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Place-Based Initiatives

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At a Glance

Urban, rural, tribal—where people live can limit their economic mobility. JFF helps communities work together to improve education and employment outcomes for families living in poverty.

Capabilities

Design

Invest

Influence

Topics
Experts Involved
Status
In progress
Locations
  • LA
  • FL
  • IL
  • IN
  • CA
  • OK
  • WA
  • KY
  • AZ
  • NY
  • PA
  • NJ
  • MN
  • MO
  • SD
  • ND
  • SC
  • GA
  • TN
  • PR
  • CT

Sections

Why Place-Based Solutions?
Fiscal Mapping Resource Hub
Tools and Resources

Why Place-Based Solutions?

When communities are healthy and thriving, children succeed from cradle to career. The problems facing underperforming schools are interconnected with other challenges facing high poverty communities like dilapidated housing, neighborhood violence, poor health, and insufficient economic opportunities. Strong schools are critical for young people to succeed, but schools alone cannot address the multiple challenges facing communities in concentrated poverty. Neighborhoods of concentrated poverty need deeper, more comprehensive support to change their trajectories. Federal-to-local partnerships can leverage existing federal resources to help community stakeholders develop strategies to address the range of challenges that impact education outcomes for children and youth in their communities. The Department of Education recognizes that place matters. 

Fiscal Mapping Resource Hub

With the support of the US Department of Education, JFF and its partners have created a collection of resources that communities can leverage to identify and coordinate the funds needed to achieve significant educational, workforce, and health-related goals. In this fiscal mapping “hub,” we have included the following resources:

Toolkit

Fiscal Mapping Toolkit

A fiscal map enables communities to maximize how they use funds to advance shared goals, by identifying and aligning both existing and new funding streams to amplify their impact.

Series

Fiscal Mapping Case Study Series

Written over the course of a year, these case studies focus on Broward County, Florida, and southeastern Kentucky, respectively highlighting the impact of a new approach to funding programs, defined by fiscal mapping and flexible, cross-system coordination.

Tool

More Tools for Fiscal Mapping

These two tools focus on effectively engaging community stakeholders in a fiscal mapping process, including a tool to help communities align and coordinate collaborative initiatives already underway.

Tools and Resources

Stakeholders need direction and guidance to support communities. Below are tools—which will continue to be curated over time—to support them. 

A set of six briefs to help various stakeholders on a variety of topics and strategies such as: two-generation approaches, youth workforce development, early learning, FAFSA completion, family-school partnerships, and opportunity youth.

PBI & P3 Stakeholder Resources

With stronger connections across agencies and levels of government come stronger programs and better results. This paper focuses on convenings that bring together multiple federal, state, and/or local staff, spanning multiple departments and agencies, in order to solve coordination problems in delivering services to the American people and takes a closer look at what it takes to orchestrate such convenings.

Strategic Convenings

Helping to reconnect youth back to education and employment can be challenging and Youth development stakeholders and beneficiaries (i.e., the youth themselves) often describe significant challenges that hinder meaningful improvements in education, employment, health, and well-being outcomes. This tool will help communities identify, align, and integrate resources so they can strengthen systems and partnerships to design high-impact programming for opportunity youth.

Addressing Barriers: A Tool For Community Reflection

More Related to Place-Based Initiatives | Jobs for the Future (JFF)

TA Matters

Report/Research

Technical Assistance Matters: The Impact of TA in Supporting Communities Engaged in Cross-Sector, Place-Based Work

This report examines community feedback to shed light on the impact technical assistance (TA) has on place-based programs for people in disadvantaged communities. Focusing on how TA can shape practices, expand stakeholder knowledge, and enhance stakeholder networks, it offers guidelines for future TA investments.

Tool

Place-Based Initiatives and Performance Partnership Pilots Tools

The US Department of Education has adopted a “place-based” strategy to help improve outcomes for students and families. This tool includes six resources that focus on the key approaches and strategies for community stakeholders, to support youth and adults in their communities.