With the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Economic Mobility and Opportunity (EMO) program, ICMA is offering a series of learning and training opportunities in 2023 on boosting upward mobility in local communities. Economic mobility describes the upward or downward movement in a person's economic or social status throughout their lifetime and throughout generations. Embedded within ICMA's Local Government Reimagined initiative, efforts will educate local leaders about drivers of mobility and opportunity and what is working in terms to move the needle for the security, health, and welfare of vulnerable residents in communities across the country.

The following communities have been selected to be members of the Economic Mobility and Opportunity (EMO) Cohort. Cohort participants were selected through an application process that gauged readiness to implement EMO-centered strategies through policies, practices, processes, and programs. 

• Beloit, Wisconsin
• Chesterfield County, Virginia  
• Dubuque, Iowa
• El Paso County, Texas
• Grand Island, Nebraska  
• Gresham, Oregon
• Meadville, Pennsylvania
• Morgan Hill, California  
• San Juan County, Utah
• Tarboro, North Carolina

Local government managers and their teams are uniquely positioned to implement policies and effect conditions that promote overall well-being and upward mobility for their residents. The goals of this opportunity are to increase local decision-makers’ understanding of drivers of and barriers to mobility and opportunity and to support them in identifying and implementing actions to advance upward mobility for residents of their communities. In practice, this can be accomplished through direct and indirect influence on access to quality housing, education, and health services, to stable employment and safe and supportive neighborhoods, and to representative and responsive governance.

Information on the cohort and the participants' priorities and projects as work gets underway will be shared on the website.