Report cover "California's Tomorrow: Equity is the Superior Growth Model"

 

March 2012

By PolicyLink/PERE

Please note: reports dated earlier than June 2020 were published under our previous names: the USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE) or the USC Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration (CSII).

California is leading the nation’s demographic transformation. Six in ten Californians are now people of color. And by 2050, three-quarters of the state’s population will be people of color.

The Golden State’s tremendous diversity will be the key to its future economic success—if its leaders take action to increase fairness and opportunity. Equity is not only a moral imperative—it is also an economic one.

These are the key messages of the PolicyLink/PERE report, California’s Tomorrow: Equity is the Superior Growth Model.

The report was released at a legislative briefing hosted by PolicyLink and the California Legislative Tri-Caucus (including the Asian Pacific Islander (API) Legislative Caucus, California Latino Legislative Caucus, and Legislative Black Caucus) and attended by legislative staff and nearly 40 advocates from all parts of the state.

Assemblymembers Warren Furutani (Chair, API Legislative Caucus), Paul Fong, Steven Bradford, and José Solorio, and Senator Curren Price (Chair, Legislative Black Caucus), spoke in support of the policy priorities outlined in the report at the briefing and shared ideas about how their caucuses can implement them.

Community leaders Allen Fernandez-Smith (Urban Habitat), Tim Rainey (California Workforce Investment Board), and Iris Zuniga (Youth Policy Institute) also shared suggestions for how state policy can support and help scale up effective local strategies.

In the words of Housing California Executive Director Shamus Roller, California – and the nation – cannot afford to continue “coasting on the investments of the past.” Equity is the way forward.

Download

Report

Read our other publications by research area

    Immigrant Integration & Racial Justice

    Our work on immigrant integration and racial justice brings together three emphases: scholarship that draws on academic theory and rigorous research, data that provides information structured to highlight the process of immigrant integration over time, and engagement that seeks to create new dialogues with government, community organizers, business and civic leaders, immigrants and the voting public to advance immigrant integration and racial equity.

    Economic Inclusion & Climate Equity

    In the area of economic inclusion, we at ERI advance academic theory and practical applications linking economic growth, environmental quality, and civic health with bridging of racial and other gaps; produce accessible and actionable data and analysis through the data tools; and establish research partnerships to deepen and advance the dialogue, planning, and actions around racial equity, environmental justice, and the built environment.

    Social Movements & Governing Power

    ERI’s work in the area of governing power includes: conducting cross-disciplinary studies of today’s social movements, supporting learning and strategizing efforts to advance dialogues among organizers, funders, intermediaries, evaluators, and academics, and developing research-based social change frameworks and tools to inform—and be informed by—real-world, real-time efforts towards a vision of deep change.

    Publications Directory

    In 2020, the USC Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE) and the USC Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration (CSII) merged to form the USC Equity Research Institute (ERI).

    The full list of publications published under our previous and current names can be found in our publications directory.

    a view of the Los Angeles skyline