Partners, Networks, and the Economic Context for Generation II and III WIRED Regions: The Second...

“The WIRED Initiative in all of the generations was intended to bring about major changes to regional areas within states (and sometimes crossing state borders) which were experiencing economic challenges. Conveners and partners in each Initiative region were charged with creating a strategy that was unique to each region’s geographic, cultural, and economic assets, and to accomplish this by engaging regional stakeholders from multiple sectors in a unique collaborative enterprise. The Initiative’s success was predicated upon the ability of collaborators to identify a regional identity, create a vision related to workforce skills and key industries, and establish and maintain leadership by key stakeholders. A comprehensive regional economic strategy needed to be developed, which identified assets, resources, and aligned investments. Further, specific strategies had to be created around regional economic and workforce development goals that were measurable, realistic, and achievable within a specified timeframe. An important and related goal of the Initiative was to stimulate and strengthen relationships and social networks among participants, in order to sustain collaboration both during the grant period and afterward” (p. i).

“…The report used more systematic and broader data than collected for the first interim report of this evaluation. In addition, the report also documented labor force and economic conditions that existed in each region during early implementation of the grants, and compared them to a matched set of regions nationally, as a prelude to possible future analyses” (p.i). (Abstractor: Author and Website Staff)

Full publication title: Partners, Networks, and the Economic Context for Generation II and III WIRED Regions: The Second Interim Report of the Evaluation of Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development (WIRED) Generations II and III

• “The WIRED partner survey results indicate…a broad representation of organizations and included a strong business presence. Those…involved considered it to be a productive collaboration, i.e., one worthy of receiving leveraged resources from regional partners. Respondents felt that the Initiative had begun to have positive outcomes in their regions. Social network data show considerable dispersion and complexity in the regional networks” (p.v). • “Analyses of external, secondary socioeconomic and labor market data show that Generation II and III regions were not relatively advantaged and, on average, had lower educational attainment and higher concentrations of manufacturing employment than the nation as a whole” (p.v). • “Over 2007 and 2008, regions with collaborations tended to create more jobs, but also lost more employment, and on net, lost more jobs than their comparison regions” (p.v). • “…About 80 percent of the screener survey respondents indicated that their organization was engaged in collaborative efforts “somewhat” (about 27 percent in Generation II regions and 34 percent in Generation III regions) or “a great deal” (about 50 percent in both generations)” (p.ii). • “…The mix of organization types varied considerably across the regions; more respondents were from the education sector than any other organization type, about one-third overall” (p.ii). • “…Asked to recall the context in 2006, virtually all respondents felt that when the WIRED grants became available, the political and social climate seemed appropriate for starting a collaborative project. Considerably smaller percentages of respondents, but still over half of them, characterized the context of collaboration in the regional effort as one of working together or trust…” (p.ii). • “…More than 90 percent of respondents agreed with the following statements: “My organization is benefiting from being involved in regional transformation efforts,” “The collaborative group includes a diverse range of stakeholders involved in many different aspects of regional transformation,” and “I feel optimistic about our ability to improve the job skills of our regional workforce.”However, respondents from businesses and from economic development agencies were less enthusiastic in their perceptions of success than were workforce development agency staff and educators...” (p.ii). (Abstractor: Author)

• Last Updated:
• Created:
• Resource Publication Date: 2012
• Author(s): Hollenbeck, Kevin; Hewat, Nancy; Kaplow, Jeff; Long, Monica, et al.
• Organizational Author(s): Public Policy Associates, Incorporated; W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research
• Funding Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration
• Resource Availability: Publicly available
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• Posted in: Workforce System Strategies