As committed supporters of our own local community, Jackson Family Wines was honored to have had the opportunity to participate in the Association of Bay Area Governments’ (ABAG) Spring General Assembly and Business Meeting on April 17^th. Various county and city officials, local leaders, and stakeholders in the Bay Area business and residential communities joined to tackle key housing and job issues focused on “Sharing Opportunity in the Bay Area: Access to Jobs and Housing”. Our very own Sustainability Manager Julien Gervreau was a contributor to the “Creating Economic Diversity and Sustainability” panel, along with Kate Sofis (founding director of SFMade), and Ada Chan (board member of the Eastside Cultural Center).

“Creating Economic Diversity and Sustainability” provoked the question of how we can make our communities thrive and prosper economically. How do we address the needs of people, planet, and profit in a sustainable way? The consensus, to put it simply, was to invest in people. More importantly, invest within the community. At Jackson Family Wines, where we leverage our viticulture and winemaking heritage to cultivate a future for our extended family of employees and communities, it was an honor to have participated in discussing these perspectives. But enough about us, here is a quick highlight of the two great organizations that shared the stage with Julien:

SFMade is a non-profit collaboration of twelve local manufacturers that produce goods and services all within the city limits of San Francisco. They create partnerships to support budding entrepreneurs straight from the community. Manufacturing, as well as jobs rooted within the community, is important in creating economic diversity, jobs, and culture. As cities grow, jobs naturally increase. Creating jobs will ultimately impact the communities through the job market on a localized level by making resources directly accessible and available. SFMade is an excellent example of investing in people.

The Eastside Cultural Center demonstrates fostering community identity and engagement through the arts and public spaces. Mixed land uses and mixed culture helps foster a community pride and solidifies that thumbprint to create uniqueness. By encouraging the community to express their culture through art, the Eastside Cultural Center has been able to further culture development, community involvement, and ultimately create a legacy.

All communities are founded on a unique network of goods, food, culture, and people. The definition of a thriving community is not a one-size fits all model, neither is it an easy, or even static, formula that will replicate the same desired results. A community is a distinctive thumbprint made up of the various filaments and DNA that uniquely identifies anything that exists. In the case of a human community, the filaments are the physical infrastructure, buildings, landscapes, walkways, parks, and roads. The DNA consists of the people, the culture, that one thing you just can put a finger on. Though each community has its own distinct qualities, ABAG is the network that joins them together to share best practices and stimulate collaboration or spread ideas. We at Jackson Family Wines are proud to support their efforts.

-Sabrina Sihakom, Sustainability Coordinator