The Inland Empire, which includes all of Riverside and San Bernardino counties, is home to 4.5 million residents and has been built on decades of rapid population growth, job growth, and racial diversification. These trends present both challenges and opportunities for inclusive upward mobility, with housing, transportation, and economic development as key concerns. Additionally, the economic and social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic have exacerbated the inequities historically disenfranchised communities in our region face. 

We see these challenges as opportunities for our region to recover and build back with equity and inclusion as our core values. To aid in setting this agenda for the region, we are conveying a Policy Summit specifically on inclusive and sustainable economic development. This summit ties into both regional work already underway (IERS SCAG), and efforts to build back better at the state and federal levels. Details of this summit are below:

We are structuring the summit as a series of brainstorming sessions, with key deliverables that include:

• raising awareness and providing coherence to various strategic initiatives in the region,
• produce a document on shared values across initiatives and sectors
• introduce frameworks and standardized indicators to measure economic mobility, inclusion, sustainability, and equity

We are looking for your best thoughts on advancing inclusion, sustainability, and racial equity with respect to the following topics:

• Civic Infrastructure
• Economic Development
• Education Equity
• Health Equity
• Housing and Community Development
• Transportation and Environment

Date: Wednesday, March 31, 2021 at 8 am (PST)

*Zoom Link and Agenda to be sent via email prior to event