During the last recession, corporations received massive bailouts while continuing with risky practices that undermined the strength of the economy, making us unprepared for the current shock from COVID-19. Congress has started down this path once again, creating a half trillion-dollar fund to bail out corporations while millions of people are out of work. 

While initial legislative survival packages included modest stimulus checks and unemployment benefits to individuals, economists and struggling people alike have pointed out the immediate need to get more cash into people’s hands to stave off the crisis. Unless we put people first, the relief and recovery packages coming from Congress will only further concentrate wealth at the top and deepen inequities. In order to put people first, policymakers must: 

• Support essential frontline workers.
• Guarantee incomes.
• Freeze costs and protect people from losses.
• Prioritize people over corporations.

As the current public health and economic crisis continues to impact people around the world, we now know that across the United States, people of color are bearing the brunt of the effects of COVID-19.  Ensuring all people live in a society where they can participate, prosper, and reach their full potential requires recognizing that the path to getting there is different for different groups. Intentional investments in the 100 million economically insecure people in the United States, particularly for those who are people of color, will have benefits that cascade out, improving the lives of all struggling people as well as regional economies and the nation as a whole. We cannot simply tinker around the edges of systems that were never intended to serve all people. In order to center racial equity, policymakers must: 

• Collect and use disaggregated data.
• Plan for the most vulnerable.
• Implement race-conscious approaches to counter persistent racial inequities.

Rent cancellation matches the scope of the economic catastrophe ordinary households face. It is needed to ensure people can stay in their homes after eviction moratoriums end. Universal rent cancellation immediately and effectively reaches a huge swath of people, including those especially at risk of homelessness: people who are informally employed; lack a bank account or permanent address; or are undocumented. Download this policy summary of what should go into policy to cancel rents and mortgages and reclaim our homes.

In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, a broad moratorium on all evictions, foreclosures, and sweeps of homeless encampments is needed to protect public health. Moratoriums preserve access to shelter and ensure people are not displaced, slowing infections. No one should lose their home in these life-threatening conditions. Download this two-page policy summary of what should go into a strong moratorium on all evictions, foreclosures, and sweeps.

This is the second in a series of briefs that describe the changes, insights, and lessons when arts and cultural strategies are deployed in service of comprehensive community development and planning. During ArtPlace America's Community Development Investments initiative, six participating organizations which had not previously focused on the arts developed creative placemaking projects and cultural strategies that could help them more effectively achieve their missions. PolicyLink conducted a research and documentation project to measure the progress, immediate outcomes, and impacts of those projects. This brief examines how these organizations grew and changed internally in order to incorporate arts and culture into their overall direction and day-to-day practices.  

Explore more about our research and documentation project and view the first brief and other briefs as they are released at communitydevelopment.art.

As wages have stagnated for the majority of workers in the U.S. and inequality has skyrocketed, racial inequity has grown. In Biloxi, Mississippi, these inequities are deep, leaving many Black and Latinx households facing racial and geographic barriers to economic opportunity. The coastal community of East Biloxi has the potential to address some of these inequities through investment in the federal Opportunity Zone program. However, this will only happen if there is an intentional focus on lifting up the most vulnerable communities. Download the brief to learn more about the federal Opportunity Zone program and how it can be leveraged to benefit low-income residents and people of color.  

New Mexican families rely on steady paychecks for groceries, childcare, transportation, and housing costs — spending that goes back to the community. So when employers refuse to pay workers their earned wages, everyone suffers. The New Mexico Worker Organizing Collaborative (NMWOC) works to combat these employer thefts to ensure that workers have a fair shot at economic security. In partnership with NMWOC, the National Equity Atlas co-produced a fact sheet that leverages local and National Equity Atlas data to illuminate those who are disproportionately vulnerable to employer theft and the need for the state to better investigate and enforce wage theft claims. This community data tool will support NMWOC in their advocacy to protect workers and take back lost wages. Download Fair Labor Practices Benefit All New Mexicans.

The issue highlights how community development that infuses arts and cultural strategies helps residents reclaim community identity, strengthen cultural resilience, and build power—all key components of achieving equitable community development outcomes. It also explores changes and practices to the field of creative placemaking and provides new deep dives, perspectives, and analysis on the implications of this work for broad equitable development goals. Read the full issue here.

The issue features research and documentation from ArtPlace America’s Community Development Investments (CDI) program. The CDI program was a significant three-year investment of resources and technical assistance in six community development organizations who had not previously worked with the arts and culture sector. These investments have yielded valuable insights and lessons for a wide range of fields of practice, from affordable housing development to parks stewardship, from the social practice of art to youth development, from community organizing to public health. With new tools and ways of thinking, imagining, and acting, they have helped residents own and express the identity of their communities, build cultural resilience, and change the ways in which neighborhood planning is carried out.

Read more about the issue on the National Endowment for the Arts’s Art Works Blog or watch video from a release event held at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Advancing Frontline Employees of Color: Innovating for Competitive Advantage in America's Frontline Workforce is a resource and call to action for employers to support the advancement of frontline employees of color. The information in the report can also be a useful tool for those advocating for opportunity for all. The report reveals how companies that are successful in advancing racial equity go beyond traditional diversity and inclusion efforts by shifting their management and HR practices and transforming their company cultures. These companies implement evidence-based practices and policies that fall under three strategic opportunity areas: 1) building internal capacity for an inclusive, understanding, and adaptive culture; 2) strengthening management and HR systems, policies, and practices; and 3) intentionally investing in the development of frontline employees of color.

Download Advancing Frontline Employees of Color Executive Summary