Northern Manhattan Improvement Corporation (NMIC) received a JOLI grant to implement a business expansion model to expand their existing Home Based Day Care Program. NMIC will create 60 jobs and assist 35 residents in starting up their own family day care businesses, which will create up to 210 new child, care slots. The project will target low-income residents primarily women, of Washington Heights and Inwood. The project will enable neighborhood residents to establish family day care businesses, provide them with the ongoing training and support necessary to sustain their businesses, educate neighborhood parents about family day care and increase the availability of child care in the neighborhood. This project will also provide participants with ongoing training and support to enable them to successfully establish and sustain their businesses, including training in child development, nutrition, age appropriate educational activities, as well as marketing, accounting, and other business skills. It will also conduct ongoing outreach and education about family day care to encourage the use of the providers' services. The grant amount is $296,728 and the cost per job is $4,945.48. The project evaluator is Beth Rosenthal, M.S.

St. Paul Urban League (SPUL) received a JOLI grant to implement a non-traditional job training and job placement project designed to address the dual needs for employment and transportation among welfare recipients who live in an inner-city neighborhood. The St. Paul Urban League and the Higher Ground Academy Charter School will create 68 para-professional jobs within the newly created Charter School. 40 of the non-traditional jobs will be bus driver positions. Minority bus drivers represent less than 25% of the workforce in the Metropolitan Transit Commission. The remaining 28 positions will include nurses aides, social work aides, cook/nutritionists, physical education and fitness aides, teachers aides and employment counselor aides It will create an employer-social service agency partnership in the design of job creation, job placement, job training and job retention services for those needing skill upgrading and work experience. The project will provide TANF recipients and non-custodial parents of minors whose custodial parent is a TANF recipient and those TANF recipients who live within the Summit-University Community located in the City of St. Paul's Enterprise Community Zone who have children attending the newly organized Higher Ground Academy Charter School. The grant award is $430,000 and the cost per job is $6,384. The project evaluator is Mia U. Robillos, Ph.D.

Stitches Technology Sewn Products Jobs Creation Center, Inc.(STSPJCCI) received a JOLI grant to implement a new business venture that will to establish a contract sewing firm that will produce high quality garments for manufacturers in the Southern California apparel industry. Stitches Technology Sewn Products Training Center, is a non-profit organization based in South Central Los Angeles. This project proposes to create 100 new jobs for poor and low-income individuals located in the Los Angeles Empowerment Zone. The project will create a direct match between job opportunities and the skill level of low- income individuals. It will enable participants to advance into a broad range of occupations initially at the Job Creation Center and later at local employers and to earn increasing wages as they complete the formal skills enhancement program. The training and the employment are mutually reinforcing activities controlled by the same organization. The program will transition TANF recipients into exciting careers in the garment/apparel industry earning livable wages. Non-custodial parents will be able to earn wages that will allow them to help support their children. The project is designed to be self-sustaining through income derived from production and sales. The grant amount is $500,000 and the cost per job is $5,000. Imoyase Group, Inc. headed Dr. Cheryl Grills, PhD. will conduct the project evaluation.

Innovative Alternative for Education, Inc. (IAEI) was awarded a JOLI grant to provide self-employment opportunities and non-traditional job training and placement to help to ameliorate the severe problems of poverty, lack of education, crime and violence that pervade the nineteen neighborhoods that comprise the Enterprise Community of Charleston, South Carolina. The project entitled " Project RESTORE" will create permanent full time employment for 92 predominantly male non-custodial parents. Project RESTORE is a comprehensive, intensive job training and social skills approach targeting young African-American males between the ages of 18-35 who are non custodial fathers with multiple problems (substance abuse, homelessness and chronic unemployment). It will aid those men who successfully complete the training to form their own construction company so that they cannot only work but can own part of a company despite a previous criminal record. Project Restore will offer 21 weeks of job training in the construction trades, substance abuse counseling, help with housing, parenting skills, peer support groups and many other services to aid men in feeling comfortable and competent in their fathering role. It will also serve as an advocate for fathers in their interaction with the social, educational, and judicial agencies of the community. The grant amount is $398,000 and the cost per job is $5,413. Dr. Arthur Felts is the project evaluator.

