Over the last year, Congress has passed a new wave of federal programs—including the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Inflation Reduction Act, and the CHIPS and Science Act—that cumulatively provide a recently unprecedented level of new funding for infrastructure, technology and manufacturing, and clean energy. Many have highlighted that this is a generational opportunity to more equitably grow local economies not only through new jobs and infrastructure, but also through the investments in workforce development and community benefit required by these plans. For example, the Commerce Department announced that all manufacturers receiving CHIPS subsidies must guarantee child care for workers building or operating new semiconductor foundries, and the federal government has made it a goal for 40% of new climate and environmental investments to flow to historically marginalized communities through the Justice40 Initiative.

From local community meeting rooms to corporate board rooms, there is a flurry of conversation about this influx of investment as well as collective worry and uncertainty regarding exactly how these dollars might flow. Despite intentions for this funding to address long-standing inequities and ensure community benefit, communities that are historically excluded from existing civic planning processes are unlikely to reap the benefits of this opportunity under a business as usual approach. As the Sierra Health Foundation highlights, “The size of these investments and timelines for their deployment have placed intense political and social pressure on economic development organizations to quickly ramp up planning activities…History has shown that quick economic development results in limited and inequitable participation.”

However, intentionally inclusive collaborative infrastructure can help mitigate these effects. From Roosevelt’s New Deal to Obama’s American Recovery Act to recent federal COVID-19 relief, communities with strong cross-sector relationships and inclusive civic participation have been able to successfully align on shared priorities and influence the allocation of resources. For example, the city of Milwaukee’s COVID-19 Civic Response Team was able to effectively use existing civic “architecture”—including the Greater Milwaukee Foundation’s commitment to racial equity and community leadership, an existing cradle to career initiative, and data and project management capacity from the United Way—to meet critical urgent needs at the onset of the pandemic while continuing to make progress toward longer-term systems change.

Read the full article about cross-sector investments by Chris Carlson Erin Sullivan and John Harper at FSG.