The health and welfare of our cities are driven by everyone benefiting from a prosperous economy. Unfortunately, long-standing disparities between BIPOC and White households on measures of wealth and income have been substantial and continue to persist across the country. In the absence of targeted practice and policy intervention, the racial wealth divide will continue to widen and undermine the opportunity and promises cities could provide their residents.
The Racial Wealth Divide (RWD) Learning Community will function as a group of cities deeply committed to reducing racial wealth inequities in their communities. The cities in the learning community will participate in ongoing peer learning virtual engagements. These sessions will explore enhancing public dialogue, policy, and practice to close the racial wealth divide while promoting economic prosperity. The learning community also will examine the history of local racial, and economic disparities, and use the knowledge gleaned to institute promising strategies to close the divide and build pathways to prosperity.
Participating cities will work on:
- Centering racial equity in creating a sustained and effective response to narrowing the racial wealth divide in the following policy spheres:
- Banking/Lending/Financial Services
- Hiring/Employment
- Housing
- Education
- Criminal Justice
- Establish a shared vision for eliminating the Racial Wealth Divide
- Identify wealth inequities and opportunities for change
- Implement strategies to address the Racial Wealth Divide
This learning community is by invitation only. For more information, please contact EOFE@nlc.org.
The RWD Learning Community is made possible with financial support from The Annie E. Casey Foundation, two NLC teams are collaborating to convene a learning community of 10 cities this fall to work toward reducing racial wealth inequities in their communities. Together, the Economic Opportunity and Financial Empowerment (EOFE) team and the Race, Equity And Leadership (REAL) department have invited participants to a series of learning sessions.