioch. Interested in hosting a presentation or training? Drop us a line at info@bayareaequityatlas.org.
 
Atlas In the News
The launch of the Bay Area Equity Atlas was covered by SFGate, CBS San Francisco, Napa Valley Register and SF Bay. It’s mission, background, and features were also highlighted by Philanthropy News Digest.
 
Thank you!
 
The Bay Equity Atlas team

National Equity Atlas: July Update

Dear Atlas Users,

Greetings from the National Equity Atlas team! This month we are excited to release the first of five data projects we are working on in partnership with community coalitions in New Mexico and Mississippi, with support of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Stay tuned for more releases in the coming months.
 
New Fact Sheets Support Economic Justice Policy Campaigns in New Mexico
With the third-highest level of working poverty in the country, many New Mexican families are already struggling to make ends meet, and predatory financial services further strip their wealth and exacerbate financial insecurity. The New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty is working to protect low-income communities from predatory lenders and tax preparation services. To support their policy campaigns, the Atlas team produced two fact sheets: one highlighting the impact of predatory lenders on Native American communities, and one describing how expensive tax preparation services cost New Mexican families up to $54 million in 2015. Download the fact sheets here.

Webinars: Data for Inclusive Entrepreneurship and Tenant Protections
Last month, the Atlas team hosted two webinars: Local Data and Strategy for Equitable Entrepreneurship, which took a look at our new entrepreneurship indicators and the strategies that support equitable entrepreneurship, and Using Bay Area Equity Atlas Data to Prevent Displacement and Protect Renters, where tenant advocates working in Concord, Hayward, Oakland, and San Jose presented about how data fits into their organizing and policy campaigns. Both are archived on the PolicyLink YouTube page.
 
In the News
Last month, the St. Pete Catalyst released an interview with Tim Dutton, executive director of Unite Pinellas, about the findings of “An Equity Profile of Pinellas County” and the systemic issues they are planning to address as a result. Data from the Bay Area Equity Atlas informed reporting in articles about: communities of color moving to the suburbs in SF Bay, the housing crisis in Concord in Claycord News & Talk, the lack of affordable housing in Oakland in California Patch, and the lack of diversity of elected officials in the region in SF Gate. 
 
Thank you for your interest in our work!

The National Equity Atlas team at PolicyLink and the USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE)

Among the 10 Most Populous Cities, African Americans Remain Underrepresented in Business Ownership

 
Examining data on business diversity and growth for 2007 and 2012, we find large Black/White gaps in business ownership across all the 10 largest cities and declining revenues and wages for Black-owned businesses in most of the cities. San Antonio stands out for having positive performance among Black-owned businesses across all indicators.
 

Removing barriers that prevent people of color from starting and growing successful businesses is a crucial inclusive growth strategy. Entrepreneurship is an important pathway for building wealth and addressing the racial wealth gap, as well as for providing self-employment and income. Entrepreneurs of color also play a major role in creating employment opportunities: research shows that entrepreneurs of color are more likely to hire people of color and locate their firms in communities of color.

While businesses owned by people of color today make up a significant and growing share of businesses in cities across the country, entrepreneurs of color remain underrepresented in business ownership – particularly among high-revenue firms and firms with paid employees. Historic and present-day racial discrimination has contributed to racial inequities in business ownership and growth. The racial wealth gap makes it more difficult for people of color to start a business in the first place, and lack of access to capital adds to the challenge.

To help communities understand how they are doing on racial equity in entrepreneurship, the National Equity Atlas now includes four new indicators of entrepreneurship. These indicators are based on data  from the Census Bureau’s Survey of Business Owners, a twice-a-decade survey designed to paint a picture of all firms — incorporated or not, with and without paid employees — with annual receipts of $1,000 or more by race, ethnicity, and gender. This survey represents the only data source with sufficient sample sizes to examine race and gender equity in entrepreneurship for all the geographies available in the Atlas, including the largest 100 cities. The latest data on the Atlas is from 2012 – after which point the survey was discontinued and is soon to be replaced by the Annual Business Survey.

