What is the best way to revitalize the economy of poor communities? How can we ensure that there are enough decent jobs for residents of low-income areas? Americans have grappled with these questions for decades. Many approaches have been tried—from launching community-owned enterprises to providing grand incentives to lure factories. There have been many exciting success stories and many failures. And even the best initiatives have rarely achieved the scale needed to turn around a poor community. Amid all this experimentation, much is being learned about what can work and why. Too often, however, highly creative and valuable projects are so scattered and poorly evaluated that other organizations—including the Federal Government—cannot glean their useful lessons. To help close this information gap, HUD commissioned a series of reports in 1997–98 to examine initiatives with real promise of generating jobs and opportunity for low-income people. Four of those studies are summarized in Expanding Economic Opportunity: Lessons from the Field. All four share the common focus to improve the ability of low-income people to get decent jobs in the wider private economy beyond their own neighborhoods. Making Connections: A Study of Employment Linkage Programs examines three innovative programs that successfully link central city residents with jobs in the regional economy. Saving and Creating Good Jobs: A Study of Industrial Retention and Expansion Programs highlights four programs that help local manufacturing businesses retain and create jobs and make those jobs accessible to low-income people. Strengthening Rural Economies: Programs that Target Promising Sectors of a Local Economy analyzes a strategy known as sectoral development and explores the activities of four groups that are trying to strengthen specific sectors of their local economies with potential for creating new jobs and opportunity for low-income people. New Avenues into Jobs: Early Lessons from Nonprofit Temp Agencies and Employment Brokers features six nonprofits that have used temporary employment to integrate low-income people into the world of work. The goal of this research is to highlight strategies that work and that benefit low-income people on a substantial scale and to stimulate others to adopt some of these models. Order Expanding Economic Opportunity: Lessons from the Field from HUD USER for $5. Use the order form.
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