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Current Campaigns – The Economic Blueprint

The next phase of the Social Contract movement in New Haven is the Economic Blueprint Report and Project.  The Social Contract is a statement of principles that was developed over many years as a result of hundreds of meetings and various community campaigns.  The Social Contract is a vision statement that stakes out what everyday working people should be able to expect.  Just as the Social Contract was developed collaboratively, so will the Economic Blueprint.

New Haven at the Crossroads – an Economic Blueprint will draw on a process of community participation to identify indicators that provide realistic measures of how people are doing.  They are likely to include conditions of workers, such as wages, income distribution, income inequality, job insecurity, and contingent work; quality of life indicators about such matters as crime, education, public health, and recreation; and hidden social costs, such as pollution, environmental destruction, fear, and the depletion of resources.  These can serve as "benchmarks" that can be compared from year to year to measure improvement or deterioration in the future.

Ultimately, we envision the final report – New Haven at the Crossroads -  an Economic Blueprint – as a process as well as a research product.  As we identify indicators and discuss policy solutions neighborhood by neighborhood in the months ahead, our hope is that we will generate a vigorous debate across key sectors of the region. This report will then become a living document – a document that holds the potential to forge a policy consensus on multiple issues. Our challenge then will be to transform this consensus into long term sustainable change.