Western Dairyland Economic Opportunity Council, Inc. (WDEOCI) was awarded a JOLI. This is a self-employment and business expansion project designed to create 100 new jobs, permanent jobs. The majority of these new jobs will be the result of the start-up of 90 new businesses owned by low income individuals and 10 additional new jobs will be created through business expansion to micro and small businesses who agree to hire project participants, pay wages exceeding the minimum wage and provide health insurance. Western Dairyland will implement this project in partnership with West Central Wisconsin Community Action Agency, Inc. (West CAP) and Indianhead Community Action Agency, Inc. (Indianhead CAA). The Wealth and Health Project is designed to provide a business development technical assistance to low-income persons in 17 counties in Western Wisconsin. Western Dairyland and its partners are all 501(c)(3) community action agencies. This project will target low-income families, public assistance recipients, homeless families, unemployed persons, working poor persons, displaced homemakers and youth. The grant amount is $499,998 and the cost per job is $5,000. Clifton Shigeo Tanabe is the project evaluator.

Gateway East Metropolitan Ministry (GEMM) received a JOLI grant to implement the business expansion model designed to expand a commerical sewing company. GEMM maintains a working relationship with the North Area Community Development Corporation and will develop a collaborative relationship with a successful minority business that is willing to expand into the East St. Louis Empowerment Zone. It will identify, recruit, screen and supplement the training of TANF recipients, non-custodial parents and other low-income person to fill 65 jobs in manufacturing through commercial sewing. The project will expand the Rainbow Industrial Textiles Company, a successful minority-owned business that manufactures customized uniforms. The target population for this project will be mature low-income citizens of East St. Louis who want to work, have minimal skills related to this project and are not yet self sufficient because jobs are not available. The project is innovative in that it is a collaborative effort between a community-based organization committed to neighborhood improvement and a veteran minority entrepreneur with a successful track record in sewing and manufacturing uniforms. The grant amount is $500,00 and the cost per job is $7,692. Miller Boyd, Ph.D. is the project evaluator.

Arkansas Enterprise Group (AEG) was awarded a JOLI grant to implement a business expansion model designed to expand the Careers in Health Care (CHC) Program based in Pine Bluff Arkansas. This project will create 83 new permanent paraprofessional jobs in the health care industry. The target population will include low-income residents of 7 economically distressed counties in the Delta focusing on capturing the new paraprofessional health care jobs created by the 1999 Arkansas legislation that raises the staffing requirements for long term health care facilities. CHC will train and assist TANF recipients, income-eligible non-custodial parents and other low-income individuals in securing full time permanent employment as certified nursing assistants and mental health aides. CHC will assist trainees in securing reliable transportation and childcare during training and after they are employed. The grant amount is $500,00 and the cost per job is $6,024.10. Jan Thames, M.S. and William A. Cochran, Ph.D. will serve as the project evaluators.

Silicon Valley Economic Development Corporation (SVED) received a JOLI grant to implement a project entitled "Childcare Provider Services Project (ChiPS)" which is a micro enterprise business focusing on home child care. The project targets limited and non-English speaking Hispanic, Vietnamese and Bosnian AFDC/TANF recipients for development of new home-based child care micro businesses. The program provides short-term intensive business preparation and technical skills instructions for individuals wanting to operate a home-based child care business. It will help micro entrepreneurs to plan a business, acquire resources needed to get started, and provide technical assistance during the difficult start-up period. The project design provides two venues for project intervention: (1) a childcare business training program and (2) a child care support cooperative. The project will create 75 full time jobs in start-up, home-based child care businesses. The grant amount is $497,509 and the cost per job is $6,633. The project evaluator is Ms. Chris Wrona Giallongo.

METROPOLITAN DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL (MDC) received a JOLI grant to implement a project entitled "The Network Child Care Network" which is an entrepreneurial business focusing on home child care. It will create 60 jobs and assist 120 low income and TANF recipients to initiate a child care home. The project will target low-income adults residing within boundaries of the Tacoma Enterprise Community (TEC). The project will leverage resources from MDC's child development nutrition, and micro enterprise programs. The grant amount is $500,000 and the cost per job is $8,333. The project evaluator is David Fine, Ph.D..