See the schedule below to mark your calendars now for 6 upcoming ReDefining Economic Development sessions this spring & summer!
The organizations which have joined in on the ReDefining Economic Development NYC planning meetings and calls have covered some significant ground since the original "Defining Economic Development" event in November. We have determined that our next step is to develop "Principles of Economic Development" for New York City as the first stage in our effort to eventually develop a NYC "blueprint" for progressive economic development. Creating the blueprint was what the large majority of organizations had the most interest in as a long-term goal of ReDefining Economic Development NYC, so the planning group has been working over the last couple of months to figure out how to begin this process.
RED-NYC has organized a series of workshop sessions over the next several months on the issues that were identified at the "Defining Economic Development" event in November - good jobs, affordable housing, clean environment & strong infrastructure, quality training and education, fair access to financial resources, and job growth/sectoral planning - in addition to a workshop specifically on economic development "processes" in the City like land use and subsidy approvals.
These sessions will have several purposes; general issue education, best practices & strategy exchange for all participants, and an opportunity for participants and session leaders to develop "principles" of progressive economic development that relate to each component. The expectation is that each session will build on the previous one through sustained participation by a small group of organizations, by the new ideas and fresh energy of occasional and new participants, and by the synthesis and preparation work that a core group of organizations will do between each session with session leaders.
Session leaders will be drawn from a variety of organizations that have expertise and experience on each issue.
Session 1: Jobs
(Job Creation & Retention, Job Quality, and Sectoral Diversity)
Tuesday, April 25 3:30 p.m.
Coordinator: Annette Bernhardt, Brennan Center for Justice at NYU
Session 2: Affordable Housing
Tuesday, May 23 3:30 p.m.
Coordinator: Brad Lander, Pratt Center for Community Development
Session 3: Clean & Green Infrastructure
Tuesday, June 20 3:30 p.m.
Coordinator: Joan Byron, Pratt Center for Community Development
Session 4: Fair Access to Financial Resources
Tuesday, July 18 3:30 p.m.
Coordinator: Mark Winston-Griffith, Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project (NEDAP)
Session 5: Workforce Training & Education
Tuesday, August 15
Coordinator: Michelle de la Uz, Fifth Avenue Committee
Session 6: Government Processes
Land Use, Subsidy Approval, The Budget
Tuesday, September 19
Coordinator: Mafruza Khan, Pratt Center for Community Development
After the sessions, we will organize an event where the synthesized principles and material from the “Principles of a Progressive Blueprint” series will be presented and where we will discuss how to proceed with what we’ve developed.