Final Report on the Neighborhood Jobs Initiative: Lessons and Implicationfor Future Community Employment Initiatives
March 2003
MDRC
Final Report on the Neighborhood Jobs Initiative: Lessons and Implication for Future Community Employment Initiatives
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 leads these efforts . . .
