It was another busy year for CRC.

In 2022, CRC and its allies negotiated more than $80 billion in Community Benefits Agreements (CBA) for California, passed AB 1837, the Homes in Community Hands Act, equipped dozens of mid- and senior-level employees with racial and economic justice advocacy skills, and administered $4 million in grants to 11 aspiring Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs).

CRC staff pose for a photo during the 2022 Equitable Futures awards in Los Angeles on Thursday, Nov. 3.

With the year quickly coming to a close, CRC staff were asked to reflect on their accomplishments this year and their goals for 2023.

Kevin Stein, Chief of Legal and Strategy

CRC’s research team is looking forward to another year of strong advocacy. If 2022 was the year of the CBA win — with $80 billion in community benefits negotiated for California communities — 2023 will be the year of CBA implementation and holding banks accountable to their promises to communities.

We are also excited to investigate the intersection of financial institutions, the climate crisis and the impact on local communities through our developing climate justice corporate and policy campaigns. In addition, we are looking forward to the final revision to the Community Reinvestment Act rule. Along with that, we’ll be keeping an eye on the development of new CFPB small business data collection rules, which CRC members worked hard on in 2022. We strongly believe data collection rules can bring transformational change to investment, lending and financial access in LMI and BIPOC communities and women and BIPOC-owned small businesses.

Jyotswaroop Bawa, Chief of Organizing and Campaigns

The CRC campaigns team has made several big wins this year, holding banks accountable to community needs. One such need is transparency around who owns our neighborhoods. We championed beneficial ownership data this year. Without this data to collect basic information about our real estate market, our efforts to design policies that support small businesses and achieve housing justice are stunted. We plan to address this in 2023 with a bill closing loopholes in how business is conducted in California.

Patricia Villasenor, Economic Wellness Program Director

Much of our work in 2022 was directed on performing outreach to communities and providing vendors with knowledge of our program and invitations to workshops. CRC Economic Wellness Promotoras has reached over 700 individuals, both adults and youth through our financial empowerment workshops. In 2022, we introduced our youth-based “My Money, My Journey” workshops where people under 21 engage in an open dialogue discussion about important financial matters. We are looking to add more workshops to our repertoire—both in-person and virtually, and in English and Spanish.

Also, the Open Air Economy Collaborative launched this year with CRC allies Inclusive Action for the City, Public Counsel and East LA Community Corporation. Together, we started outreach and education to provide comprehensive and culturally relevant financial preparedness information for Southern California micro-entrepreneurs. We look forward to expanding these programs and our reach next year.

Yehwroe Martyn, Resilience Fund Program Manager

We enter Year 2 of the Resilience Fund Program in 2023 on a solid note. Building off of the momentum this year, we plan to continue developing strong leaders, increasing the capacity of BIPOC-led nonprofits as they work toward community development financial institution (CDFI) designation—or growing their impact as newer CDFIs— and fostering meaningful outcomes in the lives of the individuals, families and communities these organizations serve.

Additionally, we plan to have more peer-to-peer learning opportunities and continue our keystone lunch-and-learn and fireside chat series. We plan to have more in-person networking events with potential funders. We will continue to provide our cohort members with the information and resources they need to succeed.

Aliyah Shaheed, Bay Area Organizer

In 2023, CRC will launch its third Racial and Economic Justice Cohort. Over six months, the organizing team will support emerging and established leaders in developing a racial justice lens around issues related to money and wealth in America. As with the previous cohorts, the 2023 cycle will equip participants with the language, tools and resources to educate, inform and activate their bases to fight for racial and economic justice.