Assembly Select Committee on Community Economic Mobility and Investment

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us today as the chair of the select committee on economic mobility and investment, community economic mobility and investment. It's my honor to hold this informational hearing today at Fresno State's satellite student union. I am proud to convene this hearing as economic development in the San Joaquin Valley, a region that oftentimes is very critical to California's economy, yet we still face significant disinvestments or disparities in opportunity.

I do want to begin by sharing some of our successes before we get into the hearing here today, as well as what the panelists will be able to offer. Many of us have been working on developing a regional and inclusive and vibrant economy that began for the better part of the last decade.

When I first got elected in 2016, we helped to secure more than half of our state's dollars into transformative climate communities. $77,000,000 that went into downtown, Chinatown, and Southwest Fresno. Money that included inclusive economic development through participatory budgeting, funding that helped us to braid into what is now our Southwest Fresno Community College campus, where we're able to do career technical education and provide, higher education into a community that historically has struggled.

We also were able to invest into affordable housing in the Monarch, which is in Chinatown, urban light lighting and green spaces, sidewalks, the Oval Permaculture Garden, and workforce development, as these were priorities that community had and insisted that we invest it in. We also were able to hold an economic summit here in 2019.

And out of that came three major priorities that became the structure for me specifically to work on to make sure we were bringing funding to this area. The three priorities that we identified were the importance of us bringing a medical school here to the Central San Joaquin Valley, opening at UC Merced beginning in 2027, that have already admitted bachelor students, guaranteed admissions into a medical school for an area that struggles to be able to recruit enough providers, physicians, nurses.

It's imperative for us to be able to grow our own and not simply try to recruit or to retain the providers that we have. We also fought for the initial seed funding for F3 Farm Food Future. It was $30,000,000 in state funding that began this initiative that led towards the largest federal grant through the Build Back Better Jobs Act with another $66,000,000.

It's now needing to be partnered with industry to help us to create an innovation corridor, how we invest into our higher education institutions that we have here at Fresno State up to UC Merced, so that we're selling more than just commodities, but we're also selling what we do better than anyone else in the entire world, which is agriculture. How do we focus on the technologies and the emerging areas that we can have engineers and entrepreneurs and have the next tech revolution?

Well, we felt there was a need for state and federal funding partnered with industry through this economic summit that would allow us then to create more inclusive economic development for a region that has better agriculture than anyone else. And finally, we decided the importance of us finishing what we started within high speed rail. Many of us have been working on making sure that we have good paying jobs, living wage jobs that will help our communities to be able to continue to thrive.

We've had more than 15,000 of those jobs created here in the Central Valley for those who are iron workers, or carpenters, or teamsters, or our electrical workers. So many of our union brothers and sisters who are helping to build tomorrow, today. And as we start connecting California, we're also then going to be needing the infrastructure here in Downtown Fresno.

That led towards the investment we had with the Fresno public infrastructure plan, another $250,000,000 that helped to develop the water, and the sewer, and the housing bridge funding. I I bring all these up together as there needed to be a collaborative effort.

A big overlay of planning to make sure that everything was working together. That's the type of information, the capacity building that I'm hopeful this committee will be able to discuss and to be able to share. Our main priorities here today are to focus on listening, learning, and to be able to identify solutions for the economic development that we can have reach communities that need it the most.

Too often, the policies we pass in Sacramento aren't focused on rural regions of our state, communities that historically have been disinvested into. Technical expertise, that may have the capacity currently, aren't the ones to continue to solely receive the funds, but that we enable regions of our state who historically have been left behind to be in a better position to make sure that they can access those types of resources.

Now while we've had historic investments in the recent years from the state and federal government, many of our organizations here in the Central Valley have had struggling, struggles with complex application processes or limited technical capacity, or a lack of a coordinated support, making sure that the investments are braiding and working with other industries or with philanthropies or education institutions so we can stretch those dollars so we can meet communities' real needs. And that's why I'm looking forward to today's conversation because we'll be hearing from many of those grassroots organizations and CBOs who have been implementing change here, as well as from our state and local partners.

But we'll also be hearing from participants in successful models like our community economic mobilization initiative on how they've been doing power building and supporting strong capacity and community leadership, as that will ultimately lead towards more inclusive economic growth. Our goal here today is to make sure that we are building a more inclusive and equitable economy, prosperity. Here in the Central Valley, we're used to usually being flown over.

And it's important for our communities that we receive our fair share of investments, that our economy is inclusive, and that it's equitable, and that all regions of our state can participate. I wish to share what has worked here thus far, as well as to make sure that other regions are able to learn from us on what some of the best practices are, so that we ultimately can support those CBOs and grassroots organizations and have that coordinated support that's necessary.

In advance, I would like to thank our panelists and participants. I'm looking forward to the conversation that we have here today, and that we will have a productive conversation. To begin on our first panel, we will begin with the one and only Chet Hewitt, president and CEO of the Sierra Health Foundation, followed by Jessica Kaksmarik.

She is the initiative director for the James Irvine Foundation, and ultimately by doctor Edward Flores, who's the faculty director at UC Merced's Labor Center. If we can begin with Chet Hewitt. Welcome.

And let me thank you, Assemblyman Romulan. Thank you both for convening us here today for this particular launch. I feel that it's appropriate. You know, yesterday, we launched Artemis, and today, we will launch a select committee. And we know, while sometimes things seem like moonshots, they will be hard to achieve, but they also very much worth doing.

And so once again, I will introduce myself. My name is Chet Hewitt, and I have the great pleasure of serving as the president and CEO of the Sierra Health Foundation and the founder and CEO of its independent operating partner, the Center of Sierra Health. I wanna start my remarks by, again, thanking you for today's informational hearing, on inclusive economic development in the Central Valley Of California.

As you have stated and we all know well and you will hear today from various panelists, this is a region that has historically experienced lower levels of investment and community engagement in the area of inclusive economic development when compared to other regions of our great state. And while recent efforts like California Jobs First and TCC and Cap and Trade have sought to address these concerns and have made promising progress.

We know there is still more to be done. As a health focus focused organization, we come to this work with the understanding that health is about more than the ability to access high quality health care, which is in itself critically important, and that economic opportunity and improved long term health status are inseparable.

Beginning perhaps with the famed Whitehall studies that conducted in London in the nineteen eighties, research has consistently shown that an individual's health status is impacted by the quality of their employment And that the quality of employment opportunities are, in fact, products of economic development planning and investments, which need to take into account unique aspects of any region. It's location, natural resource availability, the quality of its workforce, weather, but we know there are other essential factors as well.

Understanding and taking advantage of these unique characteristics are important.

But without a shared prosperity lens and the engagement and consideration of the hopes and aspirations of residents, economic development too often produces outcomes where too few win and far too many lose out. And those that lose out don't just experience poor economic mobility, depressed wages, or suffer unhealthy working conditions. They are also more likely to experience poor health outcomes, including higher mortality and morbidity rates, and ultimately, shorter lives.

So we know this idea of the intersection between us, which led to the determinants of health and as emergent study within a health, economic, and social well-being sphere are critically important and need to be more present as we think about economic development and opportunity. We have learned these important lessons over our forty years of grant making at Sierra Health Foundation and over the past thirteen years at the center.

We provided the impetus for the launch of economic development portfolio, which is kinda unique for a health foundation. This portfolio has signature projects like the San Joaquin Valley Health Fund, the San Joaquin Valley Impact Investment Fund, and the Community Economic Mobilization Initiative better known as CEMI, which we've done in partnership with my colleagues sitting to my right.

These efforts in combination represent over $40,000,000 of investment and are designed to support healthier workplaces, expand financing options for micro businesses, and to increase the ability of nonprofit organizations to more capably address the economic health of the communities and the families they serve. I know today you'll hear from top researchers. Two of my favorites will be presenting alongside this panel as well.

As well as an innovative funder who's doing incredible work in this particular space. Jessica who's representing our colleagues at the Irvine Foundation. And several community organizations including three partners of the center's CEMI program. Belief that while services are critically important and valuable, and that when families need help and assistance, they should read they should receive it. But that the ultimate pathway to prosperity for individuals, families, and neighborhoods is the opportunity to participate in a fear, just, and inclusive, shared economy.

As I've learned from my colleague, Manuel Pastor, it is in fact our economy, and we should treat it as such. In California today, there are many reasons to be deeply concerned about the economic futures of populations living in undivested communities, and the businesses small and large that serve and employ them. Some of these concerns are unprecedented, like the impact of recent shifts in immigration policy that has impacted families and businesses throughout our great state.

But there are also opportunities to pay attention to as the state continues to roll out its California first Jobs First program in 13 designated economic regions. And as a supporter of this and similar other state efforts other similar state efforts, which were initiated or expanded by the promise of the 2021 passage of the $1,200,000,000,000 bipartisan infrastructure law.

We hope this committee will explore what has been accomplished and learn through these efforts, which have had considerable success, not with the goal of complaining complaining or criticizing, but to support ideas, approaches, policies, and practices that would help them be even more timely and impactful, particularly as it relates to the impact in undivested communities.

For example, one component of federal law that gave great hope to our efforts several years ago was Justice 40, which pledged to deliver 40% of the overall benefits of federal infrastructure investments to disadvantaged communities, particularly those that disproportionately impacted by environmental and economic challenges. This commitment was drawn by the current federal administration to no one's surprise. But there is no reason we shouldn't explore the potential for a similar state commitment. Whether development resources originate from federal sources like transportation or state sources like cap and invest.

