January Newsletter
A Note from our CEO
Yesterday's inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris ushered in a new era in Washington and promised a sharper focus on what we fight for every day — equitable relief from the pandemic, the rebuilding of our infrastructure and middle class, and the creation of community wealth for Americans across our country. Accelerator for America congratulates our new Administration and looks forward to working together to make our nation more just and prosperous for all.
And we are rooting hard for the host of Accelerator's first convening, Advisory Council Member Emeritus Pete Buttigieg, whose confirmation process began today on Capitol Hill.
Brighter days are ahead. Please stay safe, stay healthy, and thank you for all that you do.
Aaron Thomas
President and CEO | Accelerator for America
'The Smart City News that Shaped 2020'
Accelerator for America's mission has always been to find and develop solutions to economic insecurity and share them with cities to create national change from the ground up — and our work has only intensified as the pandemic continues to cause widespread economic devastation. Our largest-scale COVID-19 initiative has been our "Angeleno Card," which, with the help of our Advisory Council Chair Mayor Eric Garcetti, the Mayor's Fund for Los Angeles, and Mastercard City Possible, rapidly distributed $37 million to help 105,000 LA residents in need. The success of this initiative prompted the Open Society Foundations to partner with the Accelerator to adapt the Angeleno Card for implementation in eight other cities and across two states, and we are humbled that Smart Cities Dive featured our Angeleno Card within its end-of-year recap: "The smart city news that shaped 2020." Read more here.
Playbooks for Recovery
We are excited to share that the place-based recovery playbooks we are developing with Drexel University, the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, and civic leaders in St. Louis, MO, Birmingham, AL, Dayton, OH, and Los Angeles, CA will be released next month!
The playbooks are focused on advancing inclusive growth and racial and social equity to help communities recover from the pandemic stronger than they were before. They will also inform a national playbook that can be used by cities across the country.
Strategies to increase the number of black- and minority-owned businesses are a large focus of each playbook, and some of our findings are striking. In Birmingham, for example, 72% of the population is Black, but just 6% of businesses are Black-owned. If parity were achieved between Black-ownership and current white-ownership, black-owned firms in Birmingham would add 2,400 more firms and 23,700 more jobs to the economy.
10 Communities — One Goal
We will soon issue a final report detailing the incredible impact of our Angeleno Card model within the eight cities and two states in which it was expanded — we have now completed our technical assistance and distributed the $500,000 in seed funding provided by the Open Society Foundations.
Spotlight: Dayton
Thanks to the leadership of our Advisory Council member Mayor Nan Whaley, we are working with the Miami Valley Community Action Partnership (MVCAP), which established a program to provide emergency assistance to Dayton families. The program, which was designed to fill the identified service gap for working families already receiving COVID-19-related rental, mortgage, and/or utility assistance through MVCAP, provides $1,000 in assistance to in-need families.
Congratulations To:
Our Advisory Council member Sonal Shah on all she accomplished over the past eight years as Executive Director of Georgetown's Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation! Sonal, who is stepping down as Executive Director, founded the Beeck Center in 2014 and grew it into a leading center for cross-collaboration. The Center is a hub where practitioners and students explore leading-edge ideas using data and technology to drive toward better and more equitable practices in society. Sonal will continue her work as a professor at Georgetown and will join the Beeck Center’s Advisory Board.
Our friends at Opportunity Virginia and their partner, Micronic Technologies — a Virginia-based organization established within an opportunity zone to provide clean water to water-deprived areas around the world — for Micronic's monumental $3 million fundraising campaign! Micronic is a true opportunity zone success story — read more here.
In the News
Smart Cities World: The top stories of 2020
Smart Cities Dive: The smart city news that shaped 2020
ABC 4: Raise Up SLC begins distributing ‘Salt Laker Cards’ to those most impacted by COVID-19
+ Do you know someone looking for a job in local government? Help us spread the word about an opening for a Director of Economic Development in Montgomery, Alabama Mayor Steven Reed's Office!
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT
And keep following us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram as we create national change from the ground up, from coast to coast.
Aaron Thomas
President and CEO | Accelerator for America