Introduction

FOREWORD

The Federal Government’s ambitious climate change agenda is a national call to action. Supported by recent and anticipated Federal spending, the United States is poised to move forward on a long deferred transition away from an economy anchored on fossil fuels of the last Industrial Revolution. Perhaps no region in the US has seen the extreme benefits and perilous pitfalls of the past 100 years than the Ohio River Valley and Upper Appalachia. 

In late September and early October 2021, a cross-sectoral group of over 190 actors gathered together in a virtual summit to activate and accelerate the critical work needed to meet the broad reaching goals laid out by nine local Mayors, including Pittsburgh, PA; Cincinnati, OH, and Huntington, WV, in the Marshall Plan for Middle America Summit. This summit was inspired by and built on the critical work of the Marshall Plan, and advanced by our local partners, Reimagine Appalachia, Heartland Strategies, and the City of Pittsburgh.

During the four sessions of the summit, some important themes and lessons emerged that can be expanded throughout the country as we seek to activate the moment and transform our economy while creating the next generation of good paying, wealth building jobs. Heidi Binko from the Just Transition Fund stressed the importance of acting with intentionality towards a future vision with a deliberate focus on the communities in  deep poverty. Brad Markell from the AFL-CIO elevated the need for skilled labor and how critical it is that workers are active partners and a part of the solutions from beginning to end. Bruce Katz from Drexel University cautioned us all that while funding may be coming, the institutions in place are not designed to meet our current challenges and we are really in the midst of a delivery crisis where the scale and scope of projects will overwhelm the current delivery ecosystem. And finally, Former Mayor Bill Peduto from the City of Pittsburgh stressed the importance of working regionally, working and learning together, and developing a partnership with the Federal government. 

All of this to say, the work in front of us is complex, and at a scale we have not tackled since the first half of the 1900s. The Federal government is committed to making unprecedented investments in infrastructure, but regardless of the size of funding, true transformation will only come with the investments and risk from the private sector. It is critical for local and state governments to ensure each dollar spent in their community – whether from government or the private sector – must  work towards a shared vision that realizes not only a clean and sustainable economy, but an economy that provides opportunity to everyone and drives reinvestment in long forgotten communities. At Resilient Cities Catalyst, we work with government and communities to do just this-- we help each community build a more resilient version of itself, while striving towards a larger vision.

To help overcome the delivery crisis, all actors must change the trajectory and the pace in which they work. One successful method is through a funded competition that builds on the lessons learned from the National Disaster Resilience Competition run by the Housing and Urban Development Agency in 2014. This $1 billion competition was a call to action for state and local governments to leverage federal funding to begin the transformation of local communities after a nationally declared disaster. It was also a call to action to local community groups, private sector actors, and subject matter experts to share their needs and expertise to ensure the outcomes of HUD’s investments went well beyond the original disaster and helped move the community forward. 

For communities around the country coming off decades of social, physical and economic disinvestment, along with even more frequent climate events and the chaos of the global pandemic, there has never been a better time in America to reinvent and reprioritize how our systems operate and acknowledger shared goals and local visions. To do this we must support new institutions, leverage new tools, grow the amount and types of people at the table, and ensure these unprecedented federal investments are a catalyst for generational transformation for all.

MP4MA BACKGROUND

The Marshall Plan for Middle America (MP4MA) Roadmap has mapped out a vision for a regional, diverse stakeholder coalition to activate equitable economic recovery in the Upper Appalachia/Ohio River Valley region, while laying the foundation for a robust renewable energy sector.

Encompassing nine key cities across four states in the region, the plan envisions $60 billion annually over the next 10 years, through private investment, federal, and state funding. 

MP4MA has signaled a generational opportunity to spur the region’s renewable energy sector and revitalize its economy, but it won’t happen without new approaches and tools bringing together key community stakeholders, private sector, and government interests to activate new partnerships and build capacity.

OUR GOALS FOR THE SUMMIT WERE TO:

SUMMIT HIGHLIGHTS

WE ASKED PARTICIPANTS TO ENVISION SUCCESS:

WHAT WOULD THEIR NEWSPAPER HEADLINES READ IN YEAR 1 AND YEAR 5

IF MP4MA WAS A SUCCESS?

Coming out of the Summit, participants coalesced around 5 main priority areas, which can be achieved through the three pathways highlighted below. Taken together, these findings described below have the potential to have a meaningful impact in addressing the region’s economic recovery challenges and energy revitalization by prioritizing better projects, unifying multiple regional actors towards collaborative action and sharing of best practices, and creating greater capacity to leverage the influx of upcoming funds for long-term community resilience.

Selected Projects from the Region

Aiming to advance the ambitious ideas outlined in the Marshall Plan for Middle America, participants weighed in on real projects in the region requiring new and unlikely partnerships, smart funding sources, and diverse collaboration across silos to identify and overcome complex priorities and barriers. If you are interested in learning more about these projects, please reach out to contact@rcc.city.

MP4MA Tearsheet

Download the MP4MA tearsheet (PDF)

if you are interested in funding this program, or have a question about the Marshall Plan for Middle America, please reach out to us.

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