Using this data, we examined the representativeness and growth rates of Black-owned businesses in the nation’s 10 largest cities (based on 2010 population) from 2007 to 2012. We focused on cities because many policies that foster entrepreneurship, from tax incentives to small business loan programs operate at the city level. We examined how the largest 10 cities measure up when it comes to measures of growth and success for Black-owned business. We focused only on firms with paid employees due to their greater economic impact on local economies.

Uneven Growth in Black-Owned Firms and Labor Force

Nationally, the average growth rate for black-owned businesses with employees across the top 100 most populous cities was 19 percent. Across the top 10 cities, growth rates ranged from an increase of 18 percent in San Antonio to a decrease of 31 percent in New York City. Phoenix and Houston also had high growth in Black-owned businesses, while San Diego saw a decline of 19 percent.

Comparing the growth of Black-owned firms with the growth of the Black labor force (a proxy for potential business owners), we see that the two cities with the most firm growth also had the greatest labor force growth; San Antonio and Phoenix experienced growth rates upwards of 10 percent in both Black-owned firms and in the size of Black labor force. In Houston, however, there was strong growth in firms but minimal growth in the Black labor force, indicating a rise in the rate of business ownership. On the other end of the spectrum, New York and San Diego saw rapid declines in the number of Black-owned firms alongside growth in the labor force, suggesting a decline in the rate of business ownership. Overall, the relationship between the two measures is weak, suggesting that growth in Black-owned firms is not simply a function of growth in potential business owners.

Black/White Differences in Business Ownership

To compare rates of Black and White entrepreneurship across cities, we can look at the number of firms per 1,000 people in the labor force. Examining the 10 largest cities, there is variation in the rates of entrepreneurship in general — that is, rates for both the Black and White populations are relatively higher in Los Angeles and Houston, and relatively lower in Philadelphia and Chicago – but also the rates for the White population are substantially higher than those for the Black population. Los Angeles is the city with the highest number of Black-owned firms with paid employees per 1,000 in the civilian labor force but it also has the largest Black/White entrepreneurship gap at 70 points — meaning that there are 70 more business owners per 1,000 people in the labor force among the White population. This racial gap appears to be driven by the level of White entrepreneurship — influenced by the fact that often White entrepreneurs have more generational wealth and easier access to the financial capital needed to start a business. Philadelphia has the lowest rates of entrepreneurship for both the White and Black populations, along with the smallest entrepreneurship gap of 36 points.

Declining Revenues for Black-owned Firms

Our most populous cities had mixed success in terms of revenue growth for Black-owned firms, but they declined in eight of the largest 10 cities between 2007 and 2012. The only two cities that saw increases in (inflation-adjusted) revenues per firm for Black-owned firms with paid employees were San Antonio at 26.7 percent (an average increase of about $140,000 per firm) and Phoenix at 1.5 percent (an average increase of about $12,000 per firm). Austin and Philadelphia saw the largest declines in revenues at 41.0 percent and 24.7 percent.

Diverging Growth in Employee Pay Among Black-owned Firms

Another important measure of understanding how well Black-owned businesses are doing is whether they are able to increase pay for their workers over time. This is particularly important given that employee pay among Black-owned firms is generally much lower than in other firms, and because Black-owned firms are more likely to hire Black workers, the ability to increase pay can have a positive impact on the racial earnings gap. For a sense of how far behind Black-owned firms are in the wages they are able to provide, the Survey of Business Owners reports average pay per employee for the United States in 2012 of about $37,400 and the average pay per employee for Black-owned firms of only about $28,400.

Looking at inflation-adjusted annual pay per employee for Black-owned firms between 2007 and 2012, we see that annual pay per employee for Black-owned firms only grew in three of the largest 10 cities — San Antonio (32.9 percent ), New York (17.5 percent), and San Diego (13.2 percent). In contrast, Black-owned businesses saw the greatest declines in annual pay per employee in Philadelphia (-16.1 percent), Phoenix (-14.3 percent), Dallas (-13.5 percent), and Chicago (-13.0 percent).

In addition to per employee pay, San Antonio also scored well on other metrics including experiencing the greatest growth in annual sales for Black-owned firms, one of the lowest White/Black Entrepreneurship gaps, and among the largest increases in the number of Black-owned firms and the size of the Black labor force. This diverged from New York and San Diego where annual pay per employee grew despite declines in the labor force. New York was a particularly interesting case because wages grew even while the city had the seventh highest Black/White entrepreneurship gap.

