Skills 2035

Skills 2035 envisions a local economy where every employer, and every worker, thrives in a rapidly changing economy because skills-focused workplaces are no longer a vague promise but a clearly defined, shared language grounded in human development science. We look beyond buzzwords like “soft skills,” instead mapping the non-technical abilities, such as adaptability, curiosity, collaborative problem-solving, emotional intelligence, and a commitment toward continuous learning, that research shows power business performance and individual well-being alike.

By co-designing this vision with local employers, educators, and young talent, we will create hiring and advancement pathways agile enough for tomorrow’s workplace shifts yet rooted in an ethic of care: productive organizations, cared-for people. Together we are building a workforce ready to navigate disruption, and a city where growth and human flourishing go hand in hand.

Economies of Despair

What stifles prosperity isn’t only poverty, it’s the system of constraints that strips people of real, viable choices and compounds grief with every closed door. Economies of Despair names this intersection of constraint and loss: unstable, low-wage work; under-resourced schools; housing, tax, and labor policies that coerce and punish rather than empower. We document these forces through data, narrative, and place-based mapping to show how limited agency, not individual failure, erodes wealth, health, and hope across generations.

Our aim is to transform that landscape. By elevating solutions such as worker ownership, universal basic assets, and metrics of success rooted in human flourishing, we shift the conversation from “lifting people out of poverty” to expanding dignified choice and well-being across generations. Healing, agency, and shared prosperity become inseparable goals, because the opposite of opportunity isn’t poverty; it is constraint, and liberation begins when everyone is free to thrive.

Preconditions of Possibility

Every harvest depends on soil we rarely see. Preconditions of Possibility digs into the historical forces of colonization, racial capitalism, gendered labor, and extractive economies that shape our current economic terrain, and asks what conditions, social infrastructures, and investments must be restored for the next economy to sustain all life. Drawing on ecological metaphors and human-development research, we build and refine the “starter mix” a just future requires, such as democratic ownership structures, dignified work, robust public goods, and cultural narratives that prize care over extraction.

Through predictive analysis, scenario planning, community design labs, and policy prototyping, we cultivate these conditions now, so the seeds we plant can take root, thrive, and regenerate the landscape for generations to come.