data [is used by turnaround experts] to understand untapped potential in a business. Similarly, data can be used to help unlock potential in communities across the U.S. Despite declining unemployment, millions of Americans who could be put to work are trapped outside the labor market. Yet, as with an underperforming company, there are effective and proven strategies that can help them realize their potential....
striking new evidence shows that a business model called social enterprise can provide [stigmatized and limited-skills] people with training, support and work. Social enterprises leverage a business approach to address a social mission, making improvements in human and environmental well-being, rather than maximizing profits for external stakeholders. These businesses earn and reinvest their revenue to provide more people with jobs that build skills and a career path.....today, social enterprises hire and provide hope for hundreds of thousands.
[an enterprise fund] commissioned the research firm Mathematica Policy Research to conduct a rigorous, first-of-its-kind study. Just released, the Mathematica Jobs Study evaluated seven social enterprises in California....One year after accepting a social-enterprise job, the study reported, workers were more likely to have stable employment either in a social enterprise or with another employer, and had greater economic self-sufficiency and more life stability. Before employment, a quarter of the people in the study had never had a job, and 85% were homeless or lived in unstable housing, such as shelters, hotels, or with friends or family. One year later, 62% were working; on average their monthly work income increased by 268%, their income from government benefits was reduced to 24% from 71%. Also, the number of people owning or renting a home throughout the year tripled.
The Mathematica study also shows that social enterprise delivers a positive return on investment for society. For every $100,000 invested, the return is $223,000, including savings to taxpayers with reduced public benefits and avoided incarceration, and social-enterprise business revenues and workers’ incomes.
we must also ensure that government policies don’t unintentionally undermine work. When someone who has been out of work starts a job, he loses housing and other benefits, regardless of wages. A job should help relieve financial hardships, not create new ones; the “benefits cliff” is a major disincentive to gainful employment. One possible solution: Expand the earned-income tax credit that provides tax relief for low-income working parents of minor children, making it available to individuals who don’t have children. This type of change would provide an important incentive to work, and can be made federally or by individual states.