With a gross domestic product of more than $15 trillion, the United States has the largest national economy in the world. In this time of financial turmoil, political deadlock, economic strain and ever-increasing global competition, America today faces an unparalleled challenge to its economic strength and stability.

To meet this challenge, the U.S. needs to build a workforce that can compete in the 21st century and where all of its members can contribute their talents and skills. Yet, this is something that we are struggling to do, in large part because tens of millions of Americans live in poverty. In 2011, the official poverty rate was 15.0 percent, with 46.2 million people in poverty, many of whom live in areas of concentrated poverty. The same rate in 2011 for children under age 18 was 21.9 percent, more than one-fifth of tomorrow’s workforce.

Children living in poverty do not have the same opportunities as children raised in wealthier households. Inequality disadvantages them in every aspect of their lives: they are less healthy, less educated, and more likely to enter prison than their more affluent peers.Inequality of this magnitude has created an economic crisis. With fewer children finishing Below is a summary of our key investment areas and programs.

The initial opportunity for improvement rests in those who are not yet employed but will be in the near future and in those who are not employed currently, but could be. Initial efforts must focus on newly employing 27,000 more individuals in skilled jobs. For positive transformation to occur, residents of the West Side need more and better paying jobs.

If we do not transform the West Side, over the next ten years we will expend over $29.1 billion to keep the West Side poor and large numbers of residents locked up. Alternatively, over the next ten years we can make an effort to move the West Side from a community of concentrated poverty to a working class community, in part by reclaiming some of the money and many of the lives that we are now wasting.

PAYING FOR THE TRANSFORMATION

the total cost of transforming the West Side over ten years is $3.4 billion. This is only 12% of the cost of not transforming the West Side and can be gleaned from cost savings and new tax revenues from wage income with no new investment necessary. 

The good news is that over a 10-year period, the transformation of the West Side can more than pay for itself, improving the community, improving the city, and generating new revenue to support infrastructure and other City projects and services.

the total cost of transforming the West Side over ten years is $3.4 billion. This is only 12% of the cost of not transforming the West Side and can be gleaned from cost savings and new tax revenues from wage income with no new investment necessary.

Even if we assume that the transformation costs incur a 30% scale-up cost and run 20% ahead of projections, the total cost of West Side transformation comes in at $5.1 billion, less than half of the projected new revenue and cost savings.