As American cities work to rebuild more inclusive and resilient economies, urban manufacturing can provide an anchor for equitable community development. Manufacturing creates quality jobs that foster economic well-being by providing living-wage incomes and opportunities for career mobility. The challenge, however, is making sure that people of color are able to connect to opportunities in the manufacturing sector across a continuum of positions from entry-level jobs to ownership opportunities. Policymakers and urban manufacturing practitioners must reengineer policy and practice for workforce and industrial development to leverage the sector as a tool for racial and economic equity in our cities.
Negotiations over historic levels of public investment in the infrastructure bill have created openings to inform federal policy on urban manufacturing. UMA’s recent federal policy agenda, Centering Federal Industrial Policy in Racial Justice & Community Development, outlines how charting new federal frameworks for industrial and workforce policy can enable urban manufacturers to scale innovative strategies for inclusive workforce and community development. In this webinar, NextCity hosted a conversation about how federal policy can support urban manufacturing and equitable workforce development. The event was supported by the Surdna Foundation.
The panel discussion featured Livia Lam, Senior Vice President of Federal Relations at Strategies 360; Miquela Craytor, Executive Director of the Manufacturing and Industrial Innovation Council at New York City’s Department of Small Business Services; and Stephen Tucker, inaugural President & CEO of Northland Workforce Training Center in Buffalo, New York. Mekaelia Davis, Program Director of the Inclusive Economies program at the Surdna Foundation, and Katy Stanton, Programming and Operations Director of Urban Manufacturing Alliance, offered opening remarks. NextCity contributor Emily Nonko moderated the discussion.