PLANNING THE DEMONSTRATION

In 1993–with the support of a consortium of private funders, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Federal Transit Administration–P/PV began to plan Bridges to Work, a demonstration designed to test the idea that improved access to suburban jobs can significantly improve outcomes for low-income urban workers and their neighborhoods. The elements of the Bridges to Work model are designed to address each of the three barriers described above. Bridges' elements are:

1. A metropolitanwide placement mechanism to connect residents of inner-city neighborhoods to suburban job openings;

2. A targeted commute to allow residents to reach those suburban destinations; and

3. Limited support services aimed at mitigating problems created or exacerbated by the daily commute to distant and unfamiliar job locations.

Nine sites participated in two years of planning, during which they attempted to build unusual metropolitanwide partnerships–we call them "collaboratives"–among city and suburban SDAs (Service Delivery Areas) and Private Industry Councils (PICs), community organizations, employer representatives, transportation providers, state and local human service providers, and others necessary to support the Bridges model. In the spring of 1996, five sites–Baltimore, Chicago, Denver, Milwaukee and St. Louis–were selected to implement the model based on their demonstrated capacity to build, manage and sustain these complex new collaboratives. These sites began four full years of project operations in late 1996.