A Need for Equitable Entrepreneurship Strategies

Across the 10 largest cities, there were large racial gaps in Black and White business ownership everywhere, but some cities did show better performance than others. San Antonio showed consistent positive signs for Black-owned businesses on all measures examined: growth in firms, revenues per firm, employee pay, and Black/White gap in entrepreneurship. Meanwhile, New York showed consistent negative signs with the greatest decline in the number of firms, declining revenues per firm, and one of the largest Black/White entrepreneurship gaps.

Certain factors that are associated with increased success in entrepreneurship include wealth, access to capital, and formal and experience-based human capital, which can consist of formal education or experience running family-owned business. Policies and programs that address any of these barriers should help to increase the number of Black business owners and support their long-term success. Finally, incentive programs that lower financial barriers to entry for Black entrepreneurs could help foster business ownership.

To access data on entrepreneurship for your city, region, or state; and to learn more about policies to expand business ownership for entrepreneurs of color, see the four new indicators available in the Atlas: Firm Diversity, Revenues, Business growth, and Revenue growth.

Employment Equity A Key Theme at Atlanta’s Just Opportunity Summit

June 21, 2019: Just Opportunity Summit morning panel on leveraging and mitigating public incentives for economic inclusion. Credit: Kelly Jordan

If there were employment equity "More people with jobs will have enough money to spend in their communities, moving everyone up the socio-economic ladder" writes Nathaniel Smith, Founder and Chief Equity Officer of the Partnership for Southern Equity (PSE) in The Atlanta Voice. "The opportunities are going to those who have access to them — and that's disproportionately not the members of communities of color."

Referencing the report published by the National Equity Atlas in partnership with PSE, Smith states that "the Just Opportunity Summit is grounded in the belief of equity and hard data. According to the Employment Equity Report, 'achieving true 'full employment' across all racial and gender groups — bringing 384,000 more workers into employment — would add $2.4 billion in new state and local tax revenue annually'. The hypothesis is that the more people with jobs will have enough money to spend in their communities, moving everyone up the socio-economic ladder. The Just Opportunity Summit is aimed at making this into a reality, not just for Georgia, but throughout the American South." The same report also states that employment equity would lead to almost 115,000 fewer residents living in poverty; and more than $2.4 billion in additional tax revenue. 

Racial equity in employment, economic mobility, and wealth were key themes of the inaugural Just Opportunity Summit held June 20-21 at Morehouse College hosted by PSE and the Just Opportunity Circle. Partnership for Southern Equity is a nonprofit advocacy organization that advances policies and institutional actions that promote racial equity and shared prosperity for all in the growth of metropolitan Atlanta and the American South, and the Just Opportunity Circle represents an organized group of key regional economic development leaders from the private, nonprofit, and government sectors. The Summit included workshops and panel discussions on topics such as closing the racial wealth gap, leveraging public incentives for economic inclusion, and expanding access to capital for entrepreneurs of color.

Click here to learn more about the Just Opportunity Summit, or here to see photos and recordings from the event.  

National Equity Atlas Update

 

Dear Atlas Users,

Happy Summer! Early in June, we were thrilled to launch the Bay Area Equity Atlas as a new local and data policy tool. Join us for a webinar next month to explore its housing indicators and how the data can be used to prevent displacement and protect renters. This month, the National Equity Atlas team added new entrepreneurship indicators, which we will be exploring in a webinar on Thursday. We hope you will join us!
 
Join Us for the Launch of Equitable Entrepreneurship Indicators
Businesses owned by people of color make up a significant and growing share of companies in cities across the country, yet the racial wealth gap and lack of access to capital stifle entrepreneurs of color and communities lose out on the jobs, services, and financial security that come with business development and growth. To equip communities with data on entrepreneurship, we are adding four indicators of business growth and diversity to the Atlas based on the Census Bureau’s 2007 and 2012 Survey of Business Owners. Join our webinar on Thursday, June 27 to learn about these indicators and hear from Gary Cunningham, president-elect of Prosperity Now, and janera solomon, executive director of Kelly Strayhorn Theater in Pittsburgh, about local strategies to foster equitable entrepreneurship. Register here.
 
