...Building Shared Prosperity

Through economic research and analysis, Working Partnerships USA seeks to transform the discussion about the New Economy, exposing income inequality and the middle-class squeeze.   Our work and the dialog it provokes form the foundation for new policy and business models that address the urgent economic challenges facing Silicon Valley's working families. The resulting local initiatives model innovative, replicable approaches to building an economy that generates broadly shared prosperity.

Current Projects

Green Economy and Green Communities
Working Partnerships USA's Green Economy and Green Communities Project aims to create quality green jobs, promote climate justice, and move toward greener and more equitable communities. We have assembled coalitions to pursue two parallel initiatives:

Wave One Project is a pilot neighborhood-scale energy efficiency retrofit program available to small businesses. This program is a result of a partnership between WPUSA; Wave One, a local environmental nonprofit; and the Santa Clara County Building & Construction Trades Council.

Green Careers Initiative (GCI) is developing innovative policies and programs to grow the green economy with an explicit focus on creating family-supporting green careers. Through job quality standards, funding mechanisms, and direct links between workforce development and economic development, we seek to ensure that green jobs are good jobs. To turn these ideas into reality, the GCI brings together a broad partnership of local governments, unions, employers, education and training providers, and community organizations.

In addition, our focus on green communities includes working to ensure that environmental and community health becomes a primary driver of the major land use planning efforts now underway in Silicon Valley. For more information, contact Louise Auerhahn.

Life in the Valley Economy: Silicon Valley Progress Report
Working Partnerships USA's annual economic report, Life in the Valley Economy (LIVE), evaluates the state of working families in Silicon Valley. The report offers fresh data on employment, wages, cost of living, housing, health care, transportation, financial security, education, environment and more, all through the lens of middle-class and low-income Santa Clara County residents.

The latest edition, Life in the Valley Economy 2008 (LIVE 2008), focuses on the long-term economic challenges posed by business-as-usual policies in Silicon Valley and throughout the country. For the first time, LIVE 2008 also profiles innovative local projects being pioneered by community leaders in Silicon Valley to tackle some of the pervasive economic and social challenges facing our region.

 


© 2008 Working Partnerships USA, All rights reserved.