Integration Initiative partners will come together for a “Learning Community” to mobilize and energize each other, and work toward eliminating barriers to economic opportunity for their residents.

As individuals, organizations and communities, we all have a part to play in improving outcomes for low-income people. Through The Integration Initiative (TII), leaders from the grassroots to the grass-tops are working to mobilize and energize each other and partners to eliminating barriers to economic opportunity for residents.

On March 22-23, partners from seven different communities: Albuquerque, Baltimore, Minneapolis, Newark, New Orleans, San Francisco and Seattle/King County will come together to learn and share challenges related to increasing employment in their respective communities. At Living Cities, we believe that these opportunities to learn and share will lead us on an accelerated path dramatically better results.

Experts from across the private, public and non-profit sector will join us to share the challenges they’ve faced and the lessons they’ve learned on a variety of topics. Vivienne Lee, Regional Director of Southern California from REDF, will highlight how her organization leverages the small business ecosystem to employ hard-to-serve populations. Innovators, like Bradford Frost, Director Detroit Program from Capital Impact Partners, will share how they are using multiple types of capital (grants, commercial loans, philanthropic loans, and public funds) to advance better outcomes for low-income people through workforce, small business, and neighborhood development. Nicole Isaac, Head of U.S. Public Policy from LinkedIn will illuminate how a private sector company is developing partnerships with community LinkedIn’s partnership with cities and using data to more powerfully grow local economies.

We look forward to lifting up the lessons we hear from these experts and share insights from TII over the coming weeks.