Salinas Inclusive Economic Development Initiative (SIEDI) – Institute for Social Transformation

The Institute for Social Transformation received a $650,000 grant from The James Irvine Foundation to conduct community-engaged research and community capacity-building work in the city of Salinas, located about 40 miles southeast of UC Santa Cruz. The institute has partnered with the Salinas Inclusive Economic Development Initiative (SIEDI), a collaboration of nine community organizations, in an effort to shift the region’s economic landscape to reduce inequality and improve financial stability and quality of life for local families.

This work has included the following elements:

A planning process to set specific indicators that can be used to track progress on a neighborhood, city, and regional scale.
Reports around key indicators for the Monterey Bay region
An interactive “power mapping” tool to help community organizations visualize who has power over economic development decisions in the region and which people and groups to engage with in order to influence those processes.
Developing an interactive “story map” visualization that will share the goals and work of each organization and SIEDI as a whole.

This project is an application of the Solidarity Economics framework.

Learn more:

Grant funding will support university-community partnership on inclusive economic development in neighboring city of Salinas

Resources

Story map: Visit story.siedi.org

Reports related to this project:

Chris Benner and Manuel Pastor were the keynote speakers at the Monterey Bay Economic Partnership’s (MBEP) 8th Annual State of the Region on October 14, 2022, which brought together a cross-sector gathering of public, private and civic leaders to discuss some of the biggest challenges facing the region, from broadband infrastructure and the digital divide to affordable housing and inclusive economic recovery and development.