Advancing Racial and Economic Equity at Atlanta’s Just Opportunity Summit
Racial equity in employment, economic mobility, and wealth were key themes of the inaugural Just Opportunity Summit held June 20-21 at Morehouse College in Atlanta hosted by the Partnership for Southern Equity and the Just Opportunity Circle. Last year, we released Employment Equity: Putting Georgia on the Path to Inclusive Prosperity with Partnership for Southern Equity (PSE) and Nathaniel Smith, the organization’s founder and chief equity officer, remarked that “the Summit is grounded in the belief of equity and hard data.” Read more in our Data in Action post here.

Using Bay Area Equity Atlas Data to Prevent Displacement and Protect Renters
The housing crisis is a key equity challenge in the Bay Area, and to support communities in protecting renters from rising rents and displacement, Bay Area Equity Atlas includes indicators such as market rent, rent burden, gentrification risk, and the potential economic gains of eliminating rent burden. Join us for a webinar on July 23 to learn about these indicators and hear from community groups working on tenant protections campaigns in Concord, Hayward, Oakland, and San Jose. Register here.
 
In the News
The launch of the Bay Area Equity Atlas was covered by SFGate, CBS San Francisco, Napa Valley Register and SF Bay. It’s mission, background, and features were also highlighted by Philanthropy News Digest.
 
 
Thank you for your interest in our work!

The National Equity Atlas team at PolicyLink and the USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE)

National Equity Atlas Update

Dear Atlas Users,

We are thrilled to announce the launch of the Bay Area Equity Atlas today! This new local data and policy tool includes several new and upgraded features we will be transferring to the National Equity Atlas later this year. Join tomorrow’s webinar to take a tour of the Atlas and see a preview of what is to come. We are also excited to share new data on entrepreneurship with you on our webinar June 27th.

Introducing the Bay Area Equity Atlas
Produced in partnership with the San Francisco Foundation, the Bay Area Equity Atlas brings the power of the National Equity Atlas down to the local level. This new community data resource provides 21 equity metrics disaggregated by race, gender, and income and tracking change over time for 272 geographies across the Bay Area region, including 220 cities and Census Designated Places. Fourteen are new indicators that are not included in the Atlas, including voting, diversity of electeds, and police use of force. Read the team’s welcome blog post about how this tool helps to democratize power, then learn about five essential features that makes the Bay Area Equity Atlas a next-generation community data tool. There’s also still time to sign up for tomorrow’s webinar.

Join Us for the Launch of Entrepreneurship Indicators
Businesses owned by people of color make up a significant and growing share of companies in cities across the country, yet the racial wealth gap and lack of access to capital stifle entrepreneurs of color and communities lose out on the jobs, services, and financial security that come with business development and growth. To equip communities with data on entrepreneurship, we are adding four indicators of business growth and diversity to the Atlas based on the Census Bureau’s 2007 and 2012 Survey of Business Owners. Join us on this webinar to learn about these indicators and hear from Gary Cunningham, president-elect of Prosperity Now, about strategies that support work to foster equitable entrepreneurship.

In the News
In early May, Tampa Bay Newspapers highlighted the findings from An Equity Profile of Pinellas County. Later in the month, Streetsblog USA covered a Salud America! report that used Atlas data to detail transportation equity challenges in Latinx communities. This nola.com article also focuses on transportation equity, but uses Atlas data about housing burden to make the case for housing and infrastructure investments to ease the burden.

On the Road
The Atlas team had a busy month presenting our data and insights at the Rise Together Opportunity Summit in San Jose; the GEO Conference in Seattle; the Madison Region Economic Development & Diversity Summit in Madison, Wisconsin; and the National Academies’ Committee Informing the Development of Healthy People 2030.


Thank you for your interest in our work.

The National Equity Atlas team at PolicyLink and the USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE)

National Equity Atlas Update

Dear Atlas Users,

Happy Spring! Our team is excited to see our data informing comprehensive equity strategies in Pinellas County, FL and water equity efforts in Buffalo, NY. And we are hard at work getting ready to launch the Bay Area Equity Atlas!
 
