In September, 2000, the Illinois' Governor's Office hired Dr. Kordesh to direct a new, pilot project aimed at improving the social and economic conditions in targeted, distressed communities around the state. This project, "Illinois Workforce Advantage (IWA)," aimed to help make these areas into good places for parents to raise children. Based in the Governor's Office and funded in part by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, this project sought to engage eighteen different state agencies in joint planning with leaders in the communities around initiatives that would improve various health, education, economic, and social outcomes. Over a two-year period, this ambitious, modestly funded initiative demonstrated a new way of doing business for state agencies in working with communities of place. There was no other program like it in Illlinois, and few, if any, like it in any other states.
IWA was unique in particular in that it pushed state agencies to work together to focus on identified places, rather than focusing in isolation on the specialized problems and the narrowly defined grant programs they usually administered. Whereas a focus on places made sense to those who lived and worked in them, it truly posed a challenge to the agencies. Some agency leaders "bought in" from the beginning: in fact several senior staff from the Illinois Department of Human Services helped the Governor's Office craft the initial design during the Spring of 2000. Others became supportive as they saw it working. Others remained skeptics.
IWA lost its funding after a change in political administrations, but the new governor created his own initiative, focused on different, smaller places, but with virtually identical aims. In only two years, IWA had built considerable support among community leaders, university representatives, and legislators. Thus, place-based community development in Illinois will most assuredly continue.
For more information on Illinois Workforce Advantage, click on the documents listed to the left.
