Social Investment in Jobs: Foundation Perspectives on Targeted Economic Development during the 1990s

Abstract

Dramatic changes in the U.S. urban labor markets have encouraged experimentation with development projects that explicitly combine poverty alleviation and economic development. A diverse set of jobs projects, which collectively might be called targeted economic development, emphasize the short-term provision of decent jobs through the integration of economic development, employment training, and human services. This review draws on recent foundation surveys, evaluation studies, and replication efforts to describe targeted economic development strategies such as employment brokering, sectoral interventions, human services employment, spatial mobility, capitalization/-enterprise development, and collaboration. Projects usually combine multiple strategies and are distinctively entrepreneurial, market oriented, networked, empowering, integrative, and community based. Many projects, however, exist in isolation, a product of committed, long-term entrepreneurship. Without a more supportive policy context and set of civic resources, the major effect of targeted economic development will not be fulfilled.