The values we bring to such efforts will impact mobility opportunities, the economic status and social status of families, and ultimately will have a significant impact for all who live in our great state. And with that, I'll bring my comments to conclusion.

Thank you, Chet Hewitt, for your wonderful words. I was really struck with the social drivers of health and those impacted by quality of employment. I must speak to where I went to high school and the ZIP code that we were in, which was 93706. Forty seven percent of the residents in that area did not graduate from high school. Eighty seven percent haven't gotten a college degree.

And it's hard to have the economics that are needed to then live healthy and productive lives. The life expectancy for that zip code compared just across town at another high school is more than twenty years difference. And so for those of us who come from communities that have struggled with that type of, economies that aren't always as inclusive, we see it as life expectancy. We see it as health.

And so I'm grateful for you speaking to that intersectionality, and I'm glad we agree on those social drivers of health.

With that, we'll now turn to doctor Manuel Pastor, who I believe is joining us by WebEx. He is the distinguished professor of sociology and American studies and ethnicity at the University of Southern California.

Thank you. Good to be with you virtually. I see myself creeping up onto the screen there. And first, thank you, assemblyman Arambula, for your long time leadership in this area. And also, thank you, Chet, for your investments in community, the community capacity to participate and actually have influence in these debates.

I also want to report to Chet that I was at a meeting today where your son was working. He was doing a very good job. So excellent. So what I wanna talk about, and I'm gonna share a screen, and hopefully that will come up. Put it into a slideshow.

Perfect. Is that I want to kind of talk a little bit about why community economic mobilization in general and the kind of initiative that Sierra Health Foundation has invested in. And I wanna make three points in the few minutes that I've got. One is that inequality is actually the Achilles heel for the state. Second, the Central Valley and generally in California is the future of the state.

And third, it's going to require investing in new capacities on the part of business, community, and new accountability on the part of government. So first, there is a tendency to think about inequality as an issue of fairness, inclusion, justice. And believe me, those are important things, and I'm deeply committed to them. But what we've tried to show in a series of books is that regions that are more unequal actually do not sustain decent job growth and income growth over time.

And that you know this in your bones.

When you've got levels of over incarceration, you're throwing away talent. When you've got levels of immigrant vulnerability, you are shortchanging the ability to start businesses in the future. And when you've got schools with largely black and brown kids, other low income kids that are like the high schools that Assemblyman, Arambula, are talking about, you're hurting the productivity of the state in the future. So that basic insight that inequality is a drag on economic growth is actually supported by the research and particularly important in this state.

If you look at, for example, the median household income by race and ethnicity in the state of California, you'll note that white household income are out basis that of Black and Latino households.

AAPI households have higher median household income, but that masks tremendous heterogeneity or difference within those communities. Where there are some who are doing quite well, think your engineers in Silicon Valley. Others who are doing quite poorly think your Hmong communities in Fresno. But perhaps what is most important is that if we look at that data, median household income, half making more, half making less, and look at it by race for the state.

But for households raising children under the age of five, what you will see is that what looks like disappointing disparities become huge chasms.

So that, for example, white households raising small children are making twice what Black and Latino households raising the next generation are making. We are basically baking inequality in. One key thing, Assemblyman Arambula on is correct to note that inequality is part of that. But if you look at charts, for example, on our National Equity Atlas, what you will notice is that differences in income and education explain only part of the wage differences.

There are other parts of that that have to do with remaining discrimination in labor markets, have to do with uncertainty around legal status, have to do with other things that we need to rectify.

So inequality is an issue for the future of the state and its prosperity, not just for fairness. If we're to look for the future of the state, another key thing is that we should be looking at basically places like the Central Valley and the Landland Empire. If you look, for example, at the second orange bar, which is the share of children in Los Angeles and orange bar which is the share of the state's children. It's steadily shrinking.

Less and less kids in LA and Orange County, it's kinda remaining stable in the Bay Area.

But the big picture you should have is that the coast is not the place where children are being raised. In part, this has to do with housing prices, forcing people out. And when you look at where the share of the state's children are, if you look at the Inland Empire, the gray, the share of the children raised in the Inland Empire going up, but where it's particularly going up is the Central Valley.

So inequality is an important part of the state, and we want to address it going forward. We need to focus in on Inland California.

How is Inland California doing? If you look at the generation of jobs, you could see that actually the San Joaquin Valley is generating more jobs over time between 1980 and 2022 than the state of California or The United States. But if you ask the deep and profound question, what about the quality of jobs? You'll see that in California over that period of time, earnings per jobs went up by 55%, but they only went up by about 23% in the San Joaquin Valley.

So key issue on that Chet was alluding to is the quality of jobs that are being generated.

And then actually something I know that my colleague at Flores will talk about, what are the wages that are attached to those jobs even when they are being generated? And that requires that we both generate good jobs and that we make sure that we are lifting the floor of service jobs as well. How do we do that? Again, that requires three things. First, we need to understand that we need a different attitude by business.

That business need to understand that regional prosperity is connected to our workers and communities do, And really can no longer be looked at as simply being whether or not jobs are grown and whether or not taxes are cut has a lot more to do with investments in the quality of the workforce and with lifting up wages. There are also requirements for CBOs, community based organizations, that I think are an important part of the equation.

If we want inclusive prosperity to get on the agenda, we have to do two things. We have to both build power so that those issues arrive at the table. And we have to build technical expertise so that once community groups are at the table, they're also able to talk about whether or not a project pencils out about whether or not there's a chain between job training, jobs being corrected and created, and the general prosperity of the region.

Fortunately, what CME, the community economic mobilization initiative has tried to do is to simultaneously help community based organizations build power to force their way into the conversation and create the technical expertise. So once they arrive, they are able to walk in a par with the economic development groups and with the business groups about what is required to get forward.

And then the last thing that we need to do is to make sure that there's government accountability, that government is held to a standard about not just creating any kind of job, but creating jobs that pay higher wages, not just cutting taxes, but making investments, not just listening to friends in the business community, but understanding the need to build community power and community capacity. And with that, I will remarkably for an academic end.

Thank you, doctor Pastor. I really appreciated your comment about how inequality is oftentimes our Achilles' heel. When we start to evaluate some of those disparities and look for opportunities for investments, one that came to mind for me was regarding the valley builds now, non traditional occupations for women. Too often within the building and constructions trades, we're not supporting women to participate in pre apprenticeships or apprenticeships.

We secured $3,000,000 several years ago to create a cohort to allow women to participate by paying stipends, transportation, childcare subsidies to make sure that they could participate in those pre apprenticeships, so that we could meet the minimum thresholds that are required for larger public works projects that were not being met, because they oftentimes claimed there weren't people in the pipeline.

By helping to remove those barriers and allow, more women to participate in the trades, we then were able to make sure that they were receiving a living wage, a good earning, one that could help them to make ends meet. And so, if we can continue that pattern of making sure that we're being inclusive and looking towards where investments are most needed, we can supercharge our economy and help the areas that historically have been left behind.

With that, we're now going to turn to Jessica Kaczmarek, the initiative director with the James Irvine Foundation.

Good afternoon. Assembly member Oromoya, and thank you for this opportunity to speak to the subcommittee, and thank you for your ongoing service to this state and to this region. My name is Jessica Kaczmarek and I have the pleasure of being an initiative director with the James Irvine Foundation, where I lead our place based grant making in the Central Valley, the Central Coast, and Inland Southern California. The foundation was established in 1937 by James Irvine and today is an independent private foundation focused exclusively on California.

Our endowment is approximately 3,300,000,000.0, and this year, we have a plan to grant 145,000,000 to California organizations advancing our mission.

Our goal is a California where all low income workers have the power to advance economically. And through the foundation's grant making, we work to strengthen California's workforce development system and to support working people and communities in building power to engage on policies that affect jobs and economic opportunity. The Irvine Foundation believes California can build a more inclusive economy. One that expands equitable pathways to economic mobility and shared prosperity for all.

This is especially important in Inland California, where many working people have faced persistent barriers to fully benefiting from the state's growth and economic change, as my colleague, Manuel Pastor shared with you.

In inland regions, through our priority communities initiative, we focus on six key cities that are critical to California's future given their growth, diversity, and role in the state's economy. These cities include Stockton, Fresno, Merced, Salinas, San Bernardino, and Riverside. In December 2024, the Irvine Board of Directors approved $220,000,000 in funding through 2031 to support these communities' efforts to build a more inclusive economy. Our place based grant making focuses on three interrelated and complementary areas.

The first is strengthening worker and community power to help shape local and regional economic agendas that benefit working people.

The second is investing in community led and community owned economic development models, especially those that inform workforce and entrepreneurial pathways. And the third is supporting historically underrepresented and underserved communities to learn about, engage in and help guide economic development decisions that affect them. And we are grateful to all of our regional partners, some of whom are here today, who have been essential in leading efforts that create economic opportunity for Inland California residents.

While the Irvine Foundation's support for inclusive economic development in these communities is meaningful, one foundation alone cannot meet the scale of what is needed to achieve our shared goals. California's economy is changing rapidly with real impacts on working people's livelihoods and well-being.

Earlier this decade when federal resources supported innovative economic development, philanthropy came together through the Sierra Health Foundation Community Economic Mobilization Initiative, known as CEMI, to help communities compete for opportunities and ensure that community and worker perspectives inform local implementation. Alongside state led efforts such as California Jobs First, this work has helped regions align around a shared vision, creating better jobs, supporting innovation and sustainable sectors, investing in housing and childcare, expanding pathways to business ownership, ensuring equitable access to land, capital, and markets, and protecting workers.

