Like many equity advocates, I wasn’t sure quite what to expect from President Obama’s first budget.

A new president’s inaugural budget is a statement of his values-a black-and-white rendering of how he wants to make America and Americans stronger. I knew equity was at the heart of the Obama administration’s collective philosophy, but I wasn’t sure whether political realities would trump their idealism.

Now that I’ve seen their budget, though, I know where they landed. Equity is right there in black-and-white.

After eight years of moving in the wrong direction, this new budget is a significant step toward a more inclusive, opportunity-rich nation. We’ve still got a lot of work to do, but this budget will provide a strong foundation on which to build a truly equitable economic recovery for all people, by:

Lifting Up What Works

• $50 million for a Social Innovation Fund, which will identify the most promising, results-oriented nonprofit programs and expand their reach throughout the country.
• $10 million for the Promise Neighborhoods Initiative, inspired by the Harlem Children’s Zone, which will help nonprofit, community-based organizations undertake transformational neighborhood approaches to childhood poverty.
• $243 million for the CDFI (Community Development Financial Institutions) Fund-more than doubling the appropriations for this critical program that provides much needed capital for important community development projects such as healthy food retailing opportunities in underserved communities.

Investing in Communities to Solve Poverty

• $250 million for a Choice Neighborhoods Initiative to challenge public, private, and nonprofit partners to extend neighborhood transformation efforts beyond public housing and link housing interventions more closely with school reform and early childhood innovation.

Creating Pathways to Economic Inclusion

• $9 billion for employment and training programs, including $50 million for green jobs training initiatives. This builds on the $500 million from the Recovery Act for competitive grants to train workers for green jobs.

This is an historic budget for an historic moment. But the hard work continues.

Help build the equity movement by signing up to be the first to know when we launch “Demand Equity Now,” a platform for advocates and activists to find each other, work together, and blaze new paths for social change. We need sustained action and advocacy to translate the framework provided by this budget into positive change in the lives of everyday Americans.

Tags: budget, equity, federal budget, harlem children's zone, obama, promise neighborhoods

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 at 3:54 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.