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Economic and Workforce Development

Planning for Jobs and Training Opportunities

The Pratt Center has been in the forefront of efforts to make sure that New York City's land use and development policies and programs promote strong employment and training opportunities, and link major economic development projects with nearby residents and workers.

Working with the New York City Economic Development Corporation (EDC) and the New York City Department of Small Business Services (SBS), the Pratt Center developed the Targeted Hiring and Workforce Development Program in conjunction with the development of a city-owned garage site in Jamaica, Queens. This "linkage" program asks developers submitting proposals to build a retail center on the site to outline plans to recruit, train and hire local residents for jobs in the complex. 

The design of the Targeted Workforce program was based on research conducted by the Pratt Center and presented in the report "Building In Good Jobs," which surveys successful efforts from around the country to train and hire local residents for jobs resulting from economic development projects. Also known as "first source" hiring, these efforts help ensure that employment opportunities emerging from government-sponsored development projects go to low-income area residents.

EDC is now moving to expand the Targeted Hiring and Workforce Development Program citywide, including current and future projects at Bellevue Psychiatric Hospital, Kingsbridge Armory, and other city-owned sites, as well as to developers who lease their property indirectly from the city. An official description of the program highlights the Pratt Center's pivotal role and explains step by step how the Targeted Hiring and Workforce Development Program works, from setting targets for hiring to the evaluation of proposals to the incorporation of hiring requirements into leases with commercial tenants to ongoing support for tenants in meeting their training and hiring needs. It also outlines future expansion of the program to all EDC sales of land and follow-up research to evaluate outcomes from initial sites.

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