State and Region Embrace Inclusive Growth

Drive for Equity in the Economy Accelerates.

January 03, 2023
(L-R) Jaida Stancil, owner of Eat Em Upp Clothing, Gateway Community College CEO William T. Brown and Conn. Gov. Ned Lamont at the October 2022 “Meet the Bankers” event, sponsored by TCF-MIC, which brought 200+ BIPOC entrepreneurs and business owners together with local banks and entrepreneurial support organizations. Photo Donnell Durden/Aligning LLC

The Community Foundation believes that our community and social challenges cannot be addressed effectively unless our economy is growing and creating opportunity for all residents. The Foundation has been working to promote inclusive growth since 2018.

Today, institutions across the region are also embracing this vision for our community. Yale University and the City of New Haven have established the Center for Inclusive Growth. The Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce has made inclusion a central focus. And the state of Connecticut recently validated The Foundation's work to support BIPOC and women entrepreneurs with a $7.2 million, five-year grant, which together with $1.5 million from the City of New Haven and $50,000 from Liberty Bank is being used to build the New Haven Entrepreneurial Ecosystem (NHE3). To help job seekers access opportunity, The Foundation granted more than $1 million this summer to career pathways programs, building on its longstanding support of New Haven Promise and ConnCAT. Taken collectively, these and other efforts are working to create opportunity, promote inclusion and reduce inequities through inclusive growth.

This story appears in the No. 3, 2022 edition of Connections, The Community Foundation's newsletter. Subscribe to the newsletter here.