There's a lot to build on here, but this and this progress is essential that we keep working towards a more inclusive out California, especially now as federal funding has declined, efforts to support inclusivity have been rolled back, and economic change is accelerating due to technology and climate impacts. These conditions underscore the need for sustained cross sector collaboration to develop practical, equitable, and durable solutions for working families.

Philanthropy can help ensure that people too often left out of decision making are heard and can participate in shaping policies and programs.

And because government resources far exceed philanthropic resources, partnership with the public sector is essential to advance more inclusive regional economies. We believe the public sector through funding, its convening power, and agency leadership can bring significant capacity to advance policy and practice changes in economic development that center community prosperity. And philanthropic institutions can complement these efforts by providing flexible resources, technical assistance, and time for community leaders to test approaches, strengthen implementation of policies and programs, and expand meaningful community engagement.

As you continue to shape California's approach to inclusive economic development, we encourage sustained investment in regional strategies that are community informed, support quality jobs and upward mobility, and are implemented through durable public private partnerships. Philanthropy can enhance state efforts to supporting community engagement, learning, and local capacity so that regional priorities translate into equitable outcomes.

In closing, I wanna thank you again for your leadership and for the opportunity to share these perspectives. And we believe thoughtful public private partnerships will help California's regions create quality jobs and expand pathways to share prosperity. The Irvine Foundation is committed to partnering with the legislature, the administration, and regional leaders to support inclusive community informed economic development. And we welcome the opportunity to serve as a resource to you as you advance this work. Thank you.

Thank you, Jessica. Your comment about how one foundation can't do it alone is correct, but I do want to appreciate all of the investments and focus on the nonprofits that you've helped to support here in the Central Valley. Whether or not that's from Cultiva La Salud, from the Jakara movement, or building healthy communities, you are focused on supporting those organizations that participate in workforce development, that are addressing disparities has not gone unnoticed.

And that ability for us to focus on public private partnerships and how we as the state can help to partner with you to make sure that we're working hand in glove, that we're able to participate and to address those social drivers of health is the ideal model. I will just point out since we've heard about the California Jobs First initiative now for the second time, that began as the regions rise together.

That was an initiative that was, bore out of what came from that economic summit. I mentioned earlier back in 2019 here in Fresno that led towards the California Jobs First initiative. And so we're very familiar of the necessity for us to be having these conversations at the state level, to then be able to partner with philanthropy along the way. And so I'm grateful for your partnership thus far and look forward to continued ways we can work together.

Next, we will hear from a friend of mine, Doctor. Ed Flores, there at UC Merced's Labor Center. We'd love to and thanks for joining us today.

Thank you. And thank you for this opportunity to to give testimony to the Select Assembly Committee. I'm gonna, share, some context for the region that's relevant for this conversation, and for those that are listening, as as well as some recent innovations in economic development, lessons learned, and, and then a project that, the community and labor center is is leading, that, with funding from the Sierra Health Foundation and the Irvine Foundation. So, the San Joaquin Valley has a long history of extractive economic development.

Big industries like agriculture and oil too often pay workers a small share of the massive annual revenues.

And most of those profits, leave the communities where they live. This has negative consequences on workers and their households and communities. Years ago, a famous study examined the dynamics between two different communities here in the Central Valley and found large differences. In one community with a small farm, the farm the farm owner lived in the community. The workers were paid more.

The owner and the workers' money was spent on local businesses. There were more community organizations, and there was more civic engagement. In another community with a larger farm, the farm owner lived outside the community. The workers were paid less. There was less money circulating in the local community.

There were fewer businesses and community organizations and less civic engagement. And this history of extractive production has shaped economic development in the region. Among the states 10 major regions, the eight county San Joaquin Valley region consistently ranks ranks last or next to last in every major indicator of well-being. Education, earnings, unemployment, pollution, health access, and citizenship naturalization. We've spoken with leaders in business and economic development spaces.

And you know, if you really push them, they'll tell you, they too believe we can do better than the status quo in this region. Okay. So, let's fast forward, right, to the twenty twenties. In June 2020, a study commissioned by the State of California's workforce development board called putting California on the high road was published.

And it was a groundbreaking study because it offered a framework, the high road model for the state to advance on its ambitious climate goals and to play a transformative role in creating good, well paying jobs.

The report noted that a major mistake made during the Obama administration was to train workers for jobs in the green economy that did not yet exist. And the report instead made the case for how the state of California's procurement power could be leveraged to stimulate economic development that would create well paying private sector jobs, with a smaller carbon footprint for trained workers.

Workforce development while taxpayer taxpayer funded, often does not have labor or environmental standards attached and can enable business practices that do not advance us towards a better paying more sustainable economy. In contrast, the high road model invests in collaborations between businesses, labor unions, and community groups to understand where there is shared interest in community so in a economic development that advances the state's ambitious climate goals. In 2021, in response, the state of California released the Community Economic Resilience Fund, CERF.

It was a $600,000,000 initiative to fund planning grants and economic development in 13 regions in California. It was groundbreaking in using the term high road. The solicitation for proposals even stated that its intent was to disrupt business as usual in economic development. And so this is why I wanna get to some lessons learned.

The Community and Labor Center was involved in a major state funded high road initiative just before our CERF was announced, and we also author authored the current regional plan part one for the CERF reach for the current region, for CERF slash California jobs first.

So we have some experience, with what the state's high road initiatives looks like. And, briefly, we can share a couple of major lessons learned. First, it matters who holds the purse strings. If the fiscal is firmly embedded in traditional workforce development spaces, They might have a board that's comprised of traditional workforce development actors. And so there may be challenges to disrupting existing, you know, workforce development strategies.

Also, there are always a great a far greater number of traditional workforce development opportunities. And so if, fiscal is embedded in these traditional spaces, they may leverage the high road initiatives to advance traditional workforce development opportunities. And so I'm speaking here from experience of working with, you know, through the state funded initiatives. And, and secondly, it matters who does the implementation. Implementation is the vast majority of the work.

If it's implemented by partners firmly embedded in traditional workforce development spaces, then it will be implemented like a traditional workforce development projects. Okay. So, with, you know, the benefit of funding from Sierra Health Foundation and Irvine Foundation, the Community and Labor Center was fortunate enough to, you know, to propose and, and to receive funding for the Valley Sustainable Equitable and Economic Equitable and Economic Development Projects, Valley SEED for short.

And so this was a response to the gap that we saw that was created by traditional workforce development initiatives. And I'll just briefly share that the Valley SEED is a community of practice.

There are monthly workshops on topics and skills related to climate, labor standards, sustainability, community economic development with top experts in the field. We provide funding, you know, to different organizations at different tiers, capacity building, planning and development, implementation. We also provide technical support, helping folks understand what is the high road. You know, what what do the what do those projects, look like and how to advance that. Supporting organizations to develop climate resiliency and sustainable development.

Grant and resource tracking. And four areas of focus have emerged. Worker owned Cooperatives. This is work that's being done by environmental and an environmental group, a farm worker group, a labor union. There there's also interest in community benefits agreements around high speed rail, warehousing, housing developments, and waste facilities, different partners working on each of those initiatives, community agriculture, and credentialing programs.

And so I'll highlight one in the interest of time. And we have a partner who's developing a care co op training institute to provide training for domestic workers on how to successfully start and run care cooperatives. You know, for those domestic workers that often don't have legal status and cannot be employees, they can, you know, be business owners.

And so this is providing training for workers on how to successfully start and run a cooperative so that it's worker owned as a form of equitable economic development rather than an employer profiting from, you know, from the work of employees and not sharing prosperity. And and so the focus is on supporting agricultural workers.

This would be, provided to agricultural workers who are seeking to transition into a different career and one that could advance the public good. So I'll end right there and just say thank you for the opportunity to speak here.

Thank you, doctor Flores. As I had mentioned f three earlier on, I want to highlight the effort from the UC Merced Labor Center on workforce training to make sure that those who may be displaced as technology may be evolving, that we're focused on solutions that keep our workforce trained and prepared. I think it's imperative that we have those conversations side by side. While we may have entrepreneurs and engineers, we don't want to displace those who historically have been working hard.

And I would love if you have any comments on that as I think it's an important part of the conversation we haven't had thus far.

Absolutely. And I think the the San Joaquin Valley is on the front lines of global, economic and environmental challenges. Climate change is happening. And so and and technology is being introduced into the workplace on in farms that frankly, you know, is displacing workers. And so the question is, if we're going to invest in agricultural development, the the real question is if these are taxpayer dollars, how does it advance the public's interest?

And the real experts are community members, you know, organized workers. They can share with you, the perspective from on the ground. And so I think, for any initiative moving forward, what's gonna be imperative is, in asking that question, how is this in the public's interest, is being deeply engaged with the right, organizations. And so the the first question is, what kind of jobs are we talking about? If if we're talking about technology, they can introduce this agriculture.

Are those, are those jobs in the field? Are they engineering jobs with machines? Is it advanced manufacturing for, you know, creating the machines? And and so we have to have full transparency. What kind of jobs are we talking about?

Because then we can bring in the right labor unions, the right community groups to engage around the the the meaningful discussions on how this should advance.

To make it a very real world example, there used to be a job to walk the lines to make sure that, squirrels or, other vermin in our area were not disrupting the drip irrigation that we had. That can now be done by drones. And so rather than and and doing an entire field in minutes, rather than the hours that may take to have walked back and forth.

