Leadership and Innovation in Job Creation

BCLI Wednesday Night Panel Series
Leadership and Innovation in Job Creation: New Models for Putting Low-Income Communities Back to Work
November 17, 2010

In our final panel of the Boards and Commissions Leadership Institute Wednesday night series, we hear from the architects, developers, and implementers of fresh, effective approaches for quality jobs development for low-income communities -- models that deliver jobs and build community wealth in our struggling communities. In this panel, you'll hear about programs that have succeeded in empowering worker-owners to develop new green businesses, in providing sustaining funds to existing small businesses in order to encourage a vibrant urban core, and in investing in nonprofits that employ, train, and support members of our communities who have the least access to jobs, including the formerly incarcerated.

Specifically, we look at models developed by Inner City Advisors, the Cleveland Model of Evergreen Cooperatives, and REDF; and hear about exciting work in the City of Richmond for support of worker-owned cooperative businesses. Our expert panelists share the details of these programs, including opportunities and challenges for implementation and the short-term and projected results. We talk about scalability and replication, with an eye toward what local decision-makers can do to encourage these types of programs and investments in their communities.

Click on the links below to view the speakers' bios, hear the podcast of their presentation, and download handouts.

Speakers

*Jose Corona, Executive Director, Inner City Advisors
*Marilyn Langlois, Community Advocate, Office of the Mayor, City of Richmond
*India Pierce Lee, Program Director for Neighborhoods, Housing, and Community Development, The Cleveland Foundation
*Jason Trimiew, Director of Fund and Business Development, REDF