A Better Recovery Demands a Fresh Approach
A Message from our Chief Executive Officer & Board Chair
Friends, partners, and community:
We begin the new program year (July 1, 2021 – June 30, 2022) focused on recovery. Our region is seeing promising trends, from lower infection rates to positive economic indicators. Despite the beginnings of recovery, we are seeing widening economic disparities for women and people of color. This is a critical time for our region to work together around a shared vision of support and inclusion.
At the federal level, the most recent round of pandemic relief legislation has brought much-needed resources to our programs focused on job placement and job quality, positioning our partners to aid in the recovery effort. Locally, the City of Seattle and King County have made important commitments to investing in equitable economic recovery. As residents, stakeholders, and workforce leaders, we must ensure our words are backed by action.
Whether local or national, we hope to see future legislation address job quality as a critical component of making economic recovery work for everyone. All too often our skills-based policies are too broad to be useful in making targeted efforts to improve workforce equity. By moving beyond an exclusive focus on skills, stakeholders and policymakers can embrace a multi-system approach that focuses on BIPOC communities most at risk. Through collective action, workforce programs and policy can better align with work on homelessness, economic revitalization, and other interlinking challenges affecting our communities.
In the coming year we will continue to put our Regional Strategic Plan into practice, exercising our direct power and influence in partnership with our community. The plan calls for the WDC, along with partners across the continuum of service delivery, to invest in systemic changes to dismantle racialized practices that historically result in inequitable economic outcomes for BIPOC workers, immigrants, and refugees. As our system addresses the immediate and continuing impacts of the pandemic and economic recovery, we are also taking the long view, remembering the inequitable recovery from the last recession and pledging to do better. As our region recovers, we need to prioritize the inclusion of BIPOC workers and other economically marginalized communities; and the dismantling of structural and systemic racism across our institutions, such that all workers regardless of race or ethnicity have equitable access to high quality jobs and share in the region’s economic prosperity.
Behind the scenes, governance changes set the stage for a more responsive board, with new bylaws to better support capacity for both strategic and fiscal responsibilities. In June, the WDC Board elected a new leadership team: Angela Dunleavy, Princess Ayers-Stewart, and Katie Garrow will serve as Board Chair, Vice Chair, and Secretary, respectively. All three bring a wealth of experience and a commitment to racial equity that show in their work and on the WDC Board.
Meeting the urgent needs of the community will be a challenge, but the WDC looks forward to the opportunity. The dedication of our board, staff, and partners makes it easy to be confident.
Yours in partnership—
Marie Kurose
Chief Executive Officer
Angela Dunleavy
Board Chair