Pinella County Equity Profile Release
This month, in partnership with UNITE Pinellas, our team released a new equity profile and summary of Pinellas County, FL. The release event drew over 400 people, ranging from high school students to community and organizational leaders eager to understand the data and take action. Anand Subramanian of PolicyLink presented the keynote and moderated a panel with representatives from the City of St. Petersburg, Pinellas County Commission, A New Deal for St. Pete, and the St. Petersburg Police Department. The report serves as a launching point for UNITE Pinellas and the members of its collaborative to orient their policy, systems, and narrative change strategies moving forward. The release event was covered in the St. Pete Catalyst and the Tampa Bay Times.
 
Buffalo’s Equitable Water Future
Earlier this month, the US Water Alliance and Buffalo’s Water Equity Task Force released “An Equitable Water Future: Buffalo,” a first-ever report on the connections between water management and equity in the city. The report uses Atlas data to make the connection between disparities in wealth and housing, and how those factors affect water systems. It argues that making water systems more equitable means ensuring that all people have access to safe, affordable water, and benefit from high-quality infrastructure and public amenities like waterfront parks.
 
Thank you for your interest in our work!

The National Equity Atlas team at PolicyLink and the USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE)

National Equity Atlas Update

Dear Atlas Users,

Greetings from the National Equity Atlas team! This month, we released a new equity profile for Orange County, California. And we were thrilled to see our data on wage disparities used to power policy advocacy in Cincinnati!
 
Orange County Equity Report Release
On March 26, about 300 people gathered at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana for the release event for An Equity Profile of Orange County, completed in partnership with Orange County Grantmakers. The presentation of data revealing stark inequities within the wealthy county made many participants uncomfortable — and ready to take action. Reacting to the presentation of the data by Dr. Manuel Pastor, Rosie Perez of Mission Integration at Providence St. Joseph Hospital said “I am motivated by the findings. I think it can bring all of us together to work toward equity.”

Cincinnati Leverages Equity Data to Win New Wage Equity Policy
On March 13, Cincinnati City Council barred employers from asking applicants about their salary history in an attempt to reduce wage disparities between men and women in the region. This was the direct result of advocacy by the Greater Cincinnati Foundation’s Women’s Fund, using data from our equity profile along with coalition building support from the PolicyLink All-In Cities initiative. The Cincinnati Business Courier and CityBeat covered the passing of the new ordinance.

Omaha Equitable Growth Profile Wins Planning Award
Our partners at the Metropolitan Area Planning Agency and the Heartland 2050 initiative received an award from the Nebraska chapter of the American Planning Association for their work using the Equitable Growth Profile of the Omaha-Council Bluffs Region to drive equity planning in the region. Since the profile was released in July, local leaders have used the data to inform multiple planning efforts spanning health, housing, transportation, and leadership development, including the United Way of the Midland’s Community Food Plan, the Douglas County Community Health Improvement Plan, and the City of Omaha’s Transit Oriented Development Initiative.

Join Our Team: PolicyLink is Hiring a Director for Our Equity Data Team
Love the Atlas? Come work with us! PolicyLink is seeking a director to lead our growing portfolio of work that leverages data to advance racial and economic equity. The director will have principal responsibility for the day-to-day management of the National Equity Atlas and the forthcoming Bay Area Equity Atlas and lead the development of other high-impact quantitative and mixed-methods analyses and data tools. Find the job description and instructions on how to apply here.

In the News
The Los Angeles Times used Atlas data on the housing burdens faced by minimum wage workers in Oakland in an article about the Athletics baseball team building housing units alongside their new stadium.

Thank you for your interest in our work!

The National Equity Atlas team at PolicyLink and the USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE)

National Equity Atlas Update

Dear Atlas Users,

Greetings from the National Equity Atlas team! This month, we released a new equity profile for the city of Long Beach. We are also happy to see our research on Sacramento and Long Island being used to advance equitable growth policies in those communities.
 
