City Heights Inclusive Economic Recovery and Resilience Agenda
The City Heights Inclusive Economic Recovery and Resilience Agenda is a strategic three-year action plan that serves as a blueprint for equitable economic recovery and development in City Heights. The Agenda builds upon current community resilience strategies and planning efforts and identifies opportunities and resources to strengthen existing and create new programs and projects to advance economic recovery and resiliency. The plan informs LISC San Diego's local work plan and investment strategy and coordinates the efforts of non-profit organizations and public agencies engaged in addressing the repercussions of COVID-19 and on-going needs of City Heights business owners and residents.
Pueblo Planning, a participatory planning and design firm, facilitated the planning process, which included collecting and analyzing quantitative and qualitative data and working with Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) and an Advisory Committee to co-develop a plan that is informed by community stories. CBOs in the Participatory Working Group were instrumental in defining the community engagement strategy and connecting Pueblo Planning with 50 residents and business owners that shared their stories and strategies for resilience. Storytelling sessions engaged people from populations that were hardest hit by COVID-19.
Additionally, the online survey of residents and business owners was offered in five languages.The Advisory Committee included over 20 representatives from public agencies, workforce and business development organizations, community-based organizations, local philanthropy, and academic institutions. This committee helped to identify the baseline data to collect and supported the development of community-defined strategies.