Across the country, community development corporations (CDCs) and other types of community-based organizations (CBOs) have become increasingly involved in workforce development, encompassing recruitment, skill training, placement, mentoring, and crisis intervention. Workforce Development Networks explains why and how the need for such customized, networked mediation has become so acute in America, especially for residents of low income communities of color, and why conventional approaches continue to fail. This book explores how labor markets are changingujobs are being created, but they pay less, and job security is declining, as is the payoff for experience and seniority. The authors walk the reader through ten case studies, taken from across the United States over a period of 5 years. They show how a growing number of CDCs, CBOs, community colleges, and regional public authorities have made progress, using the principles of networking and collaboration. Bennett Harrison and Marcus Weiss conclude with their recommendations for community-based workforce development networks.

This devastating critique by the authors of The Deindustrialization of America documents how the economic policies of the Reagan era have damaged the American standard of living and suggests how this trend may be reversed.

""Growing Prosperity "could well be as important in shaping our future as Keynes' "General Theory." . . . A work as meticulous as it is powerful, as promising as it is persuasive."--Robert Heilbroner, author of "The Worldly Philosophers"

"Bluestone and Harrison have alerted us to the key issue confronting America: how to achieve growth with equity. This country needs a powerful dialogue on how to continue growth while deepening its benefits to all Americans. This is the blueprint for the terms of that debate."--U.S. Representative Richard Gephardt

Across the country, community development corporations (CDCs) and other types of community-based organizations (CBOs) have become increasingly involved in workforce development, encompassing recruitment, skill training, placement, mentoring, and crisis intervention. Workforce Development Networks explains why and how the need for such customized, networked mediation has become so acute in America, especially for residents of low income communities of color, and why conventional approaches continue to fail. This book explores how labor markets are changingùjobs are being created, but they pay less, and job security is declining, as is the payoff for experience and seniority. The authors walk the reader through ten case studies, taken from across the United States over a period of 5 years. They show how a growing number of CDCs, CBOs, community colleges, and regional public authorities have made progress, using the principles of networking and collaboration. Bennett Harrison and Marcus Weiss conclude with their recommendations for community-based workforce development networks.