Education, housing, healthcare, and transportation.
These are the four top challenges the Alliance for Business Leadership attempted to solve during last Monday’s Leader Lab. The conference was the first in a series of convenings of progressive civic and business leaders set on finding solutions to the key issues effecting cities throughout Massachusetts. High Meadows Institute staff and a board member participated in the brainstorming sessions on all four challenges and found the following recurring themes emerged from the discussions.
- Increasing business participation in tackling these challenges is crucial. Governments and communities cannot do it alone.
- Business would benefit financially from improvements on these social issues. A healthier, safer workforce means businesses can be more productive and innovative.
- All players are concerned about the economy. Whether it’s financial insecurity, income inequality, or the lack of social mobility, economic concerns are top of mind for all.
- Current public-private partnerships models are generally missing the community component. Without including the voice of the communities impacted by these projects, public-private partnerships will likely continue to be ineffective at increasing economic prosperity.
The conference closed with representatives of local and state government pleading with business to be a more persuasive voice for increased economic development. By focusing on education, health and infrastructure, an alliance between business, government and communities is what will create more economic growth for all.