Chamber & City Partner on Healthy Communities Program

Earlier this month Ananda Sweet, the Metro Chamber’s VP of Public Policy & Workforce Development, and Raissa de la Rosa, Economic Development Manager with the City of Santa Rosa, were at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to participate in a national professional development program designed to boost innovative community health initiatives.

The Metro Chamber was one of ten chambers selected by the Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives to participate in a year-long Healthy Communities program. Each chamber was allowed to team with a community partner to participate alongside them throughout the program.

The Healthy Communities program is a design-thinking lab that will help develop and implement a plan to tackle a specific community health challenge. The Metro Chamber will focus on expanding access to high quality early child care and education like employer supported child care.

“We’re thrilled to be collaborating on a long-term economic and workforce development project like this,” says Ananda. “Through this process, we’ll have access to experts in the field and background on implementing evidence-informed policies in support of our workforce development programs that strengthen the quality of life and support equitable prosperity in our area.”

Our participation in the Healthy Communities program is made possible with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The Chamber’s overall work on employer supported child care is funded by First5 Sonoma County. For more information on employer supported child care, contact Ananda Sweet.