The Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously at its Tuesday meeting to allocate $1.three million for the subsequent phase of the Stanislaus 2030 project.
The county will negotiate a 3-year term with the Stanislaus Neighborhood Foundation to serve as the lead agency for the 2030 project, which appears to bolster financial improvement in the area.
Of the $1.three million, $700,000 will establish the initial system help and the remaining $600,000 will fund the formation and operations of the Stanislaus Intermediary Organization.
“We spent the much better portion of a year analyzing our regional economy and attempting to brainstorm with the very best minds we could, inside the neighborhood as properly as outdoors, to position ourselves for a a lot more robust and equitable economy for future generations,” mentioned Stanislaus County CEO Jody Hayes. “These are extended-term considerations. They may possibly have some brief-term wins, but we’re extremely, extremely focused on extended-term investment and extended-term strategic financial influence right here in Stanislaus County.”
Amanda Hughes, the chief tactic officer at the Stanislaus Neighborhood Foundation, will be the point individual for foundation’s efforts.
“We are seriously encouraged by the Board of Supervisors’ help, in partnership with the Stanislaus Neighborhood Foundation, to seriously generate the situations needed for collaboration at the population level,” mentioned Marian Kaanan, CEO of the Stanislaus Neighborhood Foundation. “To do that, we require a quarterback and (Amanda) is uniquely certified to do this form of operate.”
In Could of 2021, the Board authorized a prioritized list of spending tactics for the $107 million it received in American Rescue Program Act (ARPA) funds. Of that $107 million, $30 million was earmarked for financial improvement and job creation.
According to the Stanislaus 2030 Investment Blueprint, a 55-web page deep dive into county economics prepared by diverse regional workgroups with advisors from the Brookings Institution, a lot more than half of the county’s population — about 214,000 persons — struggle to make ends meet.
Only about 13 % of jobs in the Stanislaus can be classified as “good” jobs, when one more 22 % are regarded “promising.” The remaining 65 % — practically two of each and every 3 jobs — fail to meet the requirements for making certain self-sufficiency, the report states.
And this straight impacts youngsters in the county.
“We have about 145,000 youngsters in Stanislaus County and 90,000 are increasing up in struggling households,” Hayes mentioned for the duration of Tuesday’s meeting. “But the quantity that seriously popped out for us was 85 % of these youngsters have at least one particular adult functioning in the residence. So, we’re not speaking about struggling households exactly where persons are not functioning, we’re speaking about functioning households and the struggles they’re facing in today’s economy.”
To halve the quantity of youngsters in struggling situations, the area will require to generate 40,000 a lot more “good” jobs than presently exist.
Up to $200,000 of the funds authorized Tuesday will be utilized for youngster-care applications, enabling adults who seek additional job instruction the capacity to afford youngster-care solutions.
“In addition to workforce instruction, we need to spend particular interest to non-instruction barriers to enter the workforce and instruction applications,” Hughes told the board Tuesday. “Through our operate with Stanislaus 2030, and this is not a massive shocker, youngster care is a main barrier for us. Kid care is so fundamentally significant for financial prosperity.”
Hughes pointed out that in order to meet existing workforce demands, the county wants 36,000 a lot more youngster care slots than presently exist — pre-COVID numbers that are most likely larger now, some 3 years soon after the get started of the pandemic.