Why Process Matters for Achieving Equity Goals

Growing evidence suggests that economic and racial inclusion is critical for boosting economic competitiveness, generating faster growth, and supporting economic resiliency. Based on conversations with local economic development leaders from the Shared Prosperity Partnership, this brief identifies three overarching practices for making the economic development planning and decision making phases more inclusive:

• Broaden decision making tables to ensure decisions better reflect resident priorities
• Rethink how capital is raised and invested in historically excluded communities
• Collaboratively develop economic development equity and inclusion measures

These practices represent a shift from traditional planning practices to more frequent, wide-ranging, and deeper forms of engagement that lead to more equitable outcomes.