Long Beach Equity Report Release
On February 5, the National Equity Atlas team, in partnership with Citi Community Development, the Long Beach Office of Equity, and Councilmember Rex Richardson’s Office, released an Equitable Growth Profile of the City of Long Beach at Long Beach City College Pacific Coast Campus. One hundred participants attended the event, including residents, nonprofit and philanthropic leaders, city officials, and staff. Dr. Manuel Pastor gave the keynote address, highlighting the benefits of racial economic inclusion and the importance of using data not only disaggregated by race/ethnicity, but also by immigrant status and ancestry to advance equity and shift policy. “These aren’t crazy things,” said Brian Addison in an article about the report’s policy recommendations in the Long Beach Post. “They’re doable. They’re respectable. And if we want to keep Long Beach, well, Long Beach, we have to actually start implementing them.”
 
Join Our Team: PolicyLink is Hiring a Director for Our Equity Data Team
Love the Atlas? Come work with us! PolicyLink is seeking a director to lead our growing portfolio of work that leverages data to advance racial and economic equity. The director will have principal responsibility for the day-to-day management of the National Equity Atlas and the forthcoming Bay Area Equity Atlas and lead the development of other high-impact quantitative and mixed-methods analyses and data tools. Find the job description and instructions on how to apply here.

California Data Sources
The Atlas was included in a crowdsourced compilation of data sources advocates turn to when they need publicly available data about California. Originally created for the communities participating in the California Accountable Communities for Health Initiative, Hillcrest Advisory currently maintains the regularly updated catalog.
 
In the News
Atlas data was used in the first of six longform reports by Hawaii Business magazine about families struggling to get by in the state. Sacramento News & Review provided coverage on a white paper released by the Sacramento Housing Alliance that included Atlas data on local rent increases. Our fact sheet on rent burdens in Chicago was cited in an In These Times cover article on grassroots organizing in the city. Nassau County Comptroller Jack Schnirman released a report on Black economic equity in the Long Island, NY county, which references a National Equity Atlas report from 2017. Newsday and The Island Now wrote about the report and its release event.
 
Thank you for your interest in our work!

The National Equity Atlas team at PolicyLink and the USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE)

National Equity Atlas Update: Year in Review

Dear Atlas Users,

Happy Holidays from the National Equity Atlas team! We are thankful for another fruitful year of collaborations with local coalitions and community leaders on data projects that empower collective action, undergird advocacy, and inform policies to advance racial equity and inclusive prosperity. Here are some highlights from the past year:

Employment Equity in Southern States

In partnership with collaboratives and organizations in each state, we released a series of five briefs that lay out policy roadmaps for Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Louisiana. These briefs were all based on data analyses and modeling of a “full-employment economy,” defined as when everyone who wants a job can find one, as well as focus groups with workers seeking good jobs These reports are undergirding the employment equity work of our partners, Partnership for Southern Equity, Alabama Asset-Building Coalition, Mississippi Low-Income Child Care Initiative, Rural Forward NC, the NC Budget & Tax Center, and the Louisiana Power Coalition for Equity and Justice.

New Equity Profiles

Continuing our work to inform equitable growth strategies locally, we developed equity profiles for Sacramento, Albuquerque, Cincinnati, and Omaha. As always, each profile was produced in partnership with local leaders who are using the data in their collective action efforts. In Albuquerque, the profile data will serve as a guide for the city’s Office of Equity and Inclusion as they develop their action agenda. In Cincinnati, the profile is informing the All-In Cincinnati coalition which is focusing on increasing housing affordability and stability for Black women in the city.

Other Reports and Publications

In April, we released Solving the Housing Crisis Is Key to Inclusive Prosperity in the Bay Area, produced in partnership with The San Francisco Foundation. Analyzing Zillow data on median rents, we found that two minimum-wage workers earning $15/hour can find affordable rentals in just 5 percent of the Bay Area’s 1,500 census tracts. Last month, in partnership with the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, we released 100 Million and Counting: A Portrait of Economic Insecurity in the United States, which sheds new light on the 106 million Americans — nearly a third of the nation — who are living at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level. Register here for an upcoming webinar on the report and its findings taking place on Monday, January 14, 12:00 - 1:00 pm PT / 3:00 - 4:00 pm ET.

Data in Action/Atlas in the News

Our team has also shared several blog posts adding equity data to the national dialogue about inclusive economies; those posts and our monthly email updates are archived here. And throughout the year, Atlas data and reports have also been covered by various local and national media outlets and articles, radio interviews, and more are available here.

Thank you once more for your interest in our work!

The National Equity Atlas team at PolicyLink and the USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE)

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