9.2: Work with local businesses and institutions to create community wealth through local procurement, hiring, and training

Issue Statement and Context

Miami-Dade’s technology and advanced industries sector, which includes software development, select business services, manufacturing, and energy, is experiencing a surge. Fueled by the growth of the County’s tech ecosystem, its labor force, and exponential growth in private venture capital investment, Miami-Dade has emerged as a County leading the way for local start-up activity and global tech sector corporate growth. In addition, new technology application across almost all local industries has driven demand to continuously improve the skills of workers across the regional economy, creating new opportunities for upward economic mobility.

It is not a given that all of Miami-Dade's communities will succeed in our rapidly changing economy. Even as Miami-Dade's economy heats up post-pandemic, many working-class residents are feeling more economically insecure. The impact of our unequal recovery is that community wealth, built up over decades in the County’s lower-income communities, is being lost at an accelerating pace. As a result, local leadership across the private sector, government, and local foundations have provided access to capital, and made key investments in education and training that promise to continue to drive the region’s advanced industry growth. This emerging industry provides an opportunity to reskill and upskill our workforce and create new pathways for entry into this field, from school curriculums to internships and apprenticeship.

This is the image description. — *Miami-Dade County finalized a new 19-year partnership with FTX to name FTX Arena, home of the Miami HEAT*

Miami-Dade can be proactive about promoting the growth of our tech sector in a way that benefits those who already call Miami home while also continuing to attract new talent and businesses to our region. We believe Miami has an opportunity to lead where all other cities have failed and define what it means to have an equitable and inclusive tech ecosystem. We are encouraged by the MiamiTech Manifesto and ongoing conversations around “tech equity” in our region.

The Mayor’s Office is currently working on an economic development strategy that will pay special attention to how we can help to pave the way for the responsible growth of the tech innovation economy in our region. The strategy will address how we can better support tech workforce development pipelines targeting underrepresented populations, how we can use place-based economic development tactics to mitigate unintended development impacts, and how we can leverage incentives and public procurement to help to scale-up tech enterprises that already call Miami-Dade home.

The pandemic also revealed that local businesses and large institutions in Miami can do more to advance the economic security of our working-class communities. Local business leaders have an opportunity to make commitments that are long-term, strategically strengthen our workforce, and build wealth in all of our communities.

The administration launched the Renew305 as a way to work more closely with local business leaders on a range of economic recovery initiatives, including to develop pathways for ongoing corporate engagement in our region’s social and economic issues. The Administration is currently exploring ways to formalize a corporate engagement program out of the Mayor’s Office. Those efforts will be informed by a range of corporate partnerships in the County’s recent history.

For example, the County’s partnership with FTX, a cryptocurrency exchange, around the naming rights of the Miami Heat arena generated an additional $5 million in contributions to the Miami-Dade community beyond the scope of the naming rights, creating a partnership to help Miami-Dade residents thrive with support for technology education, financial wellness for residents, and other programs.

Detailed Action Summary

Grow and facilitate corporate social responsibility efforts focused on building community wealth through local procurement, hiring, and training.

- Create a “Corporate Engagement Council” that can facilitate how Miami’s business leaders make meaningful community investments that are aligned with each other, nonprofit sector needs with philanthropy, and with the County’s goals for local procurement, hiring, and training
- Work with business leaders to adopt a voluntary living wage and good working standards for all employees, including direct and indirect employees
- Work with businesses and with local chambers of commerce to create internship and apprenticeship opportunities accessible in low-income communities
- Strengthen coordination of hiring partnerships with employers in target sectors like tech and resilience
- Recognize businesses for adopting standards for corporate procurement that prioritize small, women-and minority-owned businesses
- Accelerate the County’s role as a leader within the South Florida Anchor Alliance in developing a coordinated continuum of support for small, women-and minority-owned businesses; ensuring procurement guidelines and procedures foster innovation and collaboration; and sharing best practices, policies, and procedures with other anchor institutions
- Create mentorship opportunities by matching Miami’s corporate leaders to small business owners and entrepreneurs

9.2: Work with local businesses and institutions to create community wealth through local procurement, hiring, and training

Issue Statement and Context

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Detailed Action Summary

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