The principle guiding CWBH is “better jobs, better health.” In this context, a good job is one in a safe environment that pays a living wage and offers health benefits. Several populations of people lack good jobs: the unemployed, workers who earn less than a living wage, workers whose job is threatened by a weak or unstable local economy or sector, and the underemployed (that is, workers who earn less than what would be expected given their education and training). CWBH’s ambitious objective was to improve health in high-poverty neighborhoods of four California cities through grassroots efforts to improve access to local job opportunities. Such efforts included initiatives to reduce employment barriers (for example, through job skills preparation and vocationally oriented instruction in English as a Second Language) and to encourage employers to recruit more effectively from local communities.

The evaluation of the initiative’s implementation sought to address such questions as:

• How have the local collaboratives generated goals and strategies for improving employment and health indicators?
   
• What types of capacity, support, partnerships, and resources were required for sites to implement their proposed strategies?
   
• What strategies and interventions showed the greatest potential to help low-income people get good jobs?
   
• What progress did each of the four CWBH regions make in implementing their Theory of Change (TOC) proposals? How successful were they in realizing their TOC outcomes?