This mural is a product of the collaborative efforts of youth artists, practicing artists, and community members in the spirit of the movement for Black and brown life. It is based on the photograph of Louis Michael, taken by SB Maney on May 29th, 2020 in downtown Oakland during the first of many mass protests of the murder of George Floyd.

Artists, Collaborators, and Contributors: L.C. Howard, Louis Michael, Aireon Tauarres Joy Johnson, Sarahbeth Maney, John Christie, Sam Kober, Gina Martinez, Jessica Gallegos, Kylie Jolyn, Anaya Dennis, Malia Johnson, Prota Mayo Rodriguez, Emiliano Zapata, James Miller, Josue Cruz, Suledy Mones-Higuera, Nicole Green, Juan Guillermo Matia Pablo, and Edwin Alonzo Ortiz Meja, Rayshawn the Artist, Destany Michael, JuVinci the Creator, Julius Underwood.

What Could an Anti-Racist Education and Training System Look Like?

In the past five weeks, we have seen unprecedented action in support of the Movement for Black Lives in communities around the country, including many Bay Area cities. In addition to demanding an end to police brutality against Black and brown people, community leaders and policymakers are advancing visionary yet practical solutions that re-imagine the systems that perpetuate structural racism in the United States.

As with all American systems and institutions, we know that the white supremacy and racism that poison our justice system are also active in our education and training systems, contributing to a lack of economic opportunity and mobility for workers of color.

At ReWork the Bay we wonder, “what could an anti-racist education and training system look like?”

To begin to answer that question, we acknowledge that education and training systems respond to, and are reflective of, the broader economic system they operate in. Economic policy determines what jobs are created, the quality of those jobs, and in many ways, who gets hired to fill them. In other words, the economic system sets the rules of the game by which education and training systems must play. And in America, those rules weren’t written to lead to equitable outcomes.

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Small Businesses are Key to an Inclusive Recovery

California small businesses, half of which are owned by people of color, are often more open to hiring people with barriers to employment. Most also support investing in their workers, including expanding job protections.

A thriving small business ecosystem is critical to an inclusive recovery. This week we feature a piece from our Equity at Work Council member Mark Herbert of Small Business Majority about the impact of COVID-19 on small businesses and policy ideas to meet their needs.

Job creators need help to survive and thrive after COVID-19

By Mark Herbert, Small Business Majority

While parts of our region slowly start to reopen, the impacts on our small business community and the workforce continue to be bleak. But we have an opportunity right now to recognize the important role small businesses play in providing critical jobs and enact changes that will bolster them, and our workforce as a whole.

The time to act is now.

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Toward a #WorkerLedFuture

The “future of work” is often framed as the inevitable outcome of factors outside of our control. In reality, we all have agency, and in fact a responsibility, to help decide what the future of work will look like, and who it will benefit. Today we are excited to release a report in partnership with Jobs with Justice San Francisco and Working Partnerships USA that offers a framework to help us all play a part in creating a #WorkerLedFuture.

The Future of Work(ers): New Framework Examines the Changing Nature of Work in the Bay Area

By Working Partnerships USA and Jobs with Justice SF

The shifting dynamics we see today are the culmination of decades’ worth of more fundamental changes to our economy and our democracy: the growing power disparity between workers and firms; institutionalized racism and gender oppression; climate change; and demographic shifts. Technology is not a driver of change, but a tool that facilitates change and permits long-standing inequities to show themselves in stark, new ways.

READ BLOG AND REPORT

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