California Forward
CA FWD’s commitment to creating inclusive and sustainable growth is driven by supporting interrelated policy action areas that help all Californians prosper. From housing for all, to ecosystems and climate resiliency, these diverse areas are inextricably linked.
The policy priorities listed below are advanced in the coming year with the strength of our collaborative approach, including the California Stewardship Network, the California Economic Summit network and work groups, and our Young Leaders Advisory Council — and we measure our progress with the California Dream Index.
To stay up-to-date on the Action Areas below and receive our weekly CA FWD Newsletter, sign up today!
For 2023, California Forward has identified the following priority actions.
Housing for All
Housing has become the primary obstacle to livability in almost every region. High costs are pushing millions of people below the poverty line and many into homelessness. Compounding existing housing challenges, longer commutes negatively impact air quality and worker’s health, while more and more employers struggle to attract and retain skilled workers.
California Forward, together with partners, has risen to this challenge with ambitious policy initiatives and strategic alliances with triple-bottom-line economic development organizations.
“The triple bottom line for housing — equity, environment, economics — requires attainable homeownership for California’s working families.”
-Jennifer Hernandez, CA FWD Leadership Council
Building wealth through housing entrepreneurship and supporting small BIPOC developers
Support and strengthen local capacity to maximize participation in middle density development
Advocate for state-level solutions and legislation that enables middle density development
Advance the creation of a BIPOC developer fund to add capacity and reduce barriers for small-scale developers of color
NEWS & INSIGHTS
CA FWD report details the dilemma resulting in much less new housing in L.A. County’s Gateway Cities
The Chavez Foundation includes a team leading efforts to build housing in four western states
Dana Butow works to bring the public into conversations about solutions to homelessness in the rural county
The California Dream for All program would allow the state to invest alongside first-time homebuyers so that they could afford to purchase a home in California
Ecosystems & Climate Resiliency
Water and land are the most foundational and critical resources on the planet. Consecutive years of drought, flooding, and destructive wildfires demonstrate the varied impacts of climate change and the urgent need for deliberate, impactful action.
Cultivating energy strategies that lead California towards an inclusive, net zero economy
CA FWD is committed to fostering and supporting regions-up collaboration and decision-making on energy transition policies focused on the following priorities that arose from our energy call to action and input from stakeholders who attended the 2022 California Economic Summit:
We Must Act Urgently & Carefully: California must more rapidly plan, permit and build new energy generation and transmission projects, while strategically calibrating its actions to ensure the energy system it creates is sustainable, reliable, affordable and equitable.
We Must Increase Renewable Energy Production & Be Technology Agnostic: California needs an energy approach that embraces the full range of carbon-free sources of energy and reinvests in our domestic manufacturing sector to support their deployment.
We Must Address Baseload Energy Today & For the Future: California needs a reliable grid, which will require a combination of dramatically increasing battery/long-duration energy storage systems, accelerating the deployment of geothermal power, reconsidering nuclear energy and/or a robust regional transmission grid.
We Must Invest in Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) & Non-Carbon Energies: An array of carbon capture technologies will help us mitigate emissions from the imperfect-but-necessary energies/industries we still need today as we work to develop a diverse portfolio of zero-carbon energy sources for the future.
We Must Show Leadership & Share the Decision-Making: State policymakers and regulators have to make some hard choices and trade-offs and must engage regional collaboratives and community-driven planning to equitably drive this change.
Fostering a more equitable, prosperous and climate-resilient future
Collaborate across action areas to embed climate and equity as fundamental elements of each decision we make about economic systems like land use, housing, transportation, career pathways, natural resource management and community investment
Promote and raise awareness of collaboration across climate and economic development stakeholders and across state and federal economic and climate programs
Meeting climate goals by reducing wildfire risk and supporting rural communities
Establish an evidence-driven basis for ensuring California invests in wildfire and forest resilience solutions that match the size and scale of the crisis
Support the establishment and implementation of a statewide biomass utilization strategy to advance forest health and scale up a bio-economy
Broaden outreach and coalition building across diverse communities, sectors and lands to advance solutions, including viable bio-based and wood products industries
NEWS & INSIGHTS
Hidden Harvest creates a win-win for low-income communities and farmworkers paid to harvest unwanted crops
New California Economic Summit work group aims to build regional resilience to climate impacts
With an estimated 4.5 million homes near wildfire danger zones, solutions that take on the crisis are growing more critical
Walking alongside farmworkers reminded of their shared dreams and hope for a better future
Thriving Economies
By bringing government, business, and civic leaders together to identify regional priorities, share innovations and align with state investments and other policies we can target the root causes of economic insecurity and unsustainable resource management. The result of this unified effort will be the establishment of a functioning system of “California Capitalism” that will be a model for the rest of the nation and the world.
