Living Cities has announced an expansion of its Closing the Gaps Network, its signature initiative with city governments to eliminate racial disparities in income and wealth. As part of the Network, twenty-one cities across the United States have made a commitment to transform government policies, practices, and operations to create economic activity that benefits all residents of their cities.
The Closing the Gaps Network is supported by Living Cities’ members, which are some of the world’s largest foundations and financial institutions. The Citi Foundation and Wells Fargo are founding supporters of the Network.
“Without a focus on equitable and inclusive growth for all, cities will never be able to reach their full economic potential,” said Brandee McHale, President of the Citi Foundation and Head of Citi Community Investing and Development. “The Closing the Gaps Network is a vanguard group of cities that are actively enhancing the effectiveness of public resources and testing new approaches to sustainable growth. The Citi Foundation proudly supports this collaborative initiative and looks forward to seeing the transformative work of this expanded network of community leaders.”
“Kansas City is proud to be part of the Closing the Gaps Network and continuing our relationship with Living Cities,” said Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas. “My administration remains committed to ensuring all Kansas City residents can access services and resources they need to thrive, and to do that we will continue working to remove the institutional barriers that continue to exist for so many in our communities. Kansas City government values our partnership with Living Cities, which will continue to help advance this vital work.”
“Kansas City is well positioned to make an impact in the racial wealth gap because of our rich legacy of both entrepreneurship and community leadership,” said City Manager Brian Platt. “We look forward to the opportunity to share our successes with the Closing the Gaps Network, and will continue to move forward in the face of historical wrongs.”
Closing the Gaps Network participants share a vision for what a racially equitable, just, and prosperous society can look like. They have previously worked on initiatives focused on closing racial income and wealth gaps such as inclusive procurement, guaranteed income payments and sales taxes that support inclusive economic development. As members of the Network, they have access to cross-city learning opportunities as well as technical assistance providers, facilitators, resources, and connections to other networks of practitioners working to create equitable impact.
“As we embark on a community centered and led process to define and develop a racial equity lens to use for all our city decisions, half the battle is moving at the speed of trust to empower community in the process and half the battle is ensuring that we as elected leaders and a city team lean into our own education and capacity building to be able to apply a racial equity lens,” said Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg.
“The City of Sacramento currently is implementing its strategic Race and Gender Equity Action Plan focused on recruiting and retaining a workforce that is reflective of city residents,” said Sacramento City Manager Howard Chan. “As a member of the Closing the Gaps Network, we are excited to actively engage in cross-city opportunities to learn best and emerging practices that will support our department equity teams and the sustained success of our action plan.”
In this next phase, members of the Network will design equitable strategies to support the closing of income and wealth gaps in their cities. This will include establishing interventions that support the increase of homeownership rates among people of color, as well as entrepreneurship rates.
The twenty-one cities in the network include:
- Albuquerque
- Atlanta
- Austin
- Charleston, S.C.
- Dallas
- El Paso, Tex.
- Houston
- Kansas City, Mo.
- Long Beach, Calif.
- Louisville, Ky.
- Memphis
- Milwaukee
- Minneapolis
- Nashville
- New Haven, Conn.
- Philadelphia
- Providence, R.I.
- Rochester, NY
- Sacramento
- St. Paul, MN
- Washington, D.C.
“The equitable strategies that the Closing the Gaps Network will implement have been shown to create billions of dollars in economic activity for city and regional economies,” said Joe Scantlebury, Living Cities President and CEO. “By applying a racial equity analysis to how their city operates across private, philanthropic and public sectors, the Closing the Gaps members will provide tangible benefits for residents of color while also improving economic opportunities for all.”
“It’s clear that our society is not on an equitable or sustainable path to prosperity, and we’re grateful to be a part of this growing movement to help cities dismantle systematic barriers to wealth building for people of color,” said Robyn Luhning, Interim Head of Social Impact and Sustainability at Wells Fargo. “The Closing the Gaps Network has played a vital role in convening stakeholders to examine and tackle the root causes of issues such as the racial homeownership gap, and we look forward to equipping even more city leaders with tools and interventions that can make a real difference in opening up economic opportunity.”
About Living Cities
Founded in 1991, Living Cities is a collaborative of the world's largest foundations and financial institutions. Living Cities fosters transformational relationships across sectors to connect those who are willing to do the hard work of closing racial income and wealth gaps. The organization partners with cross-sector leaders in cities across the country to imagine and create an America in which all people are economically secure, building wealth and living abundant, dignified, and connected lives. To learn more about Living Cities and its member institutions, visit www.livingcities.org.
About the Closing the Gaps Network
A ten-year initiative launched in October 2020 to bring together leaders from cities across the country who are committed to imagining what an anti-racist society might look like, and to playing an important role in closing racial income and wealth gaps through the transformation of local policies, practices, and operations.
Contact: Jeff Raderstrong, [email protected], 646-442-3236