A 10-Step Guide to Driving Economic Mobility in Your Community
As an economic development practitioner or local leader, your role goes beyond understanding theory — it requires taking action. Improving the economic well-being of residents demands strategic implementation and collaboration. In this blog post, we introduce the stakeholders you’ll need to engage, and a step-by-step process you can use to move from planning to measurable economic impact in your community. To learn more about the fundamentals of economic mobility, review our introductory guide here.
Identifying Influencers and Implementers In Your Community
Achieving true economic mobility requires collaboration among a diverse set of community stakeholders, but not everyone will play the same role.
Elected officials, local foundations, and government departments often serve as influencers. Their roles often include championing strategies, allocating funding, and raising broad public awareness about economic mobility efforts. Influencing decision-makers may have more organizational and social capital, to help drive a program forward and to support program sustainability.
In contrast, community-based organizations and grassroots leaders typically act as implementers. They are critical to translating strategies into action, especially in ways that directly reach and benefit those most impacted by economic disparities. Implementing decision-makers have greater social capital within the communities served.
Over time, both influencers and implementers must work together and evolve into local decision-makers, jointly steering the community’s economic mobility agenda. Combining their efforts and capital can lead to a more successful strategy adoption.
A real-world example of this dynamic in action comes from NGIN’s work in Jacksonville, Florida. During early engagements, the Jacksonville Foundation shared that it took months of dialogue and collaboration with LISC Jacksonville, a community development organization, to fully grasp the severity of the community's heirship property challenges — a major barrier to intergenerational wealth building, especially for majority-Black neighborhoods. Armed with this deeper understanding, the Foundation shifted its funding strategy to prioritize initiatives supporting both intragenerational and intergenerational economic mobility. This example illustrates how implementers like LISC Jacksonville can meaningfully redirect the efforts of influencers, ensuring that strategies are grounded in community realities and positioned for greater impact.
You can learn more about LISC Jacksonville in the Results for America Economic Mobility catalog, and on the Advancing Economic Mobility initiative page.
How to implement an economic mobility strategy in your community
With a clear understanding of the essential players involved in designing and executing an economic mobility strategy, the next step is to explore a phased approach to bringing an effective strategy to life in your community.
The most effective leadership teams start building trust long before a project begins. Transformational partnerships aren’t formed overnight. They require early relationship-building, shared values, and authentic equity work.
Focus on:
Mapping and identifying cross-sector partners early (e.g., if you are an Economic Development Organization, prioritize finding a Community-Based Organization partner, and vice versa).
Building trust through small, low-stakes collaborations before pursuing major initiatives.
Prioritizing equity, transparency, and power-sharing from the beginning.
Step 1: Build the Right Leadership Team
Identify "Influencers" (elected officials, foundations, economic development agencies) and "Implementers" (community-based organizations, resident leaders).
Create a leadership team that reflects both institutional power and community trust.
Clarify roles: Influencers spotlight strategies and resources; implementers anchor community ownership and momentum.
Step 2: Use Data to Identify Need and Focus Areas
Leverage Opportunity Insights' Mobility Data to identify where upward mobility is most constrained.
Analyze disparities across neighborhoods, race, and income to build a case for targeted intervention.
Pair data findings with community listening to validate focus areas and sharpen strategy design.
Step 3: Center the Lived Experiences of Residents
Conduct listening sessions, focus groups, or surveys with residents most impacted by limited mobility.
Integrate resident voice directly into decision-making and implementation.
Track residents’ agency (people’s ability to shape their futures) alongside traditional success metrics.
Step 4: Choose a Strategy Grounded in Local Need
Select an economic mobility strategy aligned with both community needs and your team’s implementation capacity.
Use the Results for America Economic Mobility Catalog to explore proven approaches such as:
Commercial Corridor Revitalization
Guaranteed Income Programs
Sector-Specific Workforce Training
Heirs Property Resolution
Step 5: Develop a Shared Action Plan
Create a clear roadmap that defines:
Milestones and responsible partners.
Metrics for economic success, power, autonomy, and belonging.
Align with existing city, county, or regional plans where possible.
Step 6: Secure Flexible Funding
Advocate for multi-year, unrestricted funding to build staying power.
Combine philanthropic, public sector, and private investments to sustain efforts.
Frame funding needs around systems change and community resilience, not just short-term outputs.
Step 7: Pilot and Adapt
Begin with small-scale pilots that test and refine your approach.
Create feedback loops that allow community members and partners to continuously make adjustments.
Prioritize early wins to build momentum and credibility.
Use Scenario Planning (learn more here) to anticipate multiple futures (optimistic, pessimistic, status quo) and develop flexible contingency plans.
Scenario planning makes your work proactive rather than reactive, keeping progress steady even when conditions shift.
Step 8: Strengthen Partnerships for Sustainability
Formalize relationships through MOUs, shared workplans, and governance models that reinforce collaboration.
Regularly amplify community success stories to maintain political will, attract investment, and build pride.
Step 9: Measure Progress Toward Mobility, Not Just Outputs
Use the Urban Institute’s Upward Mobility Framework to measure outcomes across:
Economic success (e.g., income, assets)
Power and autonomy (e.g., civic engagement)
Being valued in the community (e.g., social trust, representation)
Track both quantitative outcomes and qualitative indicators of agency and belonging.
Step 10: Champion the Change
Celebrate achievements and publicly highlight milestones reached during implementation.
Showcase the voices of residents and coalition members in telling the story of impact, prioritizing the role they played as collaborators to advance the effort not just as recipients of your services.
Share results through community events, case studies, media campaigns, and policy briefings.
Use momentum from this effort to build energy and commitment for the next phase of work—inviting new partners, scaling success, or launching a new focus area.
Position your effort as a model to replicate or adapt across the region.
Insights from the Field
If you want systemic change, you need systemic partners: Local governments, funders, community-based organizations, and community leaders must work together, not separately.
Storytelling is as critical as program delivery: Communities that can share authentic, compelling narratives gain momentum and attract broader support.
Be flexible and scenario plan: Political shifts, funding changes, and new challenges will emerge — prepare for multiple futures.
Ultimately, to implement an economic mobility strategy, you will need to build trust, partnerships, and persistence. By starting relationships early, rooting strategies in real data and lived experience, and preparing for change, your community can create a future where everyone, regardless of background or zip code, has the power to thrive.
To receive more updates and be the first to learn about new opportunities from the New Growth Innovation Network, subscribe to our email newsletter here.
