Opportunity Miami will create a community-wide economic vision

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Miami skyline. CARL JUSTE [email protected]

Thinking about Miami’s economic future, it’s hard to imagine a time when our community was more strongly positioned for success. Businesses and people flocked here during the pandemic. Years of efforts to build Miami’s art and cultural life, revitalize its urban core, and stimulate its tech community are paying off.

Yet, at this time of great promise, we also face daunting and stubborn challenges. Miami is among the most unequal metropolitan areas in the United States It is one of the cities most threatened, globally, by rising sea levels. And, despite great progress, we’re still in the early days of building a diverse economy with high-wage jobs and talent to match.

It is a crucial moment. And that’s why we at the Miami-Dade Beacon Council, along with partners across the county, are launching Opportunity Miami, a new community-wide initiative to help catalyze a long-term vision for Greater Miami’s economic future – and gather the community to create it.

The future of Miami

Crucial to the effort is the belief that our greatest challenges present our greatest opportunities. We believe Miami’s economic future hinges on doing three things right:

▪ Continue to promote entrepreneurship and innovation in order to create well-paid jobs and further diversify the economy;

▪ Drastically increase economic inclusion and stimulate social mobility through the development of talents;

▪ Transforming the challenge of climate change into a generational business opportunity by being a leader in the global transition to a zero-emission economy.

It’s a pivotal time not because things can go so bad, but because they can go so well. Consider what’s possible:

▪ As technology allows for greater distribution of capital and talent, new centers of innovation and job creation are emerging. Miami, already on the rise, has the opportunity to consolidate its role as a leader among these emerging and entrepreneurial cities.

▪ With a historic demographic shift occurring in the United States over the next 25 years, Miami can be a global example of what an extraordinarily diverse and skilled workforce looks like by increasing economic inclusion and driving social mobility through talent development.

▪ As the world moves to a zero-carbon economy by 2050, resulting in countless new industries, companies and jobs, Miami can be a leader in turning the challenge of climate change into a historic business opportunity. that creates jobs and drives our economy for more than a generation.

New model for Miami

This innovative, inclusive and sustainable future is what we can only build together. Opportunity Miami is a community-wide platform to help you do this.

Opportunity Miami rests on the shoulders of One Community One Goal, the initiative founded in the 1990s by civic leader Jay Malina and relaunched in 2012 by The Beacon Council, which focused on identifying key economic issues and proposing measures to face them.

That mission remains just as important today. But today’s rapidly changing world requires compasses, not maps. Organizations have often created lengthy projects to do this type of work. The risk today, however, is that static relationships become obsolete within months. To keep up with new challenges and opportunities, a new model is needed for how we envision and build our economic future.

This means creating a platform that is iterative, that can move quickly and meet people where they are. With this in mind, Opportunity Miami will engage in five ways: weekly email newsletters, daily social media, biweekly podcasts, monthly live events (starting in 2022) and a website – opportunity.miami – that organizes the various content in threads framed around specific fundamental questions for our future.

We aim to raise a new question each month and address it publicly, through digital media and events, learning with the community as we go. How can we ensure that every Miami-Dade family has high-speed Internet access? How can technological innovation boost small businesses? How can we achieve carbon-free mobility and drive economic growth?

Beyond the electoral cycles

The approach is to elevate the best ideas, practices, research and people addressing issues critical to our economic future, engage across Miami-Dade County, and share clear, actionable solutions to help our community make better decisions. , faster.

It is an endeavor that requires a long view. Go beyond election cycles and news cycles to imagine the Miami we want to build in 2040, when the baby of Miami today is ready to enter the world of work.

Opportunity Miami is built on the understanding that this will require all of us to create the economic future we want, ranging from businesses, nonprofits and educational institutions to startups, governments, activists and joint residents.

Let’s shape our economic future together.

Matt Haggman is executive vice president of the Miami-Dade Beacon Council, where he leads Opportunity Miami. He was previously the Miami Program Director at the Knight Foundation and was an award-winning reporter at the Miami Herald. Opportunity Miami can be found online at opportunit.miami and on the @opportunitymia social media channels.

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