New State & Local Policies

Local Hire Policy for Construction

http://www.WorkforceDevelopmentSF.org

In December of 2010, Mayor Edwin M. Lee and San Francisco city officials adopted a Local Hire Policy for Construction, which mandates local hiring for city-funded construction projects.  Initially set at 20 percent, the requirement increased to 25 percent in 2012, and 30 percent in 2013.  Between March 2011 and 2014, 182 projects, with a total value of more than $1 billion, were subject to the Local Hiring Policy for Construction.  The 22 projects subject to the 30 percent requirement well exceeded that goal, with an overall local hiring performance of 42 percent. Read more about Local Hire Policy for Construction...

San Francisco Bay Area Health Career Opportunity Program (HCOP)

http://coe.stanford.edu/sfbayhcop/

Funded by a three-year grant awarded by the U.S Department of Health and Human Services, the San Francisco Bay Area Health Career Opportunity Program (HCOP) aims to increase diversity in health professions in the San Francisco region.  To do so, HCOP supports programs and activities at four area anchor institutions—UC Berkeley School of Public Health, Stanford University School of Medicine, San Francisco State University, and Health Career Connection—designed to help disadvantaged students successfully enter health careers.  For example, the program supports the UC Berkeley HCOP Summer Research Program, which works to reduce barriers that prevent students from entering graduate school by funding 8-week summer internships, free GRE preparation, academic planning workshops, career and graduate education advising, and related activities.

Read more about San Francisco Bay Area Health Career Opportunity Program (HCOP)...

Good Jobs First

http://www.goodjobsfirst.org

Good Jobs First is a national advocacy organization that tracks corporate accountability legislation, including job quality standards (i.e., requirements that economic development subsidies lead to higher paying jobs), disclosure rules (i.e., requirements that the amount of the subsidies that each company receives be displayed in a form that is accessible to the public), and monitoring (i.e., requirements that part of the subsidy money be returned to the government if job employment and job quality commitments are not met). Read more about Good Jobs First...

Making Change at Walmart

http://makingchangeatwalmart.org

In Spring 2005, a coalition of labor, environmental, and religious groups, began its nationwide campaign to challenge the world's largest retailer to become a better employer, neighbor, and corporate citizen. The website contains a wide range of news, research reports, and other activist resources, both on the WalMart campaign and on ways to protect small businesses in local communities. Read more about Making Change at Walmart...

USAction

http://www.usaction.org

USAction and its affiliates in 24 states aim to pursue a broad agenda of social, racial and economic justice. Many USAction affiliates have been leaders in campaigns to promote state disclosure of corporate economic development subsidy payments. Read more about USAction...

United for a Fair Economy

http://www.faireconomy.org

United for a Fair Economy is a national, independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization with a focus on tax and budget-related issues. UFE's mission is to achieve greater equality and shared prosperity by closing the wealth gap. Read more about United for a Fair Economy...

Take Back Your Time

http://www.timeday.org/

Take Back Your Time is an initiative designed to challenge the trend of increasing work hours in America that has contributed to the fraying of family relations, health, and community wellbeing. The group aims to bring parental and personal leave laws in the United States up to the standards already in place in all other industrialized countries. Read more about Take Back Your Time...

State Fiscal Analysis Initiative, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

http://www.statefiscal.org

The State Fiscal Analysis Initiative, a project of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, provides research and technical assistance on fiscal policy and public programs that affect low- and moderate-income families and individuals at the state level. This work includes information and technical assistance to state non-profit organizations and government officials on issues ranging from state budget priorities and revenue structures to the design and implementation of low-income programs. Read more about State Fiscal Analysis Initiative, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities...

Sprawl-Busters

http://www.sprawl-busters.com

Sprawl-Busters is a private firm that provides consulting services to local community coalitions on how to design and implement successful campaigns against mega-stores and other undesirable large-scale developments. Read more about Sprawl-Busters...

