An Enterprise Zone Working Group brought together enterprise zone directors, Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) program administrators, and private industry council representatives from the state and local levels. It discussed ways in which employment and training programs could better coordinate with development activities in enterprise zones.…

Small businesses play a strong role in generating new jobs. Policymakers have been encouraged to find ways to foster and support their development, especially by linking entrepreneurial training to the existing employment and training system. The purpose of this paper is to provide a background and a focus for further discussion of entrepreneurial…

Under Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), states face steadily increasing work participation requirements. The TANF structure presents one new option: the ability to use TANF funds for community service employment in wage-paying, publicly funded jobs designed to provide work for individuals and to address unmet community needs. A…

This resource guide is intended to help communities that want to implement an entrepreneurship training program. Chapters I and II contain general advice for the planning process, such as how to assess need and community support, assess current services for entrepreneurs, select target clientele, develop a community support network, and identify…

The Washington State Self-Employment and Enterprise Demonstration (SEED) was the first federally sponsored self-employment demonstration program for unemployed workers in the United States. Its primary purpose was to determine the viability of self-employment as a reemployment option for recipients of Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits who do…

The first and longest section of this publication is a comparative analysis summarizing the impacts of the two Unemployment Insurance (UI) Self-Employment Demonstration Projects in Washington State and Massachusetts. Based on the first wave of post-project follow-up surveys, this evaluation report provides results on the net impacts of each…

A community-based approach can excel at putting people back to work. The community-based strategy for helping people find and keep jobs needs to provide comprehensive and integrated services. Collaboration is likely to be the most practical means to round up those services. Community groups usually have a dual purpose in pursuing a jobs program:…

Designed specifically for private industry councils (PICs), this guide introduces the subject of economic development and job creation and highlights the impact PICs can make through carefully chosen involvement in local economic development efforts. Chapter 1 provides an introduction to economic development: What it is; how it is related to…

A study examined the relationship between job training delivery systems and local economic development to determine what kinds of organizational relationships work best to promote coordination. The 6 sites selected from over 80 nominations were chosen because they linked job training with economic development efforts; produced sustained, positive…

The main parameters of state self-employment assistance (SEA) programs for unemployed workers were tested in two experimental demonstrations authorized by the North American Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act. The Washington State and Massachusetts Unemployment Insurance (UI) Self-Employment Demonstrations evaluated the ability of the…

This report describes the Jobs-Plus approach, an attempt to transform low-work, high-welfare public housing developments into high-work, low-welfare communities. It highlights the rationale of the approach, the way the demonstration has been set up to test the approach in the field, and what has been accomplished so far by the seven cities chosen…

This guide provides information on funding resources for supported employment in Montana. Supported employment provides individuals with severe disabilities the tools necessary to enter into an integrated work setting at a competitive wage. Supported employment generally consists of the professional expertise of a job coach, job development…

This document consists of three closely related reports, dealing with "State Governments", "Regional Councils", and "Local Econcomic Development Agencies", respectively, together with a fourth document, a preceding overview. These documents draw from results of a project to identify successful approaches to coordinating economic development and…

This self-employment training program case study booklet has been developed for general use in exploring the feasibility of this kind of development tool. The case studies describe a number of comprehensive, self-employment training and assistance programs, from the local to the national level. Chapter II includes information on the training plan,…

This guide is designed to provide vocational education, single parent/displaced homemaker program directors, and other interested persons with information to help them support, establish, and conduct programs for single parents or displaced homemakers in the nine vocational education planning regions of Utah. It includes definitions and staff…