At Integrated Packaging Corporation, President and CEO Al Fuller is doing well and doing good. Integrated Packaging Corporation (IPC) has been Proctor and Gamble’s Minority Business Enterprise “Company of the Year” and was named a “Top 100 Industrial Company” by Black Enterprise Magazine. Annual growth catapulted the company onto the Inner City 100 for two consecutive years. Only a true business gazelle makes it even for a single year onto this list of the fastest growing firms in the nation’s central cities.

When Donna Klein left Marriott International six years ago she was Vice President for Workforce Effectiveness. She had dedicated her career to making the workplace work for families, reshaping the role of business in response to dramatic changes in the circumstances of workers' lives. Recognizing that neither the prevailing business management practices nor public policy adequately responded to the realities of work and family in the 21st century, she founded Corporate Voices for Working Families.

Finding, Hiring, Training, Keeping Skilled Employees: Is it "Collaborate or Die"?

"We are in the race of our lives for talent right now as manufacturers," says Erick Ajax, owner of E.J. Ajax & Sons, one of this country's leading metal stamping companies. Finding, training, and retaining people to fill skilled manufacturing jobs is much more than a vexing problem to men and women like Ajax, it's literally a matter of business survival. Figuring out the solution is crucial, not only for helping businesses succeed, but also understanding how low-income workers can get and stay on a career path that leads to higher incomes and, at least as important, building assets.

Financial Literacy Helps Low-Wage Worker Save and Advance

The Jane Addams Resource Corporation (JARC) knows manufacturing — and they know the people that go to work each day in the array of plants in one part of Chicago. As a result, JARC knows how to help lower-income employees of the businesses in the Ravenswood Industrial Corridor make economic progress.

Creamy, Delicious and Oh So Good For Youth

You can find lots of cool things in a scoop of ice cream - mint chips, pistachios, Oreo bits, a future. Yes, a future. That's the theory behind two Ben & Jerry's ice cream shops operated by the Latin American Youth Center (LAYC) in the Washington, DC area, two of 11 such stores throughout the United States, plus one in Northern Ireland.

Businesses Pioneer New Practices

Most poor people work. But their wages and earnings don't raise them and their families beyond economic isolation. The progress in helping people escape poverty that the country made in the mid to late 1990's reversed course from 2000-2003 as the number of people living in poverty rose by 3,000,000 to just less than 36,000,000 (12.5%). And during these years, the gap in income and assets between the "haves" and "have-nots" has widened. While most attention has focused on the advantages and weaknesses of welfare reform at the national and state levels, the policies and practices of businesses have a greater impact on whether workers rise — and stay — above poverty.

In 2002 and 2004, The Hitachi Foundation supported Share Our Strength as it led business and nonprofit leaders on a series of site visits into a number of America's poorest communities and neighborhoods. The goal included deepening the participants' understanding of the challenges confronting these communities. It was also a powerful opportunity to become acquainted with effective leaders and innovative programs that are helping people meet basic needs and strive toward economic independence. The "Hinges of Hope" project traveled to McAllen, Texas on the Mexican border, the Bronx in New York, and Washington, DC.

The North Lawndale Employment Network and Trinity Hospital Partnership

Vincent Thomas spent three years in jail. When he got out, he couldn't find work. As far as he was concerned, he wore a big "X" on his chest to every job interview. The "X" stood for ex-offender.

"I spent at least three years trying to find a job," he says today. "I couldn't land a job, just a little work on the side. No one would trust me. They just threw my application in the garbage when they saw I was an ex-offender."

Life is changing for Thomas thanks to his efforts and the efforts of a unique business and community partnership supported by The Hitachi Foundation.

The sweeping welfare reforms enacted in 1996 resulted in tremendous reductions in the number of people receiving welfare support. The welfare rolls, in fact, were cut by nearly 60 percent from 1996 to 2004. But an important challenge remains: helping these workers find and keep better jobs, and advance their skills and careers while accumulating savings and assets. In recognition of both the advantages and limitations of the national welfare reform effort, The Hitachi Foundation launched Making Work Work in 2000 precisely to explore how local workforce development efforts can work with businesses to address the career and economic challenges facing low-income workers.

The Story of Tapetes De Lana

Carla Gomez didn't start out trying to save both the rural lifestyle and cottage weaving industry of northeastern New Mexico when she taught a class at New Mexico Highlands University. She didn't intend to create a local program that is changing people's lives and starting to revitalize the economy of an entire county, and an entire agricultural sector, to boot. But that's just what she ended up doing when, with the help of The Hitachi Foundation, she built a dynamic social venture out of fiber.