Shaun Donovan (54) – President Obama’s Housing Secretary and Budget Director. City Housing Commissioner under Bloomberg.
Key elements pulled from his plan include:
Jobs
Rebuilding our city also means creating an economy where everyone has a chance to succeed, where the many that have fallen on hard times can chart paths toward security and comfort. Our Jobs Platform sets the ambitious goal of creating 500,000 jobs for New Yorkers by the end of Shaun’s first term, all within an equitable economy where all New Yorkers have the opportunity to build the skills they need to secure good, family-sustaining jobs.
We will launch the largest comprehensive skills-based training program in the United States, linked to workplace training and aligned around the sectors where middle-income job growth will be strongest: life sciences, health, information technology, design, and finance. We will establish 10,000 apprenticeship placements by 2025 and guarantee at least one paid job, apprenticeship, or internship opportunity connected to a meaningful career pathway to every high school student. The NYC Jobs Corps will put young people to work and create opportunities for shut-out workers, providing immediate relief from the economic strain of the pandemic.
All of these initiatives will be conducted in close partnership with our city’s employers and labor unions to identify the best opportunities and draw from our collective knowledge and experience. They will also be part of a broader effort, overseen by our Chief Equity Officer, to invest in diversity and inclusion in our economy. This includes the launch of Equity Corporate Commitments to drive substantially greater Black, Latinx, and Asian job participation in high-wage and middle-income work, and partnership with the business community on a broad-based public-private initiative to upskill New Yorkers and reduce economic inequality.
Designate the City’s first Chief Equity Officer
A critical step in truly addressing issues of equity in our city and understanding how effective our efforts are is to set proper commitments and develop a strategy for measuring progress. To this end, we will establish an Equity Office that reports directly to the mayor, composed of a Chief Equity Officer and a team responsible for integrating racial equity principles into all operations, projects, and services of the city, and collaborating with all agencies in the City of New York to ensure progressive achievement. The goal of this office is not to take the onus of advancing equity away from individual agencies, but rather to apply a centralized and coordinated approach that adds cohesion and accountability to otherwise disparate equity efforts
We are reaching out to Mr. Donovan for his position on Business and Professional Women, and will post the response(s) we receive.
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