How do we make sure it's our farm working population then that are trained to be able to use those drones, to be able to participate in some meaningful way while while acknowledging that there may be some job loss, some some hours there. How how do we then make sure they're trained in an effective way is part of the goal of economic mobility, and the investments that we're looking at.

So I'm glad we're able to have that conversation, but know that you're a necessary part of it to ensure that ultimately, we're held accountable to those who are on the ground. Chet, I wanna come back to you and talk about CEMI at large and the role it has in conversations across the state. How it's helped to do some of the capacity building, the power building, integrating with this select committee.

You've done a great job of leadership, not just now, but for the last several years there at the Sierra Health Foundation. I'm not sure how many how much longer we'll be privileged to have you, but know that every year that we do, it's a blessing.

So I would love for you to share some wisdom with us.

We'll start by by saying thank you for your comments, but to also say that it is a collective effort. And the team at Sierra Health along with our colleagues at Irvine and several of the foundations who are all contributing to our thinking as relates to CME and other economic related activities. Like our microenterprise loan fund, which is, you know, supporting the Grameen here, work here in the Central Valley, and looking at women entrepreneurs as professor Flores was actually talking about.

How do you get them capital to pursue their own hopes, dreams, and aspirations? Not just to be employees, but to be business owners.

And we know that those businesses tend to employ more people from the communities that we're also talking about. So for us, the idea of integrating it to all the work that we do, it is part of our health agenda as we think about, you know, the relative health and well-being of communities as well. The three components of CEMI we think, have been well tested and remain as relevant as they were when we started this journey, you know, four years ago.

That is the Alteclosystems and Resource Center, which is led by ERI, Manuel Pastor, and Chris Brenna from UC Santa Cruz, who are some of the foremost thinkers from our opinion in these particular areas. Of course, the capability of nonprofits, which were mentioned several times, Their ability to enter into conversations and debates locally around regional economic development to feel comfortable and prepared, to share their ideas and to hold accountable those who will make decisions about what direction, investments will take and about who they will actually benefit.

And then lastly, our power building component, run by Live Free, which seeks to not only link and build the capacity of groups within any region to be more impactful and effective, but wants to link them together as a statewide learning network. So what's happening in the Far North that could be relevant to the Central Valley or Inland Empire are also taken together.

We see the select committee's ability to help us build those linkages about technical assistance, about nonprofit capacity, and about the peer learning network that those linkages, you know, represent. We believe California is actually charting the right course. With CERF, now Jobs First, TCC, there are a number of things we know that have been really impactful.

We are saddened by the fact that federal policy has taken shifts where issues around equity and inclusion are supposed to no longer be on the agenda. But it doesn't mean that we as California can't lead in a way that we've led in so many other areas, you know, over time.

And the committee represents an ability to take order or to build upon all the work that communities are doing in partnership and infuse that into the policy debates, funding decisions, and initiatives designed the state is doing currently and will do, in the future. We are hopeful that transition in state leadership doesn't result in a lowering of the priority of inclusive economic development, community mobilization, and as both of our academic presenters have said, the grand quest of reducing inequality in the state of California.

California can't be as proud for as it could be if it is the world's fourth largest economy and has the highest rates of inequality in this particular country.

That's like light and dark existing in the same space. We believe that we can do better, and we believe we have to do better for the folks who call California home.

Just yesterday, there were two forums here for whoever will become our next leader of our great state here in the city of Fresno. And we're glad that many came both here to Fresno State and to Fresno City College to help to participate in those discussions as ultimately it make sure that our priorities are, are front and center to that next leader. We'll just elevate our next panel.

We'll be through many of those grassroots organizations and CBOs who will discuss and and look forward to the conversations we have up and down the state with other regions. We'll just highlight in the public sector space.

We've oftentimes cited and and looked towards best practices and the need for us to learn from one another, rather than to take what works in regions and be able to share it with others. Now, I'll just give you an example since we're here at a higher education institution. Too often, we're faced with housing and security or food insecurity.

And our need to learn from certain counties that are implementing policies to connect people to Medi Cal, to CalFresh, allows those counties who are not doing it as well as they should be insights into what they can be adding through policies to help to implement it more effectively. We're hoping to do the same here with inclusive economic development. I was moved by Manuel Pastor's image of the snail with economic mobility tied to economic inequality.

Because while some will look towards those disparities or inequalities and not want to prioritize it, that is our Achilles heel. When we're not having women or people of color participating equally, we're not then having an economy that's firing on all cylinders. That's not ensuring that we're supporting all parts of our state and our region to be successful.

And the goal of, the select committee is to have those types of conversations to figure out how certain regions are doing it better than others and for us to share some of our successes, but how much further we do have to go. So that's why I'd like to turn back to Jessica, if I can.

And and ask since you have a statewide perspective about nonprofits that you're, helping to fund throughout the state. What types of groups do you historically look towards? How do you make sure that they're the right type of inclusive economic development to address those inequality. You've had such tremendous successes over the years, bringing so many non profits up. And really want to highlight some of those as real world examples of how we can continue to support grassroots organizations to try to take that next step.

It's a wonderful question. I would say first and foremost, you know, as a foundation, it's also not based in Inland California. Our offices are in San Francisco and Los Angeles. It is really critical for us to ensure that we're spending quality time in each of our communities to build the types of relationships that are needed to understand the priorities of communities and who is really moving the broader goal around inclusion and economic opportunity.

So we rely deeply on the leadership that exists in the regions and learning who those partners are that center building an ecosystem, building the community, not just building the capacity of particular organization.

We also, rely heavily on, partners like, the community foundations in each of the regions who, when they are mission aligned, when they are committed to expanding the capacity of the community, they've been great partners to ensure that there's a broader reach than what as a foundation that we could do.

And we have also critical partners like UC Merced's community labor center who do deep capacity building with, grassroots organizations and, who help to organize and mobilize partners, in the valley in ways that we would not be able to do given, you know, where we're located and given our own capacity. So, I would say in general, we we, really believe in the power of partnerships. That is that is our ethos and, and learning and spending quality time, with leaders.

Our Central Valley Community Foundation has been a tremendous partner in this region. Ashley Swearingen has jokingly been called the governor of the Central Valley, but have seen how her investments into particular elementary schools, creating neighborhood hubs, allows us to create that capacity building that's so powerful.

That when you have parents who are aligned, who are figuring out solutions that work for particular neighborhoods, whether it's the Jane Addams School with Live Again Fresno or Lilia Baseril who's invested into her elementary school, you can see or every neighborhood partnership. Each one of those hubs allows us to work on one neighborhood at a time. And collectively, that will have an impact on us lifting up all parts of our community.

And I'm grateful for those types of collaborations. I do want to thank this entire panel for the conversation. One final thought as I just want to make it hyper local again. As we were speaking about the AAPI population and their increased wage earning across the state, that's not always true for every region when we start to disaggregate the data.

And if we look at our Hmong population here in Fresno, they mimic more of the immigrant populations and the need for us to continue to make investments into organizations like theirs.

And so I just wanted to uplift that as a part of this conversation. So we were continuing to support all parts of an inclusive economic development and not looking at the global results for the state and not identifying that there were particular inequalities that our regions were facing. So with that, can we please give a round of applause for this panel? We'll now take a moment to bring up the second panel here to the stage.

If I could have Yolanda Randalls with the West Fresno Family Resource Center, Addie Carr, with Neighborhood Industries, Maria Redoubt Borosco, a farmer advocate with the Community Alliance and Family Farmers.

I haven't seen Lanisha here yet, but if you see her, let's bring her up. And then Daniella Rodriguez, the policy advocacy senior manager at Immigrants Rising.

Okay. Let's begin with Yolanda Randos. Great to see you again.

Please introduce yourself and begin when you're ready.

Hi. Thank you, Doctor Rambla. First, I wanna thank, Anna and Kendra and Chet from the Sierra foundation for inviting me to share information about the sweet potato project here in Fresno. And also you, Doctor Ramble.

Thank you for your continued support. Believe it or not, Doctor Ramble has been out there in the field, Although he had on boots, but he was still there in the field. So, anyway, my name is Yolanda Randos. I am the executive director of the West Fresno Family Resource Center.

We pro provide, family support services for our families here in Southwest Fresno. Today, I'm here to talk about the sweet potato project to, you know, we have been funded by the California Reducer Disparities Project, which is a great initiative through, the State Department of Public Health. The sweet potato project is a community defined evidence practice. We were heavily, heavily evaluated by the state. The primary focus is to prevent gang involvement, substance abuse use, who drop out, and also mental health improvement.

Our focus, is youth ages 12 to actually 17, and it's a combination of ag and entrepreneurship, right? And so how can you get ag and entrepreneurship and mental health all in one program, but the sweet potato project actually does that. It also creates leadership training opportunity as well as communication, self esteem as well. How was it done? So sweet potato project is actually it's a 36 week program.

So we actually start about March, and we go all summer, and the program ends in December. Youth actually work. They have two acres of land where they have to plant. They have to, irrigate. They have to weed.

They have to harvest, those sweet potatoes. And we also have a great partnership with Fresno State. You know, the community that we serve, Southwest Fresno, there's you know, it's Southwest Fresno, although it's a great community, there's a lot of issues in our communities. There's gangs. There's human trafficking.

