Thought Piece: The Center’s 2022-2023 Impact Report

By Ze Min Xiao, President & CEO, The Center for Economic Opportunity & Belonging

In 2023, Utah was ranked number one on the Committee to Unleash Prosperity’s Final Report Card for the State’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This report ranked a state’s response based on economy, education, and mortality. Utah’s success is attributed to many factors. As the co-chair of the Multicultural Subcommittee of the State of Utah’s COVID-19 Response (subcommittee), I believe our strength is our community, especially the unsung heroes on the ground: the community health workers, the grassroots groups, the faith-based leaders, and everyday volunteers. This subcommittee provided a platform for communities to co-create solutions that saved lives during the pandemic while also creating a process and model that fostered belonging for everyone involved.  
 
The Center for Economic Opportunity and Belonging (The Center) was founded in 2021 to ensure that this successful model of bridging community wisdom with decision-makers endured post-pandemic. We believe deeply that belonging is more than just having access; it requires individuals closest to the disparities to be at the table to identify the problem, co-design the solution, be provided the resources to implement them, and have the power to identify its outcomes. Belonging is about contributing fully- bringing your whole authentic self. 
 
Since its founding, we have worked on strengthening methods to demonstrate building belonging. These include bridge building, creating coalitions to strengthen community input, and co-creating actionable strategies. We know community is our strength and our collective “We” is our biggest asset.  
 
Please join us as we look back at the past year in our Impact Report for July 2022- December 2023. We look forward to continuing this journey of fostering belonging with you in the upcoming year.

Download the 2022-2023 Impact Report here.