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to make the region from Baltimore to Richmond the most inclusive and competitive in the nation.
The Blueprint aims to unite and catalyze efforts to make the Capital Region the nation’s leading economic engine of inclusive growth and shared prosperity—making it a more attractive place to live and thrive, and a greater magnet for talent and business investment.
The Blueprint outlines six inter-connected priority pillars for our region to focus on to close equity gaps and achieve this vision. These issues cannot be solved in siloes—for example, an individual with stable housing, reliable transportation, and access to health resources will be better positioned to attain education and maintain stable employment.
The Capital Region – which spans Baltimore to Richmond – has extraordinary diversity, tremendous assets, and immense potential. Our region encompasses world-class universities and research institutions, leading growth industries, and a rich diversity of people and cultures. As the third largest regional economy in the U.S. and the seventh largest in the world, the Capital Region has the talent, jobs, transportation, and innovation ecosystem foundation to prosper.
Peter Scher
Vice Chairman, JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Board Chair, Greater Washington Partnership
Tony Pierce
Partner in Charge, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP Washington Office
Chair, Inclusive Growth Board Committee
Greater Washington Partnership
Sheila Johnson
Founder & CEO, Salamander Hotels & Resorts
Co-Chair, Inclusive Growth Strategy Council
Jason Wright
President, Washington Commanders
Co-Chair, Inclusive Growth Strategy Council
Icon Key
Organizational Practice
Adapting or changing an organizational approach such as workforce practices or business procedures to support inclusivity
Financial Investment
Providing financial capital to help cover the cost of a program, service, or initiative
Resource Sharing
Resource Sharing: Exchanging or disseminating information, best practices, resources, or forming industry partnerships
Public Policy
Promoting or amending public policy, regulations, or funding
The Capital Region is the third largest regional economy in the U.S. and possesses a diverse population, a flourishing business scene, and a burgeoning startup community.
It is a global economy home to a workforce of more than 5.3M4 residents (3.5M of which hold a bachelor’s degree or higher)5 and hosts the headquarters of 48 Fortune 1000 companies.6 The Capital Region is the seat of the country’s government and has unparalleled access to federal agencies, laboratories, and policy institutions. Further, it is also a world-class innovation hub, boasting research centers and critical business and trade infrastructure. Despite these factors, the region’s economic growth rate lags behind that of the nation as a whole: from 2020 to 2021, national real GDP grew 5.5%1, outpacing the region’s 3.3%2 real GDP growth.A Additionally, racial disparities persist across areas such as education, employment, health, housing, access to capital, and access to transportation and digital infrastructure.
The Partnership recognizes there are many communities in our region who face barriers to economic inclusion, including, but not limited to, the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community, the American Indian and Alaska Native community, the LGBTQ+ community, women, veterans, immigrants, refugees, and those with diverse abilities. This Blueprint explicitly calls out the Black and Hispanic/LatinxB communities in many instances, as the data across our six pillars most often indicates that
in our region, these communities experience acute disparities in economic inclusion.
“The mission of the Greater Washington Partnership…is a model that can and should be replicated around our nation.”
Kamala D. Harris,
Vice President of the United States
Ensuring that the Capital Region is the most inclusive and
competitive region in the nation requires a cross-sector approach.
The Partnership leverages the interest and commitment of
the region’s largest employers to prioritize inclusive growth
across all pillars.
The Partnership’s
work spans three focus areas: skills and talent,
regional mobility
and infrastructure, and inclusive growth. Through Collaborative
of Leaders in Academia
and Business
(Capital CoLAB), the
Partnership aims to prepare learners—from
K-12 through postsecondary education and beyond—for the
21st
century workforce by aligning educational outcomes with
industry
needs. As a convener of educators, academic
institutions, and
employers, CoLAB’s mission is to expand the region’s
diverse tech
ecosystem by building industry-aligned digital tech
pathways for the
region’s learners. The program is on track to engage
45,000
students and adult learners in digital tech pathways by
2025, with at
least 50% of them identifying as Black, Hispanic, or
women.9
Through its Regional
Mobility and Infrastructure initiative, the Partnership
published the
Capital
Region Blueprint for Regional
Mobility, the
region’s first employer-led agenda for creating a more
accessible
and equitable transportation system. In addition to
laying out a
25-year Capital Region Rail Vision, the Partnership has
worked
directly with local partners in
Baltimore and Richmond to expand and enhance transit
accessibility,
and notably helped advocate for increased Washington
Metropolitan
Area Transit Authority
(WMATA) spending across jurisdictions. Furthermore, the
Partnership
is a founding member of the MetroNow
Coalition—a leading voice for enhanced transit in the metro
area.
The Partnership
approaches all of its work with an inclusive growth
lens and its
partner organizations have made substantial commitments
in pursuit of
this ambition. In March 2022, Partnership organizations
announced a
historic $4.7B collective effort over five years to
support the
Capital Region’s underserved communities and Minority
Business
Enterprises (MBEs). Of this amount, $2.6B was directed
to procurement spending with diverse suppliers and
MBEs, with a
priority on Black and Hispanic- owned businesses.
Another $1.5B was
directed to wealth-building opportunities in
historically underserved
communities, such as direct corporate investments in
affordable
housing and in community organizations leading
place-based equity
initiatives. The remaining $619M was directed to
financial
investments in Community Development Financial
Institutions (CDFIs)
and Minority Depository
Institutions (MDIs), whose strategic financing
initiatives help
create economic opportunity in underserved communities.
The
Partnership will leverage the Blueprint to continue
building and
scaling current efforts and initiatives.
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