Through the Propel L.A. Strategic Plan, the good work of business, government, nonprofits, academia and education, labor, and community organizations is amplified, supported, and advanced. By capturing the power of many to propel economic growth and equitable opportunity, Propel L.A. connects groups that have needs with those that have resources and advocates for public policies and programs that connect to the Plan’s 7 Goals. The weaving thread that links these efforts is our common purpose to increase shared prosperity with a particular focus on reducing income inequality and alleviating the pervasive structural poverty that continues to undercut the social, health and familial well-being of our communities and residents.

As of 2017, nearly 58,000 men, women and children were homeless on any given night in our region. To address this, voters overwhelmingly approved Measure H to deliver services to combat homelessness and Proposition HHH in the City of Los Angeles providing $1.2 billion in funding toward affordable housing. In 2016, the LA County Board of Supervisors approved the Homeless Initiative, which includes 51 strategies to address this challenge, which are currently being implemented.

The California State Legislature passed a package of housing bills in late-2017 that not only provided funding and incentives for housing development, but also eased some restrictions on such development, and mandated California cities to streamline their permitting processes and otherwise meet local housing goals.

California’s education pipeline is not keeping pace with the higher skills and education required by employers. By 2025, it is estimated that almost one-third (30%) of all job openings in the State of California will require some form of post-secondary education short of a four-year degree. Yet, more than 22% of the county’s residents have not even earned a high school diploma (or equivalent), and another 47% of the county’s residents have only a high school education. (A Portrait of LA County 2017-2018).

Without targeted and directed intervention on our part, an increasing percentage of our residents will be limited to minimum wage jobs that only widen the gap between the poor and the rich, one poverty-inducing job to the next, as our economy continues to be disaggregated between the highly skilled jobs that will become increasingly more skilled, and thus more highly rewarded, and the lower skilled jobs that will be increasingly automated or, at best, pay only a minimum wage. But this intervention will require true systems change across all of our education and talent development systems, including early-childhood, and this systems change is outlined in Goal 1 of our Strategic Plan.  We want to ensure that all children have the highest possible potential for success in school, over their careers and throughout life.

Read about Propel L.A. Lead Partner, First 5 LA: First 5 LA Strategic Plan: Focusing for the Future

Read the Center for a Competitive Workforce Powering Economic Opportunity Report.

Los Angeles has a reputation for having some of the worst traffic in the United States – and commute times got longer by 4% from 2016 to 2017, according to Business Insider.  But with the passage of Measure M, our region has the opportunity to not only expand our bus and rail systems and improve our roads, but also to add in transit-oriented housing and mixed-use development, and to improve our goods movement and related infrastructure systems.