Smart Growth America

http://www.smartgrowthamerica.org

Smart Growth America is a coalition of more than 100 advocacy organizations that have a stake in how metropolitan expansion affects our environment, quality of life and economic sustainability. Partners include national, state, and local groups working on behalf of the environment, historic preservation, social equity, land conservation, neighborhood redevelopment, farmland protection, labor, and city/town planning. Read more about Smart Growth America...

Partnership for Working Families

http://www.communitybenefits.org

Partnership for Working Families provides hands-on research and technical assistance on community benefit agreements to a growing and energized base of affiliates nationwide. The group currently includes 18 established or formative groups and is actively assisting a dozen more groups in community benefits coalitions and campaigns. Read more about Partnership for Working Families...

The Participatory Budgeting Project

http://www.participatorybudgeting.org

Launched in 2009, the Participatory Budgeting Project works with local officials, public organizations, and community groups in the U.S. and Canada to encourage community members to be active in public spending and revenue decisions through a democratic decision-making process.  The first successful PB process was in Porte Alegre, Brazil in 1989 and since then the process has spread to over 1,200 cities in Latin America, North America, Asia, Africa, and Europe. Read more about The Participatory Budgeting Project...

National Employment Law Project

http://www.nelp.org

The National Employment Law Project supports coalitions of community organizations, progressive unions, and legislative leaders working to address the problem of growing inequality. In partnership with national, state and local allies, the group promotes policies and programs that create living wage jobs, strengthen upward mobility, enforce worker rights, and help unemployed workers regain their economic footing through improved benefits and services. Read more about National Employment Law Project...

National Clearinghouse on the Direct Care Workforce

http://phinational.org/clearinghouse

The National Clearinghouse on the Direct Care Workforce is a national online library for people in search of solutions to the direct-care staffing crisis in long-term care. A project of the Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute (PHI), the Clearinghouse includes government and research reports, news, issue briefs, fact sheets, and other information on topics such as recruitment, career advancement supervision, workplace culture, and caregiving practices. Read more about National Clearinghouse on the Direct Care Workforce...

Mayors Innovation Project

http://www.mayorsinnovation.org

Launched in February 2005 by Madison, Wisconsin Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and the Madison-based Center on Wisconsin Strategy (COWS), the group has since held semiannual meetings that provide mayors and their staff a forum to learn from one another and develop urban policies that put a premium on “high road” strategies that promote living wage jobs and community wealth building. Presentations from past conferences are available on the group's website. Read more about Mayors Innovation Project...

Jobs with Justice

http://www.jwj.org

Jobs with Justice coalitions now operate in over 40 cities in 25 states in all regions of the country, made up of member organizations and thousands of individual activists. By building a base of diverse constituencies at the local level as well as providing training, coordination, and networking at the national level, Jobs with Justice aims to rebuild the infrastructure that gives communities a sense of their own power. Read more about Jobs with Justice...

Economic Analysis and Research Network

http://www.earncentral.org

The Economic Analysis and Research Network (EARN) links national, state, and regional multi-issue advocacy, policy, and research organizations. The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) acts as the national secretariat for EARN. Read more about Economic Analysis and Research Network...

Demos

http://www.demos.org

Founded in 1999, Demos is a multi-faceted research and advocacy organization that focuses on issues of democracy, the health of the public sector, and the creation of a public realm of debate and ideas. It also has an economic opportunity program that focuses on promoting new ideas in the areas of higher education, income and asset-based policy as means of building wealth among people of low and moderate incomes. Read more about Demos...

Business Alliance for Local Living Economies

http://www.livingeconomies.org

The Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE) is a network of socially responsible businesses, comprised of over 80 community networks throughout North America representing over 22,000 independent business members across the U.S. and Canada. Since 2001, BALLE business networks in large cities, small towns, rural areas, and regions of high unemployment have increased their communities' health and economic vitality through a focus on green jobs, sustainable industries, investing locally, and buying local first. Read more about Business Alliance for Local Living Economies...