Project manager reports on Olympia Strong progress, an equitable economic program

Strategic Projects Manager Amy Buckler presented the 10-month progress of Olympia Strong during a Finance Committee meeting yesterday, May 31.

Last year, the city launched Olympia Strong to better understand how our community members hope to see our economy recover, evolve and grow in the years ahead with actions that benefit residents, businesses, our overall community, and our organization itself,” Buckler said.

According to the equity memo, the scope for Olympia Strong was established under the umbrella of Olympia’s commitment to advancing a community that is just and equitable for all.

This program’s planning process and resulting strategies are aimed at reducing economic barriers and expanding opportunities for all community members regardless of background.

“Over this time, we have looked at a lot of data. And we have talked to hundreds of people in our community in order to understand what their needs are,” Buckler shared. “There surveys, interviews, listening sessions, and other conversations we saw to meet people where they're at.”

Buckler added that the project members recognized the existing gaps, especially with the youth, single parents, people with disabilities, low-income earners, renters, and historically marginalized populations.

“Where we are right now in this project is that we have drafted a set of initiatives for the next ten years,” Buckler said.

The draft initiatives are divided into four major focus areas: education + workforce pathways, housing + sense of security, business enterprise resources + support, and community pride, lovability + resiliency.

Buckler presented some draft initiatives done for the four focus areas.

Education + workforce pathways

Initiatives in this focus area will benefit both residents and employers. The youth will benefit from educational and career programs that provide guidance, and employers/businesses will benefit by increasing the number of trained and qualified workers.

“Through the Career Hub and Journey2Jobs – both of these programs provide job and career training opportunities for hard-to-serve individuals and they're filling gaps in the workforce system. We are seeing success in these programs,” Buckler shared.

Career Hub is an initiative that provides the youth with skill-building opportunities and prepares them for local in-demand occupations, including but not limited to jobs in construction, clean energy, the medical sector, logistics, and supply chain management.

Journey2Jobs provides skill-building, employment, and related wrap-around services for formerly homeless and incarcerated individuals.

These programs come with low or no cost at all and will sometimes provide stipends for participation.

 Housing + sense of security

The proposed measures in this area aim to improve access to affordable housing and homeownership options, along with other measures to increase household financial security.

“The need for more affordable housing– that was by far the number one economic issue that we heard in our community,” Buckler shared.

Buckler said that they are just getting started and are expanding their role in facilitating the building of affordable housing for low and moderate-income families.

“The best tool that we have is land and we've had some projects right where we were able to say we have a piece of property and then tying developers that want to build income-restricted housing– we can tie those things together and help bring in other funding sources to get these kinds of projects built,” Buckler said.

 Business enterprise resources + support

The proposed actions in this focus area aim to benefit residents and reduce existing inequalities by working with partners to support and enhance a range of business opportunities that meet the needs of all residents.

“Initiatives are to continue offering business support and training programs. But recognizing that usually one of the biggest barriers for entrepreneurs is having access to capital and particularly for those who are underbanked and underrepresented,” Buckler said.

Some of the planned initiatives to expand access to capital for aspiring entrepreneurs are supporting Thurston County Target Zone Startup Grants, doing outreach to banks and credit unions, and developing a city-sponsored micro-loan fund.

Community pride, livability + resiliency

Actions in this area of ​​focus will enable Olympia to continue to invest in projects and partnerships that make the city a conducive place to work, live and play, while being prepared to effectively meet physical and financial challenges.

“Two topics that are really popular with the public are our investments in arts, culture, and heritage. And as you know, we have three once-in-a-lifetime investments going on around with the Armory Cultural Campus, the Cultural Access grants,” Buckler shared.