For Communities
Benefits of equity for all
Workplace equity drives the economic and social success of communities.
Prosperity
“Fully closing gender gaps in work would add as much as $28 trillion to annual GDP in 2025.” (McKinsey)
Well-being
Societies that empower women have healthier children, less violence, and fewer diseases. (Hudson & Emmett)
Resilience
Women demonstrate better leadership qualities than men during and after crisis. (McKinsey)
Problems LEAPS solve
Lack of local unity and local data
- There have been many efforts towards workplace equity, but women of color still hold disproportionately few top-level positions, the gender/race-based pay gap persists, and single mothers are the poorest demographic in the U.S. The reality is that global change depends on united local action, and local action needs to be informed by locally relevant data.
Solution
LEAPS helps decision-makers effectively and efficiently identify challenges and solutions specific to their constituents. This is key to uniting stakeholders and their communities around long-term efforts to drive measurable change.
The San Diego Pilot
San Diego leaders are joining forces to transform the region into a national model proving that people can drive tangible and measurable change in years and not centuries.
Together, they form the LEAPS San Diego Alliance and represent workers, employers, unions, agencies, and other advocates to make sure the voices of diverse genders and races/ethnicities, caregivers, veterans, and workers with disabilities/chronic conditions are heard!
Our progress
2022:
Establish locally specific workplace equity baselines
The Alliance cooperated in administering the LEAPS Assessment to employers and employees throughout San Diego. For the first time ever, we identified our region’s top 3 barriers to equitable workplace success:
- 1) Lack of childcare
- 2) Sexual harassment
- 3) Limited economic power of small businesses
2023:
Co-design a locally relevant roadmap for success
Leaders from 50+ organizations collaboratively designed San Diego’s first-ever LEAPS Playbook. This unique, data-driven roadmap highlights 3 priorities to achieve within 12 years:
- 1) Increase the number of San Diego employers offering childcare benefits from 9% to 25%
- 2) Reduce the rate of sexual harassment reports in the LEAPS Assessment from 32% to 10%
- 3) Award the LEAPS Accreditation to 25% of San Diego’s small businesses
2024:
Refine and implement
targeted solutions
Community Action Groups (CAGs) are implementing targeted solutions with progress metrics to achieve the 3 Playbook priorities:
- 1) Create a regional clearinghouse for childcare providers, employers, and families to access critical resources in one convenient place
- 2) Universalize an employer toolkit for sexual harassment prevention that combines key definitions, best practices, and accountability measures
- 3) Conduct 3 case studies to demonstrate how small businesses can benefit from LEAPS despite limited resources and bandwidth
Read the executive summaries of the LEAPS San Diego Assessment (English or Spanish) and LEAPS San Diego Playbook to see how we're driving historic change as a united community!
Why the Kim Center?
"Participating in the LEAPS Child Care Community Action Group (CAG) has been an illuminating and rewarding experience. The CAG creates a unique space for bringing in fresh perspectives, stretching those of us who know the child care problem well to consider it from different angles. The LEAPS initiative encourages us to investigate meaningful, measurable impact possible even amidst larger efforts to reform the sector. And by focusing specifically on the child care challenges of businesses, new doors are opening, and partnerships that might not have been considered before can now be explored. The collaborative approach LEAPS takes is a critical part of creating a community that supports families and businesses alike."- Erin Hogeboom, director, San Diego for Every Child
