Warm wishes for health, happiness, and peace. Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust works to enrich health, well-being, and opportunity for the people of Maricopa County. © 2021 Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust pipertrust.org A very special thank you to Valley of the Sun United Way · Serving our community for 95 years! ·

NEXT DOORS { ahead of the curve } W hen we think about economic development, we tend to think in terms of home runs. Landing a big new industry for the state. Luring a company from another market. Opening a new manufacturing facility or tech lab. The kind of stuff that makes for good headlines. All that is great and important. After all, we didn’t get to 7 million Arizonans by sitting on our hands. There’s been a tremendous amount of work done to position Arizona as an attractive place to do business — as well as to live and play. But it’s the 7 million of us already here who are really going to shape the future. It’s a fact magnified by two recent factors — the pandemic (of course) and the overall changing demographics of our state. First, think about the demographics for a moment. You hear a lot of talk about this from a political perspective, but the undeniable fact is that Arizona is becoming more culturally diverse. The Hispanic population is now a majority in Phoenix, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and other minority populations continue to grow. As these groups grow, our state grows. As they prosper, our state prospers. But unfortunately, the pandemic has exposed a difficult truth — minority-owned businesses are not experiencing the same economic rebound that white- owned businesses are seeing, and wage and job growth are happening at lower rates in minority communities. That’s why a coalition of public and private organizations Valleywide — led by the Greater Phoenix Economic Council with partnerships across the cultural spectrum — are working on ways to ensure a more inclusive economy. Their goal is an economy where a rising tide lifts all boats and Latino and minority business owners have the tools they need to grow and thrive. “The regional economy here in the metro Phoenix area is on really good footing,” said Chris Camacho, president and CEO of GPEC. “We’ve seen massive growth in high-wage job sectors — advanced manufacturing, semiconductors, software, healthcare. We’re leading the nation in many of these categories, which is a great thing.” With that, as we’ve seen the COVID-induced economic effects impact not only small businesses, but Main Street workers — hospitality, retail and sectors that have had historically more modest wages — it’s creating a divide. “On one side, you have massive high-wage job growth, and on the Tom Evans I Contributing Editor Building a More INCLUSIVE ECONOMY GPEC and partners focus on expanding Arizona’s economic base FRONTDOORS MEDIA | 61 | NOV/DEC 2021 Photos by Stefanie Carson, GPEC