www.montereycountyweekly.com november 9-15, 2023 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY 23 related to digital access. “The narrative has changed,” Lopez Chavez says. “Our old slogan was ‘the low-cost computer store.’ Now we dedicate time to look at policies, and understand how digital equity plans are being set up in our state and county.” That nonprofits serve people in need who have been left behind in the economy is not new. For some local community organizations, the idea of engaging upstream—to think about how they might impact economic development decisions and the shape of the local economy to better include their clients—is relatively new. LFC is one of nine community-based organizations participating in a two-year effort, funded by the James Irvine Foundation, to reshape how the sector engages in regional economic development decisions. The Salinas Inclusive Economic Development Initiative (SIEDI) delivered $100,000 per year to each participating group for two years, along with training and mentorship. And for leaders like Lopez Chavez, it’s contributed to a different way of thinking. “This program has so much potential for sustainability and shifting paradigms within our community,” she says. “The theory of the initiative is that too often, economic development decisions are made for the community as opposed to with the community,” says Ken Smith, the project manager who ran SIEDI for its first two years. “The theory is that if the voices at the decision-making table are different, then everybody will win. The decisions will be smarter, they will be done more in collaboration with the community, and the community will be baked into the planning. To build a healthy and vibrant economy, all voices need to be in the mix.” James Irvine left Ireland at age 19 in 1846 for the United States, and joined the wave of forty-niners seeking gold. When he died in 1886, he left 110,000 acres of ranchland in Orange County to his son, James Irvine, Jr., who became an early pioneer in modern agriculture, converting fields of cactus to citrus, grapes and barley. Irvine Jr. became a wildly successful agribusinessman, and founded the Irvine Foundation in 1937. That foundation made its first grant of $1,000 in 1938. The foundation—with a vision of “a California where all low-income workers have the power to advance economically”—has continued to grow, with an endowment of over $3 billion in 2022. Last year, it granted $187.3 million to California nonprofits. One initiative is to invest in what the Irvine Foundation calls “priority communities,” places that Initiative Director Jessica Kaczmarek says “have been historically overlooked by philanthropy.” For the Irvine Foundation, those places are Salinas, Fresno, Stockton, San Bernardino and Riverside. In each, the foundation has granted funds to local groups to craft a vision for economic advancement. For SIEDI, that takes the form of a $3 million grant in 2020, administered by the Community Foundation for Monterey County, which manages the initiative. (A disclosure: The author’s husband works at CFMC.) Of that, $2 million went directly to participating organizations over a twoyear period: $100,000 per year to nine participating nonprofits in the initial cohort, and $20,000 to each of five advisory groups. (Another $250,000 went to the groups for technical assistance.) The nine participating groups are the Agriculture and Land-Based Training Association (ALBA); Building Healthy Communities; Center for Community Advocacy; Centro Binacional Para El Desarrollo Indígena Oaxaqueño; Hijos del Sol; Loaves, Fishes, and Computers; Monterey Bay Central Labor Council; Mujeres en Acción; and Rancho Cielo Youth Campus. The five advisers are Digital Nest, Hartnell College Foundation, nonprofit housing developer CHISPA, First 5 Monterey County and COPA (now Central Coast Interfaith Sponsors). Training has happened largely through quarterly convenings that brought representatives of each group together for presentations on subjects related to economic development, like housing or digital literacy. “Our job is really about building “The narrative has changed,” says Gabriela Lopez Chavez of Loaves, Fishes and Computers. “Twenty years ago we would talk about how we were serving the community. Now, it’s: We are working with the community.” All
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjAzNjQ1NQ==