Join us for a virtual event where we will explore the findings from a recent survey of minority businesses in metro Detroit. We will highlight the experiences of minority business owners in accessing needed capital and financing both before and during the pandemic. We will also examine how these small and micro businesses fared during the pandemic and their near-term outlook.

We are at the beginning of a dramatic shift in the auto industry—a transformation that will impact manufacturers, their workforce, and the Detroit region. During this one-hour virtual conversation, we will discuss the transformative changes ahead, the driving forces behind them, their economic implications, and the challenges and opportunities they offer for workers.

This virtual panel will bring together experts to discuss learning loss for students during the pandemic, as well as the potential impacts of disruption on future academic achievement and economic opportunity. As part of the Project Hometown series, this panel will enrich our understanding of the strategies implemented to mitigate or pre-empt the negative impacts on students and their future educational and economic opportunities.

Like many large cities, Detroit has experienced reduced economic activity during the Covid-19 pandemic. The pandemic has also changed how and where people work, thus lowering tax collection. Despite the challenges ahead, there is some good fiscal news for Detroit. Under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, Detroit is slated to receive more than $800 million in federal revenues. In this Project Hometown cyan-event, we will explore the revenue and spending challenges facing Detroit and discuss how the federal revenues could be spent to bolster the city.

This virtual event will focus on the important role summer jobs can play for Chicago’s South and West side youth as vaccination rates rise and the pandemic shows signs of abating. Government, industry, community development and research leaders will highlight the pandemic’s impact on youth, including the ramifications of school closures, and strategies to support teens as the nation looks to recover. The panelists will discuss how summer jobs can benefit the economic prospects for youth, particularly those from Chicago’s Black and Latinx communities, and ways in which employers, non-profits, mentors, and volunteers can work together to grow opportunities for summer jobs and the valuable experiences they provide.

This virtual event will bring together business leaders, community organizations, and researchers to discuss the availability of finance and capital to predominantly Black-owned businesses in Detroit. The pandemic is contributing to high failure rates across small businesses in the city, and public programs such as PPP have had difficulty reaching many of these firms. The panel will discuss both internal and external barriers that these firms face in accessing capital. Why do these firms often lack traditional banking relationships? What type of capital are they looking for? What programs already exist that might help support these businesses that are often critical to the local economy?

In Detroit, as in other American cities, the health and economic effects of the Covid-19 pandemic have been felt disproportionally by some groups and neighborhoods. Lower-paid workers are being impacted the hardest, with those in the restaurant, hotel, and entertainment industries among those experiencing the highest rates of job loss. Many newly unemployed workers have little personal savings to cushion the blow. Even before the pandemic, disadvantaged groups in Detroit were experiencing significant challenges. Many economists agree that the fallout from the Great Recession of 2007–09 was particularly severe in Detroit, which filed for bankruptcy in 2013. With economic hardship caused by the collapse in the housing market still fresh in the memories of Detroit residents, many fear that the current crisis will further impede growth and recovery for the city. The forum brings together diverse perspectives on how Detroit’s people can recover from the pandemic, overcome long-standing inequities, and rebuild for resilience.

The pandemic has put into stark relief the ramifications of being on the wrong side of the digital divide. The economic future of both urban and rural places depends on overcoming the digital divide, as demonstrated by the effects of the pandemic. In particular, the strains on our public education system since March may have impacts lasting a generation or longer, but digital literacy is also a critical gateway in the path to living-wage employment. In addition to remote learning across the educational spectrum, digital exclusion (or marginalization) has impacted access to stimulus benefits; efforts to rapidly scale tele-medicine; work from home; and even basic tasks, such as banking, shopping online for food and other necessities, and connecting with family and friends during a period of crisis. This panel will bring together experts to discuss the current status of the digital divide, while highlighting solutions that build broadband infrastructure where needed, promote digital literacy, and provide access to digital devices.

This virtual event will explore the efforts under way as Indianapolis reopens its economy and strives to become more resilient for the future. A discussion among government, business, healthcare, nonprofit, and philanthropic leaders will feature insights into how Indianapolis can rebuild and grow a resilient economy for all its residents.

Government, community, economic development, and business leaders will come together to discuss their visions for Milwaukee’s future. A panel discussion will explore how Milwaukee can recover from the challenges posed by a pandemic, record unemployment, and social unrest. The discussion will also focus on opportunities to rebuild Milwaukee’s economy so that all residents can benefit from a strong future for the city.

The pandemic precipitated a sudden and dramatic decline in the demand for paper produced at the Wisconsin Rapids paper mill, accelerating long term global trends and ushering in transformational change. On July 31, 2020, the paper mill was indefinitely shut down, laying off over 900 workers. Paper had been continuously produced at the mill since 1904 and the shutdown has created an economic, social and cultural tsunami. This cyan-event will explore the lessons from the past on what made Wisconsin Rapids thrive and opportunities for central Wisconsin to reinvent itself for the future.

This virtual event brought together government, community, health, and business leaders to discuss visions for how Detroit recovers from the Covid-19 crisis. Charles Evans, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, moderated a discussion exploring how Detroit can meet the public health challenge of the Covid-19 pandemic, rebuild the economy, and ensure all residents share in a strong future for the city.

Chicago is a global hub for innovation in finance, technology, and other sectors. Yet continued innovation is not a given, and the makeup of the city’s population has not been reflected in its most innovative industries. How can Chicago’s history of innovation continue, and how can it include all residents of the city?

In Chicago, as in all major cities, the health impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has been felt disproportionally by some groups and neighborhoods. Similarly, the decline in economic activity necessary to reduce the spread of the virus has had a disparate impact on employment around the city. Our goal for this forum was to bring together diverse perspectives on how neighborhoods can recover from the pandemic, overcome long-standing inequities, and rebuild for resilience.

What will the recovery from the pandemic look like for Iowa, and what role will different sectors play? The state faces many challenges, especially given its urban and rural economies and the importance of its farms and businesses to the nation’s supply chain. Government, industrial, and nonprofit leaders will consider the challenges Iowa has faced during the pandemic, as well as the roles that government, philanthropy, education, and the business sector can play to ensure a recovery in which all Iowans can thrive.

Chicago, like most major cities, has seen uneven economic development over the last two decades. Growth in and near downtown has been pronounced, while neighborhoods on the South Side and West Side have seen disinvestment and population loss. Experts will examine the roles of urban planning, architecture, and transportation in Chicago’s growth, how the physical features of the city may adapt to the pandemic, and how the city’s infrastructure and built environment can support inclusive economic growth.

How can government, philanthropy, education, and the private sector work together to make workplaces safe under pandemic conditions and get displaced workers back to work? What strategies can be built into such efforts to improve the long-run job prospects for racially diverse and economically disadvantaged workers? Chicago leaders from business, labor, education, and workforce development organizations will discuss these questions.

The pandemic forced a sudden transition to remote learning. Although students, parents and educators are striving to adapt, the risk of massive and inequitable losses of learning still remains. And even before the pandemic, Chicago Public Schools (CPS), like many other school districts, was confronting challenges in educating all its students. Education leaders and stakeholders will discuss the challenges and opportunities confronting CPS and its students, and how we might address them.

Chicago has a rich history of minority "middle" neighborhoods. These are neighborhoods that for decades had a large base of middle- and working-class residents, high rates of homeownership, and active commercial corridors. But as places in the city have become more unequal, these predominantly minority neighborhoods have become increasingly vulnerable to economic shocks. Covid-19, the economic slowdown, and civil unrest have magnified the challenges.

The virtual event brought together government, community, health, and business leaders to discuss visions for how Chicago recovers from the Covid-19 crisis.