South Bay and Peninsula High Road Roundtable

The South Bay / Peninsula High Road Roundtable is a growing space for labor, community, business, educational, environmental, and local government organizations in Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties to come together to advance economic and racial justice, and rebalance our regional economies to move towards a future where all work is valued and empowering, all jobs pay a family-supporting wage, and all people across our diverse region can collectively build pathways to sustainable, resilient communities.

The goal of the High Road Roundtable is to convene South Bay and Peninsula stakeholders committed to economic and racial justice, for an 18-month collaboration to re-envision regional economic development planning, centered around the values of equity, high-road employment, sustainability and climate resilience, and shaped by workers and impacted community members themselves.

Check out our VIDEO: Why are we co-convening the South Bay/Peninsula High Road Roundtable?

Check out our new REPORT: Building Resilient Futures – New Pathways for Inclusive Economic Development

Co-convenors

The South Bay / Peninsula High Road Roundtable is co-convened by San Mateo County Economic Development Association, San Mateo Labor Council, Somos Mayfair, South Bay Labor Council, and Working Partnerships USA. As co-convenors, our goal is to build a network and social infrastructure where workers, communities, industry, and local government can sit together as equal partners to envision and design a better future. We are still evolving, and welcome new partners who share our vision for a more just and equitable economy.

Get Involved

We believe that a ‘high road’ approach can foster inclusive economic growth and create a more just economy. At its core, the high road model prioritizes investment in a diverse workforce to establish high-quality jobs.

High road employers prioritize creating quality jobs that sustain families and provide a decent livelihood. These employers compete on the quality of their products and services which they achieve through investing in their workforce, promoting innovation, and ensuring workers have a say in decision-making processes. But the high road approach goes beyond individual companies. It requires a collaborative effort that brings together employers, unions, workers, community organizations, and the public workforce systems to tackle important issues like equity, job quality, worker empowerment, industry efficiency, and sustainability.

By embracing this approach, we can build resilient economies rooted in economic and racial justice — where industries are not built at the expense of workers, communities or the climate, but are grounded in creating futures where everyone can thrive.

Current Work

The first phase of our work, to be carried out over the next two years, is aimed at the following outcomes:

• Create pilot initiatives that prioritize the “high road” approach, aiming to enhance job quality, increase the availability of sustainable jobs and employers, improve access for workers of color, immigrants, and women, and establish a resilient local workforce to meet the future demands of high-road employers.
• Position the South Bay/Peninsula as a leader on high road economic initiatives in the Bay Area region; drive region-wide collaborations on high road projects.
• Mutually support one another to apply for CERF/Jobs First Phase 2 funding to launch the pilot initiatives with regional impact, as well as seeking other sources of funding.  
• Leverage Federal and State funding to promote transformative changes in the South Bay economies. This includes creating and preserving high road jobs, increasing access for workers of color, immigrants, and women to these jobs, facilitating a just transition from extractive economic models to regenerative and carbon-neutral economies, and mitigating wage and income inequality.
• Be prepared to respond to recessions or external shocks by developing strategies to protect gains in wage/income equity and equitable employment opportunities for high-road businesses and workers from marginalized communities such as people of color, immigrants, and women.
• Identify lessons learned & potential next steps for our communities to build on the experiences and continue this work

Read about work group concept proposals here.

The South Bay High Road Roundtable also serves as a subregional table of the Bay Area High Road Transition Collaborative (BA-HRTC), a group of over 50 organizations facilitated by All Home and the Bay Area Good Jobs Partnership for Equity. BA-HRTC has been awarded a $5 million Community Economic Resilience Fund planning grant and a $14 million Catalyst grant by the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research to develop and implement inclusive, sustainable economic strategies in the Bay Area.