Supporting California’s unique demographics through inter-regional information sharing and advocacy
Strengthen and support a regions-based Community of Practice to share learnings and generate promising practices
Encourage state alignment of other resources and programs towards CERF regions to support regional inclusive economic strategy implementation
Create opportunities and support for learning and alignment within regions
Create spaces for philanthropic engagement and support
Ensuring California’s creative communities and cultural heritage thrive
Strengthen a creative workforce and industry grounded in equity
Prioritize the creative economy as a leading industry in California
Integrate arts and culture into local community and economic development strategies
Develop policies to support creative small businesses and self-employed arts workers
Building a supportive ecosystem for the state’s entrepreneurs and small business owners
Support a small business ecosystem grounded in equity by:
Identify barriers to equitable small business participation in the state’s economy and leverage state policy and regional practice to foster greater inclusion
Strengthening California’s manufacturing ecosystem and regional economies through a unified, strategic approach
Following a highly productive associated event at the 2022 California Economic Summit, the Advancing Manufacturing work group has been newly relaunched to actively promote the policy priorities below in the year ahead.
Form a statewide Manufacturing Council to advise state leaders and coordinate manufacturing-related activities to maximize state and federal funding opportunities
Elevate the role of manufacturing in meeting the state’s decarbonization and economic development goals
Identify specific needs to best position the state’s manufacturing sector for growth (e.g., regulatory reform, funding, education and public awareness, workforce development and DEI goals, data/research)
NEWS & INSIGHTS
A critical conversation about the six key elements to maintaining a manufacturing economy is taking place around the state
Asociación de Emprendedor@s guides business owners through permitting and other hurdles
Addressing the barriers for BIPOC entrepreneurs made more challenging by lack of local data
Summit workgroup aims to reframe lending to support more California small businesses owned by people of color
Education Cradle to Career
California’s learning ecosystem must prepare workers to earn a livable wage.
While educational institutions have the largest role to play, an effective lifelong learning ecosystem requires alignment of strategies and tactics among multiple institutions – from early childhood development and preschool until retirement. To be successful, this approach requires the involvement of stakeholders, political leaders, faith leaders, civic leaders and others. An explicit focus on equity requires identification and dismantling of all obstacles to opportunity.
Supporting equitable economic mobility through a more cohesive education and workforce system
Advocate for a systems approach to education and workforce development that emphasizes collaboration over competition
Raise awareness of affordable, quality early childhood care and education as an equity and workforce issue and support efforts to reduce barriers to access
NEWS & INSIGHTS
New measurement shows significant differences in who holds higher wage jobs across demographics and regions
A look at new efforts to better align the state’s lifelong learning system
Community engagement leader at Southern California Edison shares how her background helped her build the program
Initiative to help students navigate the higher education and support programs while connecting to well-paying jobs
Connecting California
1 in 8 homes in California still lacks access to high-speed broadband through a computing device or smartphone. The public health pandemic has displayed and even added to the current digital divide, disproportionately affecting our most vulnerable communities.
CA FWD believes that investments in infrastructure are vital to providing the access our communities need to stay connected and to thrive.
Bridging the Digital Divide
Advocate for the state and federal governments’ historic broadband investments, including SB 156, to be implemented swiftly, efficiently and equitably across California
Ensure that the needs and priorities of the regions, as advanced by the Regional Broadband Consortia and other partners, are fully reflected in state digital equity planning processes
“To help close the digital divide that exists in communities across California, the Governor announced at the 2019 California Economic Summit in Fresno that he will convene stakeholders, the private sector, education institutions, and government agencies with a goal of developing an inclusive “Broadband for All” plan for the state.”
NEWS & INSIGHTS
Although broadband access has expanded significant gaps persist across all regions
California created an online portal and series of virtual roundtables to provide information on efforts to expand broadband access
Salinas Valley blueprint aims to create the housing and infrastructure needed for successful neighborhoods
Recent state and federal investments will require an unprecedented level of cooperation in California