"Job-centered economic development" integrates approaches from the fields of economic development, employment training, social services, and community development, making access to good jobs a primary outcome. Its strategies focus on connecting disadvantaged adults and youth to family-supporting jobs in their neighborhoods, cities, and regional economies, and ensuring that those jobs are sustainable, providing the basis for long-term careers. Workable policies and practices for job-centered economic development are vitally important to agencies responsible for implementing welfare reform and workforce policy reform. It is a key element of the emerging "new federalism" in U.S. government, and therefore a development strategy critical to the future success of state and local governments.

The collection of perspectives in Jobs and Economic Development combines an understanding of today?s labor market with evaluations of current approaches to poverty alleviation. Case studies of successful jobs projects illustrate the ingredients needed for effective programs while also identifying the key factors related to program replication and bringing workforce innovations to scale. Finally, the book explores and documents the role of community organizing to bring about effective workforce development, the challenges for evaluators as they seek to understand the impact of these jobs projects, and how the politics of jobs plays out at the local and state levels.

Throughout the nonprofit sector, successes are celebrated and mistakes tend to be deliberately forgotten. But, as Mistakes to Success: Learning and Adapting When Things Go Wrong makes clear, this is a lost opportunity. Discussing, analyzing and learning from mistakes should be a common practice, which can strengthen the work of nonprofits. Breaking new ground, Mistakes to Success provides a rich collection of revealing essays focused on failures in the field of community economic development. The authors, leaders in the nonprofit field, write with firsthand knowledge about a range of projects, including an ethnic marketplace in Chicago, a childcare assistance initiative in New York City, national workforce development initiatives and an innovative program to help working families purchase affordable used cars. These compelling stories provide valuable insights into what it takes to shape and manage complicated initiatives designed to improve opportunities for lower-income people and communities. This collection will be a valuable resource for anyone interested in the challenges associated with social innovations, including program leaders, nonprofit advocates, policymakers, elected officials, foundation officers and members of the public."Researchers and practitioners jump at the chance to show their latest program impact results and share best practices. Asking them to acknowledge, much less discuss, their mistakes is like inviting them for a root canal. Yet, we learn some of our most useful lessons from our mistakes. The authors deserve gratitude from those interested in improving the practice of workforce and community development." - Chris King, Director, Ray Marshall Center, LBJ School of Public Affairs, University of Texas at Austin"This volume offers a fascinating walk through a variety of social innovation programs that didn't succeed, or at least didn't work as planned. Key themes, such as defining what constitutes success, determining when a project's success should be judged, balancing or prioritizing among the multiple goals social projects often reach for, and building and sustaining organizational capacity are addressed in a variety of contexts, providing a rich set of insights for both program leaders and investors." - Maureen Conway, Director, The Aspen Institute Workforce Strategies Initiative

"Job-centered economic development" integrates approaches from the fields of economic development, employment training, social services, and community development, making access to good jobs a primary outcome. Its strategies focus on connecting disadvantaged adults and youth to family-supporting jobs in their neighborhoods, cities, and regional economies, and ensuring that those jobs are sustainable, providing the basis for long-term careers. Workable policies and practices for job-centered economic development are vitally important to agencies responsible for implementing welfare reform and workforce policy reform. It is a key element of the emerging "new federalism" in U.S. government, and therefore a development strategy critical to the future success of state and local governments. The collection of perspectives in Jobs and Economic Development combines an understanding of today's labor market with evaluations of current approaches to poverty alleviation. Case studies of successful jobs projects illustrate the ingredients needed for effective programs while also identifying the key factors related to program replication and bringing workforce innovations to scale. Finally, the book explores and documents the role of community organizing to bring about effective workforce development, the challenges for evaluators as they seek to understand the impact of these jobs projects, and how the politics of jobs plays out at the local and state levels.