Dear Friend,
I’m excited to bring you the first annual State of the California EDGE Coalition Report intended to provide you with an overview of our successes and growth over the past 12 months, as well as a spotlight on our network partners, with the goal of uplifting our progress in advancing our mission and priorities.
Did you know that EDGE is celebrating its 15-year anniversary this year? Over the past 15 years EDGE has experienced tremendous growth and all the while stayed true to its unique identity and purpose – a coalition that unites business, labor, social justice, education, and workforce organizations to build a broadly shared prosperity. For too long under-resourced communities have experienced immense barriers to accessing economic mobility. At the same time, businesses that offer good jobs with family sustaining wages and benefits are experiencing workforce shortages. Since its inception, EDGE Coalition Members have united to address both of these critical issues and have seen incredible success along the way as demonstrated later in this report.
August 2021 marked my two-year anniversary with EDGE. I come from the communities EDGE seeks to serve. The daughter of a proud, Black woman from Mississippi, and a hard working immigrant man from India, I was raised in an under-resourced community in California. My family and I experienced a variety of barriers as we worked to achieve the American Dream. I decided long ago to focus my career on efforts that bring hope and change to the community I love and call home. There are many amazing organizations leading in the workforce development space, but EDGE is the only statewide policy and advocacy organization that serves as the glue between multiple systems in this space, and in partnership, moves
Californians closer to achieving the American Dream. For these reasons and so much more, I’m proud to serve as the Executive Director of this exceptional organization and I am excited to kick off my third year.
Sincerely,
Zima Creason
CA EDGE Coalition
Read the full report here.