| Traditional employment programs have tried to address poverty by focusing
on efforts that assist individuals. The Neighborhood Jobs
Initiative (NJI) took a different approach. It sought to alleviate
concentrated poverty by raising employment levels of entire
neighborhoods to match the level prevailing in their metropolitan
regions. NJI developers hypothesized that such concentrated
efforts, if successful, would gradually transform low-income
communities, representing a new approach to neighborhood revitalization.
Community organizations with strong ties to neighborhood residents
were engaged to lead these efforts. Each was charged with
responsibility for identifying ambitious and concrete employment
targets and mobilizing public and private partners to reach
the targeted outcomes.
Drawing upon the experiences of the lead community organizations during
the initiative’s implementation phase, this third and
final NJI report begins to answer the overarching questions
first posed by MDRC and its funding partners: Is it possible
to realize large employment outcomes in targeted communities?
Are community-based organizations (CBO) effective vehicles
for mobilizing, brokering, and delivering employment programs
to underemployed and unemployed residents of low-income communities?
What programmatic elements appear to contribute to the goal
of raising employment levels in targeted communities?
- Efforts to quantify precisely what was meant by “large
employment outcomes” represented a turning point in
the initiative and served as a catalyst for bringing partners
to the table. Early attempts to implement the vision
of NJI faltered when the sites used abstract goals related
to the nature and level of expected employment gains. The
lead CBOs were unable to convey to partners what scale of
effort would be required to realize large outcomes, and
they were unable to gauge progress along the way. Once the
employment targets were identified and the partners understood
and committed to these targets, it became easier for the
CBOs to mobilize the levels of effort needed to reach a
larger scale of employment outcomes.
- To succeed in reaching community-level employment targets,
NJI required an extraordinary effort by the CBOs and their
partners NJI required dedicated organizational, human,
and financial resources to be successful. Distinct staff
capacities were required at different stages of the initiative,
and the lead organization had to be willing to give NJI
priority over its other activities and be prepared to dedicate
a significant amount of senior staff’s time to the
effort.
- CBOs with strong neighborhood connections are ideally
suited for mobilizing residents and partners to achieve
positive programmatic advantages. The quality of CBO
relationships with neighborhood residents and knowledge
of their employment barriers contributed to the type, quality,
and accessibility of employment services offered, thereby
improving early progress in reaching their employment targets.
- The scale of operations achieved by NJI sites suggests
that it is possible to raise employment rates in low-income
neighborhoods. The initiative ended after just two years
of program implementation, and none of the sites had achieved
its five-year saturation targets within the time allocated.
But early achievements suggest that a number of sites were
on a trajectory to realize large outcomes, thereby changing
the employment profiles of their respective communities.
- A neighborhood-focused employment saturation strategy
is not appropriate for all low-income neighborhoods.
The NJI experience suggests that more stable neighborhoods
with strong local identities experience the greatest benefit
from a place-based employment approach like NJI.
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