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San Francisco needs a systemic change in how it goes about job training for low/mod communities like BVHP. Many residents have gone through countless trainings without any real chance of getting a job. How about if we create the job first then train people for them?

This is a novel idea that is taking place in the City of Cleveland with the Evergreen Cooperative that is leveraging the $3.1 billion in purchasing power of their anchor institutions to build worker owned cooperatives to tackle their high unemployment rate in communities like BVHP.

As an Economic Development Finance Professional, I recognize that the tools to duplicate this model in San Francisco represents low hanging fruit that can easily be picked. The City's budget of $6.7 billion with a multiple of 10 equals an estimated $67 billion dollars that are spent within the borders of San Francisco each year!

I stand ready to make the cooperative model a reality in San Francisco starting with the public housing residents of Alice Griffith who supports the idea wholeheartedly. Many are engaged, which is evidenced by the countless trainings they have been through. The sentiment they expressed is "how can we expect others to be engaged and excited when we have been through the trainings and don't even have a job?"

Furthermore, it helps that Alice Griffith recently received a $30 million dollar Choice Neighborhood Grant from HUD that has $4.7 million earmarked for "Community Services" which include entrepreneurship/job training and another $4.7 million for "Community Facilities" which can be used to create operating space for cooperatives.

Finally, I have spoken to Supervisor Cohen and she thinks it an excellent idea to deal with the systemic challenges around training and unemployment in her district. As a follow up I look forward to being involved with the creation of such an innovative job creation idea in the neighborhood I grew up, BVHP.

I can be reached at ed@sfhdc.org