Through the Home Grown Jobs Initiative, (HGJI), the Community Building Program (CBP) at TCWFI invests in building the capacity of NPU-V residents and the community-based organizations around them to implement their visions and strategies.

When TCWFI opened in the fall of 2005, staff scanned the area for employer partners and employment opportunities for participants. With several large-scale construction projects, including two federally-funded HOPE VI projects, underway in the community, staff began exploring opportunities for connecting participants with jobs on these projects. Their goals were supported by HUD statutes which require that recipients of HUD funds ensure that the economic opportunities generated by the funds benefit low-income people “to the greatest extent feasible.” Despite these requirements, few CWF participants were able to secure jobs on these projects. To address this challenge, participants and TCWFI staff formed the HGJI.

Through weekly training and activities, HGJI is building the capacity of participants to pursue family supporting jobs and increasing local employment opportunities in the construction field – and now the transportation, light manufacturing/warehousing and service sectors as well. Participants have enlisted the support of city and community leaders and, when public agencies have been unresponsive to their efforts, they take action. Action includes generating petitions that boast more than 1,000 signatures, requesting changes that lead to more jobs for community residents. Participants also have gone to the construction sites inquiring about employment in such numbers that developers have begun to take notice, request meetings with HGJI, and hire participants.