There's drugs. There's, you know high explosion rate. You know there's a lot of issues and this is where these kids are coming from that environment. So what the sweet potato project does it gives them a hope you know for the future and it creates an opportunity for them to be in a space where they can they can talk about what's going on at home. They can talk about what's going on in school and also what's going on, you know, in their environment.

We have great staff. Staff has been trained in mental health awareness. And so staff not only serve, you know, in the capacity of the program, but they also serve as mentors, you know, for the program. And again, this is a hands on entrepreneurship. They are they are in the ground as you can see from the pictures.

We have a great partnership with Fresno State. And so the youth actually, they get a college experience. They're here at Fresno State. They're in the dorms. They there's three nights, two days in the dorms here at Fresno State, and they also participate in a ag business course.

So they're learning about, business and marketing and, you know, seven P's of marketing. Like, how do you how do you run a business? And one of the great outcomes, you know, in this program is that when they're here at Fresno State, the kids are actually divided up into teams, and they have to create a product from the sweet potato. And so I I wish I can I wish I had some samples to share with you all today?

Give me some, by the way.

Some of the things that the kids have come up with, you know, Sweet Potato Tea, sweet potato pound cake, sweet potato muffins. I mean, it's just been amazing. And and it's their creativity, you know, that has come up with that. And so at this competition, they actually have they have a, a taste testing of their product. They have their business plan.

They They have their communication plan, their marketing plan, they have the yield, and all of this is presented, you know, in a competition. And so and it's so hard to to pick the winner winning team because they all do such a fabulous job. You know, what work? You know, youth are engaged, you know, and I'll share a little bit later on evaluation data. They're learning about business skills.

They're learning about ag. You know, I think someone said it earlier. We are feeding the world right here. There's great careers, in ag. And so introducing that to our young people and for them not to just think when you think about ag, it's not just, oh, that's slavery work or, oh, I don't wanna be a field worker, but there's so much more, you know, to ag.

But our youth they're not introduced to it. Right? And so and we do that here with the help of Fresno State. It also brings again increased hope, leadership, school connection, and and this is a ground up approach. This is what the community is saying that this is what these are the types of programs that we need in our community in order for our kids to be successful.

Like I said, in our, evaluation, you know, one of the things I wanted to highlight, you know, kids went from a 1.92 GPA to a 3.3, you know, so that's a whole point increase. So it's not just, you know, kids are coming, you know, three days a week and they're just hanging out like, no. It's homework. It's study. It's like what's happening in the school because that high school diploma, that's that's like your your pathway.

That's like the next big step for you. We have a ninety percent, completion rate. We just completed our cohort back in December. And again, increased confidence in leadership, communication, you know, strong mental health, self esteem, all of that again came from from a heart evaluator, from our evaluation. So what's next?

Right? And so this is where we're headed today. Like, what's next? So our long term vision is that we want a food truck. We want a business, you know, and it's it's youth operated.

And so all of those, recipes that the kids have created, what a great way for them to now be in this all about sweet potato food truck. Right? And so from the field, you can see the kids in the field from the food truck. Right? And so and, again, this would be a great opportunity, you know, for our youth, hand on experience, you know, running a business and and learning about operations and and all of the aspects of, running the business.

Yeah.

So the impact of Simi, you know, so oh my goodness. This has been such a great relationship that we've had with Simi just in terms of just building capacity, you know, for West Fresno Family Resource Center to serve our youth, you know, support the expansion of economic mobility programs, right, and resources and training for staff. You know, we recently, attended advocacy advocacy training with, live free. And, oh my goodness, they'll walk away. I'm actually still on fire from that.

And just just to understand the importance of advocacy, you know, that when you you know, someone said it earlier earlier, holding those elected officials accountable. Right? And so when you are in front of that elected official to know that, yes, you see me, but there's hundreds of people that are standing with me. And so to understand that and that was one of the big takeaways that I got, from that training. Policy opportunities.

And so, you know, we've advocated this before, fund community defined practices. Right? Integrate economics and prevention funding together. Support our young people. You know, I I don't wanna sound like nostalgia, but they are in the future.

They are. Right? And we also have to stand understand that it's not a picture perfect box. Right? We have to think outside of that box.

And our youth that are coming from these, communities that, just are impacted by these policies, by these decision makers to understand that, you know, for West Fresno Family Resource Center, we see these youth. You know, we understand our families. We understand that dynamic. And just because you're coming from that environment doesn't mean that you can't be successful. Right?

And and understand flexible funding models. Again, don't it's not a picture perfect box. You know? Understand that there is an opportunity, you know, to to support those nonprofits, those trusted nonprofits, those nonprofits that are on the ground doing the work. Well, we aren't able to show the creed, but there's a wonderful creed.

I'd encourage you all to visit our website. And it's a great creed that the kids have to memorize actually about the first week of the program. That's like mandatory in the program. So I just wanna end by saying, you know, community community driven solutions, they work. Economic mobility equals prevention.

Right? Invest in people and place. You know, it's so important. And so thank you.

Thank you for that, Yolanda. Let's give her another round of applause, please. I think I saw an image of Big Ben who was there, who who usually has won me over most years, and and you listed a number of items. I I think my selection last year was actually the corn the sweet potato cornbread that went along with the chili. There was also a funnel cake, which was delicious because it was that time right after the big Fresno fair.

And so a lot of us had favorites. I've been really proud to watch you continue to receive funding and do just wants to highlight that your funding is set to expire this June. And so it's necessary for us to highlight the improvements that you've been able to make. And so let's just look back on again from 1.92 GPA to 3.3 that you've been able to do more with the community defined evidence based practices than the funding through schools has been able to accomplish.

And that when you create those mentorship, the peer led community that was needed in particular through COVID, when too many kids were isolated and alone, that you were able to get them out into that two acre plot of land and to get them with their hands dirty.

And we were able to improve their educational goals is a reason why we need to continue to fund projects just like yours and to support community defining what works. And so I'm glad that the evidence is showing it, that you have story to tell, and I'm gonna continue to stand shoulder to shoulder with you to figure out how we meet the needs to make sure that you can continue. With that, let's hear from Addie Carr with Neighborhood Industries.

My name is Addie Carr with Neighborhood Industries. I'm the Social Services Director. I've had the privilege of working at Neighborhood Industries for the past fourteen years. I've also had, yeah, just the amazing opportunity to live, in South Fresno for the past two decades, work and live. And so I've really met, some incredible people, in our city, and I've had the Yeah, I've just I've been shaped.

I would education, there's lived education, and there's so many different types, and I've had the benefit of being educated by my neighbors for the past two decades. And so, yeah. I'm just really grateful for that. And I just wanna, yeah, thank you, doctor Ambiela and your office and, the Sierra Health Foundation for having Neighborhood Industries here, to share some of our experiences. Neighborhood Industries is also known as Neighborhood Thrift.

We are located in the Tower District of Fresno, and we just launched a new store about a year ago in Northwest Fresno. So we are in the salvage industry. We are into saving garden gnomes from the trash and different things that we glean from, basically, garages and homes across our city. In all areas of our city, we pick up items which is really neat.

We get to be in some of, yeah, some of our most wealthy communities in a day to some of our most marginalized neighborhoods.

And so we really yeah. We look to redistribute the resources that are in our city. We pick up actually as far as San Luis Obispo County as well. We pick up goods that are being recycled and we bring them here to the Central Valley and that has helped create jobs in the salvage industry here here in our city. Our focus is specifically on individuals that have barriers to employment.

And that is either, yeah, a lack of work experience or gaps in education to things like not having a driver's license, to low education attainment, to prior incarceration, individuals with

a history of substance abuse or unstable housing, individuals who have experienced systemic discrimination, and also folks who are survivors of trafficking and domestic violence. And so our our primary focus is to provide on the job training and case management.

So we walk hand in hand with folks as they learn soft skills, and we also work on things that come up when someone is actually on the job, whether that's maybe a conflict with a coworker or a struggle in their household that's preventing them from having great attendance. We specifically support into our employees in returning to school, accessing mental health services, and establishing health care services, like we getting a primary care doctor and and really taking care of their health and looking at preventative measures.

We also help individuals in obtaining driver's licenses.

We have the privilege of having a literacy coach as well on our contracting team, life coaching, and we've even got to do things like healthy eating workshops, which have been really, really fun for people. We also focus on helping people to obtain their goals. We believe that it's essential to meet people where they are at and support them in where they want to go.

And we we have been able to provide things like small loans for our employees that are no interest to for things that can help yeah.

Just help them to move up in their mobility from obtaining better to obtain better housing, whether that's a deposit somewhere or that's a down payment, also to repair cars, because we know just in the Central Valley with our transit system, it is really hard for a lot of people to get around without a vehicle and especially for them to access higher wage jobs.

And so yeah. We've really focused on book on on, yeah, helping people to get their driver's licenses and also to save the money, yet to be able to get their cars. We have a large focus on indigenous leadership over 50% of our our team from directors to leads have all come through our programs, and the majority of our team has lived experience. And so, yeah, so we we have the privilege of walking hand in hand and side by side and supporting one another.

We operate a little bit like a family, which is an incredible thing.

And, yeah, we really have been able to build the social capital, gap between all of ourselves and within our within our neighborhoods. We believe that employment is just one of the major stepping stones towards economic development. We like to say that there's no better resume than a pay stub. To witness people, buy their first car, take their family on a vacation. Yeah.

