Our Children This Month, February 2023

Creating A Fresno That Works For Everyone:  DRIVE Part 2

As we explored in last month’s issue, Fresno has long struggled with intransigent poverty with the most recent 2020 census data reporting that nearly one out of five Fresno residents lived in poverty from 2016 to 2020. Even worse, one third of all children and more than half of all Black and Latinx children in our community are living in poverty. Our concentrated poverty rate is the highest in California. Fresno is one of the most segregated cities of its size in the United States. We have been left with the devastating consequences of a legacy of redlining which has led to significant under-investments in south city neighborhoods and rural areas of the county since the city’s founding. We are now coming to understand that we will never effectively address the complex issues underlying poverty until we take an honest look and address issues of racial inclusion. The reality is that we cannot achieve racial inclusion without community-wide economic growth that includes ALL of Fresno, especially those historically neglected neighborhoods south of the city and rural areas. The DRIVE Initiative (Developing the Region’s Inclusive and Vibrant Economy) is a multi-faceted, community wide effort bringing a broad cross-section of the community together to address these historical disparities. The goal is to transform our current reality and create economically healthy and racially inclusive employment opportunities and living environments for ALL citizens in the Fresno metro area.