The business community and employment

In Ireland, Scotland, Germany, the Netherlands and the USA there is a longstanding tradition of involving the business community and generating employment in connection with the regeneration of socially deprived residential areas. Unemployment is commonly high in areas where action is taken. It is also one of the indicators that resulted in the areas being selected in the first place.

More local employment will have many beneficial consequences. Besides improving the conditions of life of individual people, it leads to greater purchasing power in the area, greater cohesion and increased local affiliation.

The action can have many levels.

1. Local unemployed people can be involved in the physical and social regeneration of the district. Almost all projects have this objective, and in most cases it has been achieved. However, we have also seen the process slowed down by sectoral boundaries and a generally sceptical attitude towards the unemployed. It can generally be concluded that where efforts have been made to involve local unemployed people, they have succeeded. The participants have subsequently begun a course of education or have found work. In addition, the sense of ownership of the projects has grown.
2. Local unemployed people can be siphoned into existing firms after supplementary training, consultation and a period of training. The EU has been very successful with support for projects of this type in Ireland, Scotland and other countries. Local offices have to be set up to canvass firms for jobs and to offer the unemployed relevant supplementary training and guidance.
3. Incubator enterprises can also be used as strategy. Facilities can be established for entrepreneurs, e.g. premises where they can set up business and perhaps get help with bookkeeping, letter-writing and telephone skills. This can become unemployed people's access route to the labour market, and small businesses bring new life to the community.
4. Lastly, one can try to attract new companies. This is probably the most difficult strategy - especially if one cannot use tax concessions as a bait. However, it is also the strategy with the widest perspectives. The creation of enterprise-servicing partnerships may be a viable route, and so can the establishment of business parks and enterprise centres. However, the most important parameter of all is probably building up a new image for the area. Companies must believe that the area has a future - otherwise, they will stay away from it.

Development agency

In 1990 the Castlemilk Partnership established Castlemilk Economic Development Agency (CEDA). In 1991 CEDA opened a training and employment centre that acts as supplement to the more formalised job centre. CEDA is supported by the EU and has an annual budget of around DKK 16 million. The agency's activities include helping existing firms to develop, attracting new firms, setting up enterprise schemes, providing training and traineeships and acting as a job centre.

CEDA has been very successful. Unemployment fell from 30% in 1988 to 11% in 1998. The biggest single project was the opening of Glenwood Business Park in 1995. The park has room for 51 small enterprises and offices. CEDA has also worked intensively to attract a supermarket, has procured 500 traineeships and found jobs for 200 people.

Small enterprises in a disused church

Strengthening the local economy and involving weak groups

The local Büro für Wirtschaft-entwicklung (Office for Business Development) has entered into broad cooperation with the area's other institutions and is working on:

• development of the industrial areas
• outreach work and surveys among the companies in the area
• changing shopping streets in cooperation with the residents publishing a list of vacant residential and business properties
• advisory services

The area's own potentials have been utilised. Local unemployed people have found employment for and in the area, mainly to do with the physical regeneration. 50% of the people employed are local and the proportion of foreigners corresponds to the proportion for the area as such. In 1996 360 local residents were already employed on Stadtteilprojekt Marxloh, including 130 of foreign extraction. In addition, great importance has been attached to getting women employed. Many foreign women are working in the cafe in the new multifunctional centre.

This action has strengthened existing businesses and created local jobs, but there has been no appreciable establishment of new businesses.

Local firms: CAMBIO and ROADY

One of them is a small cleaning company that does the work for which the local authority does not have the time or the manpower. The local authority sweeps only with machines not manually - so there is a need for special input.

The advantage of CAMBIO is that it is very visible in the area. For example, it organises two yearly events in which all the area's children participate: collecting fireworks on 1 January and gathering up leaves in the autumn. CAMBIO's customers are housing associations, schools and institutions in the area. It has 6 employees.

Another firm is a small catering company consisting of Turkish women and specialising in receptions and similar. The firm is called ROADY and local businesses and institutions make frequent use of it.

Combating unemployment, crime and vandalism

Most employment activities can lead to synergetic effects if they are implemented according to the principle that complex problems require complex solutions and cross-sectoral cooperation.

In Nijmegen, one does not expect the long-term unemployed to seek work themselves. Instead, one approaches them by calling on them at home. It is possible to create jobs for people who have been out of work for more than a year. Within 2-3 years, about 20 area-oriented jobs have been created for which the employees get paid 10 20% more than they would get in unemployment benefit.

As an example, Nijmegen had a youth centre that was not accepted by the target group. The solution was to give jobs, responsibility and management to the young people, who were involved in minor criminal activities. This has resulted in a synergetic effect: less vandalism and crime, a new youth centre and new jobs for young people.

Another example is a private residential complex now being built in the area for well-off singles or couples without children. The developer was, with good reason, afraid that there would be a lot of theft and vandalism during construction. The solution found was to train some local young people as security guards. They got job training on site and there was no vandalism. Six minor delinquents - boys - completed the training and now have jobs or are in education, while two dropped out because they had too serious problems.

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