We were just some of our moms, like, going to the beach for the first time with their kids, things that we we get to witness that I think are, just incredible to be a part of. We've gotten to watch people buy houses, graduate from high school, graduate from college, invest in their retirement plan, and move on to better jobs. We like to say that we've had the the incredible opportunity to be a place of for meeting people in places of deep sorrow and also incredible joy.

Yeah, I love what we get to do. We love what we get to do.

And we're really grateful for, for the CME funding, especially, in this past year has been critical as federal funding has been cut for us as a nonprofit agency. We really, the CME funding was critical and us being able to open our second store, last year in 2025, in March 2025. So it's been exactly one year, since we've been able to do that. And why that's critical is not only did it allow us to expand our business model, but it created more jobs.

And so, yeah, they we were able to grow and also have an another impact in another place of our city in Northwest Fresno.

And so we've also I I think providing affordable goods for the community is a really critical thing in this time. With what we sell. And we've really found, at least in the Tower District, that we kind of are the local watering hole for different people, that come in and out, whether that's our unsheltered population. Like, our older our older residents. We really have been a safe place for people to come in in these harder times for people as well.

Yeah. Let's see. Yeah. So the CME dollars have really helped us to stay the course in tough financial times by generating revenue. It's unrestricted revenue that we are able to generate at our stores through the selling of used goods.

And that has yeah. That's really helped to for us to be able to continue to grow as an enterprise. It's also we've been able with more stores, we can pick up more stuff from more places, and that also creates a a larger demand for driver positions. Yeah. We have yeah.

We also have a focus on yeah. Looking yeah. At at what our our folks need and kind of growing from that. And we've really been shaped by the, yeah, folks who have come through our doors and their perspectives on leadership development. And that's shaped how we have grown as an organization.

Yeah. I just wanna share and end with one specific story about one of our amazing moms. She started just a couple years ago. When she started with us, she had left a domestic violence relationship. She was staying in a shelter with her with her children, and she started working with us.

She just came in and applied. And so and we hired her, and she would say that her time with us gave her gave her the ability to use her voice and know that she had a voice. And she grew in her confidence and knowing that she brought skills and had value and worth to the table and that she had a place to contribute. And it grew her ability to provide for her children and her confidence in that.

And she was able to get a driver's license and buy a car and get into, like, permanent supportive housing.

And so so for her yeah, it it made all the difference that she just had a second chance employer, and she had what it took. It just it was just someone coming alongside her. And so I think that a lot of our community members have what it takes. But, yeah, just speaking to the inequality and discrimination that does happen in our state and across our nation and across our world.

We really do believe that, like, each person has value and worth and dignity to continue to come alongside people and reveal that.

Thank you, Addie. I appreciate you meeting people where they're at. Having grown up down the street from where neighborhood thrift is, I I know the place well. In addition to picking stuff up, you have a great alley right behind you where people can drop stuff off at. You mentioned seniors and families with affordability.

I I will just elevate. My daughters and I love to be able to go thrift shopping, and find something fun for a date night for all of us. And really enjoy seeing how your ability to give people that first stepping stone into employment gives them the confidence to find permanent housing and to create economic mobility for so many families regardless where they may start at.

You speaking about focusing on literacy And some of the coaching that you do, having a grandfather who never wants to a day of school, who never learns to read or write. Everyone deserves the ability to find gainful employment that can make them make ends meet.

And so I'm glad that you're such a tremendous example of how we can meet people where they're at and all of the work that you do. Next, we have Maria Ridoute. I may not pronounce that right. Ridoute Orozco.

Actually, you are right the first time. It's Redoute.

Okay. Yeah. Thank you. With CAF. Please introduce yourself.

Thank you. Well, good afternoon, Chair Ambula. Like you mentioned, my name is Maria Ridoute Orozco. I serve at the San Joaquin Valley Farmer Advocate with the Community Alliance with Family Farmers, also known as CAF. CAF, it's an organization that has been around for almost fifty years.

It works in California along small and mid scale family farmers through free technical assistance and policy advocacy to strengthen local food systems, to support farm viability, and to advance equitable access to resources and markets. Today, I'm here to speak about the perspective from the farmers that we work with every day here in the San Joaquin Valley, and to share how being part of the community economic mobility initiative has strengthened that work.

But I also want to talk about a little bit about the challenges and opportunities that exist in the agricultural landscape here in the San Joaquin Valley. So to talk a little bit more about the farmers that we serve at CAF, when I say small farmers, I mean more than three quarters of the farmers that we have in the San Joaquin Valley. More than 77% of the farmers here in the Valley are small farmers.

They operate in less than a 100 acres, and they come in a very diverse tapestry. There's a lot of immigrant farmers, a lot of BIPOC farmers, a lot of new and beginning farmers. And these folks are typically not, included in a lot of federal programs and a lot of state programs. And these are also the folks that grow the fruits and vegetables that we eat every day. So there's a big disconnection there to start with.

Unfortunately, the agriculture ecosystem is going through a crisis. Today, we lose a farmer here in the San Joaquin Valley every single day. We lose almost 300 farms, small farms in the San Joaquin Valley per year. So as we're speaking, we're probably losing a farm right now. And this is not just an agricultural issue, but it's also a regional economic mobility issue, because it affects the our small business owners here in the valley to survive and thrive.

From our direct work that we do with farmers, we often hear about different challenges that they face starting from finding affordable land to be able to operate to water. There's increasingly regulations around ground water, and that makes making business very complex here in the San Joaquin Valley, and that compounds to the regular, issues that exist like barriers to capital, experiencing climate extremes, and how to, navigate different emergencies like floods, drought, and stream heat. These challenges don't exist in isolation. They compound.

They limit the the economic mobility from our communities.

And this is where CME has really played a critical role in supporting organizations like CAF support these different communities. Through CME, we have been able to share to build a shared agenda for inclus inclusive economic development that bridges both the San Joaquin Valley and the Sacramento Valley. It has brought together farmers, farm workers, and other community based organizations that typically don't sit at the same table. And through these investments, we've been able to align around the common goal of expanding economic mobility here in our region.

This can be seen in very different tangible ways.

For example, the prop four investments that we wanna be very thankful of your continued support that was passed, and now we're able to be engaged in the implementation of the prop $4 that are coming to the state. These investments also look like being able to engage with the California Agricultural Land Equity Task Force that recently, issued a report, and we're able to work on their recommendations to make sure that more farmers, prospective farmers have access to land here in the state.

It looks like regional market opportunities, that we've been working out very hard with our our partner organizations here in the Valley. We have also created a new brand called Central to the Valley, where we aim to provide pride to for everybody that lives, works, and it's from the Valley. It also has looked like, being able to coordinate through federal and state investments and making sure that the community is ready to harness these investments.

And I wanna talk about that because local food systems are powerful economic engines and they're the heart of our valley. We know that every dollar that we spent in regional food systems, search plays back into the local economy at a much higher rate. So supporting small farmers is not just about agriculture, but it's also about supporting the economic mobility of our communities. So when the state invest in these different, programs, the impact is real.

We are seeing it right now with, what everybody has exposed and what we're going to continue hearing.

And it's also true that we're at a turning point right now. With significant federal funding cuts, threatened to dismantle a lot of the progress that has been made through all these investments. All the infrastructure, all that we've built over the past several years. And without state leadership, we risk losing that infrastructure, we risk losing that momentum that we have built. This is a really great opportunity for the state to step up and make sure that those investments and that infrastructure continues moving.

We are urging continued investment in key programs and improving programs, like the ones that we've already mentioned in this table today. I also want to mention two very tangible examples of how

these, federal cuts have been impacting our communities. For one, I want to talk about LFPA. It stands for local food purchasing assistance program. It's also known as farms together here in California. It's a federal program that started back in 2022, and it has invested in California alone, almost a $100,000,000 to make sure that food banks are able to access local produce, to make sure that farmers are adequately compensated for that produce, and for low income citizens to be able to access that local produce.

Unfortunately, this administration, this federal administration cut that program, and they canceled all the contracts that existed, with the last contracts being terminated next month in May. So we are asking the the legislator also to step up in front of these federal cuts to be able to bring more investments to The Valley. The Valley has been one of the major recipients of that program, just to name two examples.

Fresno BIPOC produce, which is a food hub here in Fresno, and Sweet Valley produce, which is a food hub in Merced, have been heavily involved in that program, and they've been able to move millions of dollars from the economy into the region, the regional economy.

We're urging not just, to fund these proven programs, but also keep investing in our small farmers that are in a critical moment right now, amidst federal divestment, and yeah, just to close, I want to emphasize that inclusive economic development here in the valley has to include farmers, and it has to include small farmers, as well as our farm workers, because they're the people that are working day in and day out to put food in our tables.

Thank you so much for for hosting us, and yeah. Don't remember don't forget to invest in small farmers.

Thank you, Maria. Next, we'll hear from Daniella Rodriguez, who's the policy advocacy senior manager at Immigrants Rising.

Thank you. Good afternoon, Chair Arambula. My name is Daniella Rodriguez, and I serve as a policy advocacy senior manager at Immigrants Rising. Thank you for having me and bringing us all together today, especially a place like Fresno State University, where we know that institutions of higher education are such powerful economic engines and key drivers of socioeconomic mobility. I'd also like to mention that our executive director, doctor Ileana Perez, who unfortunately cannot be here today, is a very proud of, Fresno State alumna.

Immigrants Rising, for those who may not be familiar, is an organization dedicated to empowering immigrants regardless of their status to achieve their educational and career goals through personal, institutional, and policy transformation. Because we understand the complexity of needs that immigrants face, we take a comprehensive and coordinated approach that combines direct services with capacity building and policy advocacy.

