Citi Foundation Future of Work
Planning for Inclusive Growth: Building the Workforce of the Future in South Bend
Cities across America are facing the challenge of unprecedented levels of change. Today’s urban leaders are being forced to find innovative solutions to a variety of interconnected issues: job losses to automation and the offshoring of manufacturing; declining wage rates and increasing inequality; diminished tax base; growing elderly population; high healthcare costs; and aging infrastructure.
Accelerating automation across diverse sectors adds a new sense of urgency, threatening to displace large numbers of both white and blue-collar jobs. To address these challenges, mayors are going to need new tools and sophisticated data to guide their planning, priority setting and investment of scarce public funds.
In partnership with Citi Foundation and the McKenna Center for Human Development and Global Business, the Pulte Institute for Global Development will collaborate with the Brookings Institute to develop a program of applied collaborative research with the City of South Bend (CofSB). The program will provide a data platform and planning tools to guide city leaders in making future decisions about economic growth, workforce development, and essential social investments.
In addition to the database and tool development, interdisciplinary faculty and staff from the University of Notre Dame, the Pulte Institute, and Brookings will have the opportunity to collaborate on diverse research initiatives to document some of the unique aspects of South Bend’s recent recovery and revitalization process. This research will shed light on lessons from the South Bend experience, which can hopefully be shared with other cities.