Our country faces no more important task right now than putting millions of unemployed people back to work. We know that many won't get there without intensive job training and placement programs connected to business demands. What isn't clear enough is how to do that most effectively.

The United States...

This piece was co-published by Maureen Conway, Deputy Director, the Aspen Institute, and Robert P. Giloth, Vice President, Annie E. Casey Foundation.

The folks who do job training at Per Scholas in the South Bronx have a tradition of ringing a bell every time one of their graduates gets a...

"But Obama's options are limited, as the administration already has signaled it is unwilling to make any investments that would add significantly to the nation's ballooning deficit."

Michael A. Fletcher and Ben Pershing, "As Obama opens jobs summit, he faces limited options," The Washington Post, December 3, 2009.

And...

At one point during the Great Depression, 40,000 union members marched in the streets of Chicago demanding that the government give them jobs. They also wanted an end to Prohibition, but they managed to tie that to job creation, as well.

So far, there are no angry mobs gathering outside...

"Washington's administration broke with the traditional Chicago growth machine on various issues ... [T]he administration killed plans to revitalize Navy Pier and for a World's Fair."

Dominic A. Pacyga, Chicago: A Biography

This is a great book on Chicago. I'll definitely devote a posting or two to its Chicago...

The nonprofit groups that have started these businesses have done so primarily to advance their own missions. This is an opportunity to move folks out of poverty into prosperity, while greening out planet,' said Michele McGeoy, executive director of Solar Richmond, a solar jobs training program in the San...

"This is the Abu Ghraib of the Great Society."

--Andrew Breitbart, conservative internet entrepreneur, quoted in Darryl Fears and Carol D.Leonnig, "The $1,300 Mission to Fell ACORN," The Washington Post, September 18, 2009.

Let's say at the outset: ACORN was wrong. They need to fix some things, to say...

Standing in the Belltown Labor Temple in early June at a mayoral candidate forum, Seattle City Council member Jan Drago used the "c" word. The incumbent's style was "the Chicago way." The "Chicago" epithet has been dogging Mayor Greg Nickels almost since the day he took office. A 2006 story...

"Additionally, the Secretaries of Energy, Education, and Labor announced collaboration to make it a major priority to institutionalize cross-agency communication about private sector jobs created as a result of federal action. Through these efforts, jobs created will be connected to training programs and career pathways that can provide transitions for...

"More than 400 of the 2,000 largest malls in the U.S.have closed in the past two years...[I]n the past 12 months, retail sales have dropped an unprecedented 9.8 percent."

The Week, "The vanishing shopping mall," April 3, 2009.

It's not just damn malls. It's the suburbs.

"The suburban dream of the big...

"'Does failure breed new knowledge or experience that can be leveraged into performance the second time around?' he [Paul Gompers] asks. In some cases, yes, but overall, he says, 'We found there is no benefit in terms of performance'"

"To improve our nation's ability to address the serious challenges our country faces, America needs to take fuller advantage of the important asset represented by its 'citizen sector,' our country's vast network of private, nonprofit organizations."

Johns Hopkins Listening Post Project,"The Forward Together Declaration: Empowering America's Citizen Sector for...

"The first however-many days of Barack Obama's presidency have been a study of amateurism."

Kathleen Parker, "So Far, Amateur Hour," The Washington Post, February 11, 2009.

Dismissive words like featherduster, lightweight, dilettante and many others haunted FDR before and after being elected. I always thought amateur had a wonderfully populist...

Originally posted at www.bobgiloth.com.

"..Harlem Children's Zone now serves thousands of kids, some of who are showing impressive test scores...But Wall Street's meltdown and money manager Bernard Madoff's alleged financial fraud threaten the donor base that bankrolls Mr. Canada's work. Facing declining revenues, he's had to lay off staff...