We've been around for twenty years, and in those twenty years have collectively directly served over 10,000 individuals, created over a 150 resources, and champion legislative victories that have helped undocumented individuals unlock opportunity in the state.

It goes without saying that immigrants are centered to California and, of course, the San Joaquin Valley. For generations, they have raised families, attended schools, launched businesses, and work jobs that keep our state and country running. On top of their innovation and cultural richness, undocumented immigrants are central to our economy, contributing nearly $8,500,000,000 in taxes. And there are an estimated 220,000 undocumented entrepreneurs in California. Yet through our work, we know that there are structural and policy inequities that persist for this community to achieve full economic mobility.

Because self employment and business ownership do offer path to individual economic mobility and community economic development, regardless of immigration status, our programming is uniquely tailored in this area. The first strategy in our multi prompt approach is that of technical assistance and resource creation. We do this through the hosting of free webinars and bilingual workshops on a wide range of topics like business incorporation, access to capital, tax filing, and asset protection.

We also do this by providing individualized technical assistance on ranging needs like small business certification and scaling strategies. And we accomplished this through the creation of dozens of digital resources and tools to help individuals navigate economic pathways like business licensure and entrepreneurship.

One of those tools is our Immigrant Biz Hub, which is a platform available nationwide that provides comprehensive and centralized entrepreneurship curriculum. The second approach is that is what I call partnership based capacity building. This approach or our entire approach is rooted in strategic partnership and community trust.

And this is evident in our work in the greater Fresno area, which is home to a large population of immigrants, including undocumented immigrants, who have limited support systems compared to other areas in the state, as was noted in the first panel.

An example of this is our membership in the Central Valley Alliance, where we have partnered with Central Valley, Immigrant Integration Collaborative known as Civic, New Business Community Law Clinic, and the Fresno Area Hispanic Foundation to provide coordinated wrap around support to low income and mixed status entrepreneurs.

A second example is that of our Fresno Entrepreneurship Academy, where we have partnered with campuses and dream resource centers to meet students where they are to offer a foundational entrepreneurship training program delivered through the immigrant biz hub platform that I mentioned earlier. The academy supports students through advising and pitch competitions. Two of which we have hosted here at Fresno State and most recently, as part of Fresno's Fresno State stream week, just a couple of weeks ago.

What is unique about our role in these partnerships is our connection to institutions of higher education. We have a whole portfolio just on economic, sorry, college affordability and access, but we don't treat them as separate because as was noted earlier, education, it's all all connected.

And that is how we approach our work in Fresno and across, the state through a pipeline lens. Lastly, our strategy includes working towards systems level change. As a co lead in the Statewide Economic Mobility for All Coalition, which is made up of over, Statewide partners focused on pushing for just that. The economic mobility for everyone regardless of their background.

This coalition was successful in securing, $7,500,000 investment in the 2025 state budget act for a third round of the social entrepreneurs for economic development initiative, also known as seed, which funds community based organizations to provide micro grants, technical assistance, and entrepreneurial training to individuals with limited English proficiency, and immigrants who support them.

And not just starting scaling businesses, but also worker co worker owned cooperatives. And we look forward to, helping see seed a reinvestment in the seed initiative as it is only, a one time investment right now, at the state level. Through this work that I just described, we are able to hear in real time directly from community members what emergency challenges they are facing.

And as you may imagine, one of the top things that we're hearing is a real concern around how their information is being accessed and utilized for non intended purposes and more specifically detention, detention and deportation purposes. And that is creating a real chilling effect on resource utilization.

These concerns are also exacerbated by the uncertainty and for some, even the loss of temporary statuses like DACA and TPS that is leading to real, not imaginary instability in families, communities, the workforce, and the economy. Challenges with access to capital, also impacting not just undocumented immigrants, but permanent residents as they have recently been excluded from accessing federal small business loans, making programs like SEED even more urgent to serve the community.

To end on a brighter note, our work has not only been illuminating to the challenges, but also the opportunities, and the programs that have been proven to work. For one, as, you know, something I'm hearing, not just in the fur this panel, but in the first panel, is this theme around partnerships. And so much of our work, at Immigrants Rising is made possible through public private partnerships with partners like, CalOSBA, GoBiz, the James Irvine Foundation, and so many others that make this work possible.

We are proud of the work we've done together, but the challenges, of today require further investment and doubling down in these types of partnerships, so that we can scale and maximize our collective impact. And just to close, I will end with this. That the current landscape presents us with an opportunity and responsibility to support immigrants, build partnerships, and secure inclusive policies that contribute to the creation of a socioeconomic ecosystem where everyone in our state can thrive, not just survive.

Thank you and happy to answer your questions at the appropriate time.

Thank you for that. And, I will just ask a few questions before we get to public comment. I do wanna notice how most of you spoke about the importance that CEMI has placed as well as the role that the state has helped to play and assisting along the way as well. And I think that continue me remembering it?

Before you before you go on to your questions

Lynisha help yourself.

Okay. Last but not least, I am here. I've been on Zoom from the beginning, so thank you for the opportunity to share. So my again, my name is Lynisha Senegal, and I represent Vision View Business Formation Center, Bluebird Bluestrap Economics.

We operate as a dual model incubator, both physical and portable, models focused on building capital ready businesses through a structured, framework, where we equip entrepreneurs with the financial systems and, infrastructure that they need to become fundable, where we're also able to provide a warm handoff to financial institutions.

Through our work as also a technical assistance provider, we're part of the Scale Fresno network where we're actively supporting and preparing small businesses to become capital ready to expand. And while we have been working and preparing our businesses to scale, we have been, some of these businesses from manufacturing to small restaurants have been hitting the brick wall.

We're finding that some of our land is landlocked or unaffordable and have no real pathways or opportunities for ownership, as well as we're finding that public land is being land banked by private, by private management companies that have these leases that, last anywhere from thirty to ninety nine years, and they're holding them at nominal, lease rates, and paying only as little as $3 a year in some cases.

And we, you know, we've under we have also witnessed that while these particular land leases that are owned by these private management companies, we we don't see any clear activation timelines for these leases. There's not really any accessible database where we can really learn about, you know, their intent to use that particular land or that particular property or they're holding it vacant and what their intent is and whether or not there's a community benefit tied to that particular private lease agreement with these management agencies.

And so there's a number of small businesses that are coming together and building coalitions to understand what we can do to, you know, one, learn about, you know, how we can operate in some of these public public spaces and understanding, you know, also that, you know, while the land is functionally while we while our community and our government, owns pop public owned land, but we're learning that it's public functionally inaccessible.

And so, in some cases, we're having not only vacant or inactive spaces, but we're seeing missed opportunity in instances where it's attracting the illegal dumping, increasing vagrancy in some areas. And it's also discouraging foot traffic to our local businesses. And so we're hoping that we can work with our lawmakers to develop with our small businesses and not around it.

Especially here in Fresno, we have a number of economic development plans to expand and, you know, especially when we think about high speed rail or the Fresno Airport expansion projects that are currently happening.

We, you know, we're looking to work with the businesses that are in these corridors to continue to spur economic development.

In fact, we VisionView, we brought together a coalition of about 25 businesses and CBOs working together to align capital so that we can be able to work with some of these be able to acquire some of these properties, develop them and and create jobs in small business growth workforce development, launch farmers markets, food courts, mixed family entertainment hubs, and expand in in leveraging our our green spaces, for our community.

But what we're hoping as far as how we can see change is public land must be governed with the expectation that it's active for public benefit, not just passive holding as what we're seeing with some of these legacy landowners and private managing companies.

And so when we think about policy actions, we're hoping that, you know, we can see that in some of the policies that there's clear activation timelines as to some of these managing companies as to when they'll activate that property for jobs to create small business growth and also to be able to have, like, a use it or lose it enforcement clause.

And then, again, ensuring that there's transparency and oversight as to, you know, how we can the community can access, you know, learning about these available land, you know, land opportunities. So I have a slide that I'll put up. We do we have had a conversation about some collaborative solutions for collective ownership and and opportunity, working with, you know, with our community. And I'll just highlight a few of them.

So when we think about create designating community zones, while we have things like the enterprise zone, the empowerment zones, opportunity zones, and we understand that those are all established federal and state level initiatives aimed at encouraging economic growth and an investment in distressed areas.

We're actually hoping that we can, create a collaborative solution where it's more localized, and it's not and and not, you know, higher prioritizing outside investors, but really working with the community, focusing more on community ownership and wealth building strategies economic empowerment within our neighborhoods. And so some of those being creating a community wealth zone, for example, and in that particular community wealth zone, we will designate specific neighborhoods in our communities where it we offer targeted support.

There's a number of small businesses or or technical assistance providers that can really provide targeted technical support for the businesses that are co located in these particular zones with the understanding that they that that particular area is focused and prioritizing working with our public and private institutions to spur economic development, as well as, you know, maybe creating opportunities where we have tenant to owner conversion grants, working with some of these legacy landowners that are holding some of these businesses, and dilapidated businesses.

But for local small businesses that would love the opportunity to own some of those, properties, maybe working with us to create these tenant to owner conversion grants, and then continuing the protections for our small businesses and nonprofits.

A lot of us, were impacted by the last this administration and budget cuts. And rent should not be the the number one thing that these small businesses are prioritizing before they are able to continue their missions. And so and so and serving the community. So seeing ways that we can continue to extend rent protections and offer opportunities for facility modernization and opportunities for small businesses, you know, so that we can continue to serve our communities without the burden of inflated property costs.

