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Prosperity Partnership E-Newsletter
Prosperity Partnership Luncheon Attendance Nears 700! Attendance for the November 7 Prosperity Partnership celebration and roll-out lunch is nearing 700 and counting. Thursday is the final day to sign up, so be sure to reserve your spot at www.prosperitypartnership.org. We have a tremendous lineup of leadership speaking at the event, including our Prosperity Partnership co-chairs, and keynote speaker Governor Christine Gregoire. The
Prosperity Partnership is truly grateful to BNSF Railway, Boeing,
Microsoft, Puget Sound Energy, Port of Seattle and Port of Tacoma for
their support of this great event.
Outreach and inclusion essential to regional economic strategy Embracing an inclusive approach for the Prosperity Partnership is good for business. There are 43,500 minority owned firms in Washington State, generating $11.5 billion in sales every year. By working together, we can be more effective at meeting the unique needs of our clusters and improving the regional economic foundations common to our regional partners. To that end, the Puget Sound Regional council hired the minority-owned public affairs firm G3 and Associates (www.G3-Associates.com) to develop an outreach program in the four-county area. This program has worked to not only inform people about the Prosperity Partnership but also to find ways to make it possible for more people to actively participate. This participation has resulted in increased minority involvement in our cluster working groups, partnership roundtable, and in shaping the overall structure of the project. Working in coordination with King County’s Office of Business Relations and Economic Development, Prosperity Partnership has received with broad support. We have forged coalitions with the Asian Pacific Directors Coalition, Chinese Chamber of Commerce, Filipino Chamber of Commerce, First African Methodist Episcopal Church, Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Minority Executive Directors Association, Black Collective of Tacoma, Tabor 100, Tulalip Tribes, USA-Philippines International Trade Conference, the Urban Enterprise Center, African American Partners for Prosperity, the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle and many others. But inclusion cannot be done solely to tap the economic or political strengths of our communities of color. Included in the strategy are initiatives to nurture and support new and small businesses and foster increased connectivity for and with businesses of color. We’re also encouraging support of ‘buy local’ efforts and programs that work with small, minority and woman-owned businesses. Prosperity Partnership also advocates for even deeper change in conditions that effect minority communities. We must:
We also want to collaborate with successful community-based groups on strategies that better prepare all young people for academic and economic success. We have made sure that we are communicating to broad audiences, and that the language we use always speak of outreach and inclusion in both our written materials and spoken word. Now
that we have formed a regional economic strategy, we recognize there is
still much to be done and our outreach to communities of color will
continue throughout the life of this project. For more information or
to give us your thoughts, please call George Griffin, G3&
Associates at 206.579.5028 |
