We Believe In Hard Work

Business Leaders

Consider how employers can join with people outside the business community to help hard work translate into greater opportunity. For example, businesses might partner with faith communities, local government, nonprofits, and employees to explore locally identified challenges such as housing affordability, child care, transportation, workforce training, or pathways to homeownership.

Ideas to get you started

1. 01

   Create or Join an Employer-Assisted Housing Program

2. 02

   Partner with Utah Housing Corporation or local Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) to design a down-payment assistance program matched to your workforce’s income levels.

3. 03

   Start with a pilot: even a $5,000 employer match for down payment or closing costs—forgiven over three years of employment—significantly improves retention while helping employees build equity.

Elected & Civic Leaders

Bring together residents, employers, educators, faith leaders, and community organizations who may approach an issue differently but share a belief in hard work and opportunity. Together, they might identify a local barrier to employment or economic mobility and explore solutions that no single institution could accomplish alone.

Ideas to get you started

1. 01

   Fund and Scale Workforce Development Pipelines

2. 02

   Utah’s labor force participation is at a 10-year low (66.3%), and employers report critical skills gaps. Policy must connect education to employment more effectively.

3. 03

   Incentivize employers who participate in registered apprenticeship programs through state tax credits or procurement preferences.

Faith & Community Leaders

Create spaces where people from different faiths, backgrounds, political perspectives, and professions can build relationships while addressing a challenge their community identifies. That could mean bringing congregations together with employers and educators around workforce readiness, supporting families facing financial barriers, or helping neighbors develop skills and connections that open new opportunities.

Ideas to get you started

1. 01

   Launch or Expand Financial Literacy and Workforce Readiness Programs

2. 02

   Offer résumé workshops, interview coaching, and skills-assessment events through your congregation—particularly targeting young adults (18–35), the group most affected by housing unaffordability and declining labor force participation.

3. 03

   Partner with local universities or community colleges to host financial literacy workshops covering budgeting, credit building, home-buying readiness, and navigating the child care tax credit system.

Every Utahn

Start with your own community. Bring together neighbors, coworkers, friends, or people you might not ordinarily know and ask: “What is making it harder for people in our community to work hard, contribute, and build a good life—and what could we do about it together?” The answer might involve mentoring young people, helping neighbors develop job skills, supporting working families, improving a neighborhood, or something entirely different. The specific project matters—but so does how we do it. When Utahns who are different from one another listen, contribute their unique strengths, and work side by side toward something they care about, we don’t just solve problems. We strengthen the relationships and trust that make our communities stronger.