And so that is my, you know, my conversation, and I appreciate the opportunity to share.

Thank you, Lynisha. Wonderful presentation. In light of the time, I'm gonna ask one question for the panel. Many of you spoke about funding that's not stable.

Funding that had been started with the California reducing disparities project, funding that is like the SEED grant program that's now on its third iteration, One time funding that helped neighborhood industries to be able to scale and to grow federal funding through the LFPA, Families Together program that I believe was under the leadership of Blang Zhong, who was the USDA representative here in the Central Valley that we had. And the gaps that CEMI has been able to provide to create that stability.

But would love to hear from the panelists here today. How does that affect your ability to scale, to have consistency, to meet the continued need that isn't just this single year, but is every year. Can you speak to the challenges that it makes for your organizations to be able to meet that continued need?

And can you elevate the importance of us coming up with solutions that are longer term and not just budget cycle by budget cycle?

Yeah. That's a great question. So I think for West Fresno Family Resource Center, you know, we we hear, you know, you have braided funded funding. Right? So not just relying on one source, but bringing bringing in multiple sources.

And so with us, we are looking at the Cali initiative, you know, which I think is a great opportunity. But however, if you have not been in that arena so now changing your whole mindset, your your whole workflow, how how you do business. Right? So it's it's challenging. Right?

Although, I don't think that it is like the answer, but certainly it is it is it is a great opportunity and we don't wanna, miss out on an opportunity. So training staff, you know, as a matter of fact, we just had a staff meeting last week and, we we are, in we have two Medicare providers, Calviva and Anthem, you know, Kaiser here in Fresno. And so we have just started that whole medical, that billing process, CS, CS, CS support, and also ECM.

However, we have their electronic medical record system, so, you know, training staff on how to case manage and collect data and do intakes and assessments and which is all kinda new, right, for staff. So we had a staff meeting last week and so and each one of our staff was reporting on their programs and the work and the contacts and the families that they have been meeting with.

And so just in this staff meeting, I just I calculated, like, nearly 200 contacts were made with staff. And so then I posed a question, so how many assessments were completed? None. I said, so that's literally 200 assessments. That's money going out the door.

And so it's it's extremely important for nonprofits, especially with Fresno Family Resource Center. Somebody comes in, they need help. We help. It's like, Oh, wait. I gotta stop.

I gotta do an assessment. I gotta do all this stuff. Changing the mindset of staff, I think, is is a challenge. I know that we'll overcome it, but it just takes time. Right?

But in the meantime, when you you have grants, you have obligations that you have to fulfill. So it's it is a challenge. Right? And so and I think to and also an opportunity for especially the state led, these federal the state led initiatives, you know, they they sunset. You know, administrations change and it's not a priority.

And so it's, you know, while you're doing great work, you have great data, you know, it's it's always a constant battle, you know, in terms of advocacy to make sure, hey. We need funding for this. So, you know, I'm not quite sure if I answered your question, but it's a great question.

It and it is a challenge, but, you know, it's it's I I strongly feel we'll overcome it, especially, you know, having support like CEMI and and and training staff, training the board, you know, providing that capacity within the organization. So you're just not relying on one source, you know, to to support your efforts.

You went through a few acronyms there, so I just wanna make sure to Uh-oh. Define them. CalAIM is the Advancing Innovating medical program. CS is community support. ECM is the enhanced case management.

Do wanna offer up to you to make it hyper local. April 16, we're doing a community resource fair at the West Fresno Community College campus. We're also doing one at Saint Gresse Baptist Church on April 18. So would love as we are reaching out to community, if you'd love to have a table, a forum there, if maybe better able to connect you to residents who have needs of those community supports. So we'd love to follow-up.

Please, Danielle.

Yes. So I totally second everything that was just shared on the impacts from an organizational standpoint when there is one time funded, you know, kind of a year by year cases, funding model. But I wanna speak to the impact that that has also on the people that we serve. Right? There's definitely that impact as well because you're right, you know, like, from an organization standpoint, you know, you know, we'll we'll figure it out.

Right? But then the community members who we are serving suddenly, like, oh, I can no longer apply for this grant. I can no longer get the same quality of re of service that I was receiving before. And with SEED in particular, what's so unique about that program is that it's I I mean, unless somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't know of any other program like that that exists in the nation that serves that invests in immigrant entrepreneurs.

And what's, you know and this is also very unique because undocumented immigrants in particular have very little access to capital in the in traditional, sources of capital.

And so seed really fills that gap. So that just wanted to, you know, speak to that point of what does it mean for the people that we serve and for immigrant communities, and we're talking about economic development requires a state to invest. So we're more than welcome and open to, you know, exploring what any matching models that could exist. Because I think there's a vested interest among all of us and all of the parties, public and private here.

So thank you for the for the opportunity to respond.

We'll elevate if I can. MECO, a bill Assembly Bill 626 from a number of years ago that I was a joint author on with Eduardo Garcia. A current version this year that creates a statewide standard.

Many of those micro enterprise home kitchen operations are our immigrants who were food vendors, who are now looking to take that next step up, who may receive the seed funding, which may allow them to be the small business owners of tomorrow and to create and open up their own shop. It's those types of success stories that I think we need more of here in our country or in our state.

So, Maria?

Yeah. First, I want to really be very grateful about initiatives like CEMI, because it really helps us move from just isolated efforts to a more coordinated community driven strategy that we can meet with more flexibility. It helps us build social infrastructure, create these partnerships, it meets the moment. Unfortunately, like you mentioned, it is very short term. So even though we have this time of flexibility now to leverage this and get other opportunities, that really short sighted strategy really impacts our organizations.

There's like stock turnover, there's community members that, you know, found themselves whenever the project sunsets not being able to find anybody or meet their needs. So I think there's really a lot of space to create more long term investments to make sure that all these efforts are really, you know, built onto all these infrastructure that we have already created.

And I think, somebody mentioned about like one term, one time funding that comes through the state, and some of those programs, and I'm gonna talk particularly about one program from CFA, are really great because they really meet the moment. So I wanna talk about CUSP, which is the California underserved and small producer program, which help farmers in the state recover some of the losses that they got from climate extremes.

So when they suffer from floods, from extreme heat, from droughts, it really helped them all the the extra business expenses and some of the losses that they they suffer to be recovered through this program.

Unfortunately, that was also a one time funding program. So we really need to create a better strategy, especially for some of these issues that are evergreen, like climate extremes here in California, like land access and lack of affordability because of land consolidation. These are all topics that really need a longer term investment if we wanna create not just social infrastructure, but actual capital infrastructure.

With the time at hand, I do wanna thank this entire panel, and it behooves me as a proud feminist just to point out that it's women who are being the change makers and the trusted messengers and really appreciate you being a part of this panel here today. With that, we'll now open up for public comment. If you can come forward, we're putting a microphone up here at the front and feel free to make public comments.

Hello. Vivian Velasco Paz. I am cochair of the Central Valley Community Foundation, but just that last hour, it's been really inspirational. You'll hear the work that you all are doing in the community. And thank you, Assemblymember Arambula, for your leadership.

I just want to continue to urge you and your colleagues and I know that you're in transition and we're concerned that we're losing you there and we hope we have a good advocate there for us who continues to direct resources to the Central Valley. We've been fortunate to get some, but we have so much work to do in this area. And so, you know, we want to continue to encourage the the legislature to bring the resources to this part of the state.

Thank you.

Thank you, doctor Arambula, for hosting this hearing. My name is Antonio Aguilar with the Cameo Network. We're a leading small business advocate and ecosystem builder. As you know, diverse, very small businesses are critical to California's economy, our affordability agenda, and economic mobility. Just to paint a picture for you all, California is home to 4,300,000 small businesses.

3,500,000 of those are micro businesses, meaning they have no employees. And small businesses are responsible for 99.7% of net new job creation and employ nearly half of the state's workforce. And 2,200,000 of the small businesses, or over half of them, are owned by Hispanic or other racial minority groups. These businesses are key to a pathway to economic mobility for millions of Californias. And at the same time, many of these entrepreneurs are facing increasing challenges from rising costs to barriers in accessing capital and markets.

Cameo Network encourages the state to promote investment in local entrepreneurial ecosystem policies that strengthen them. We believe a strong ecosystem includes the five Cs, which are coaching, capital, connections, climate and culture. We also ask that you help reduce barriers to entry for entrepreneurs and small businesses and expand market opportunities and protect small businesses and entrepreneurs from extractive tax, labor, or other unforeseen cost that can place undue stress on already thin margins. And just a reminder for everyone that supporting small strengthens us all.

Thank you so much.

Seeing no further public comment, I'll bring it back up to the dais for closing comments before we close today's hearing. I again wanted just to thank the Sierra Health Foundation for helping to organize, both through CEMI, but also working closely with this select committee, as well as the center at Sierra Health, a separate entity within them that's been instrumental in framing these conversations.

I do want to thank Next Gen Policy, who's been very helpful in making sure that we are able to have these types of conversations up and down our state. And finally, I wanna thank, Fresno State for allowing us to use these facilities and to be present here today. As I started my comments earlier, I do wanna thank all of the panelists who were able to bring their presentations and the conversation that's necessary.

And hope you'll join us for the future conversations that we'll have up and down the state. Thank you. And this concludes today's select committee hearing.