By Kathy Bergen
| Now that Chicago no longer can look to a 2016 Olympics as a potential trigger for economic development, a consortium of foundations this week started down another path toward jobs programs for residents of the South and West Side neighborhoods that stood to benefit from a Summer Games.

The 2016 Olympics Fund for Chicago Neighborhoods board decided Tuesday that it will apply for federal stimulus money this spring in an attempt to swell its remaining $1.7 million into more than $5 million for work force development efforts, which it deemed the most critical need.

“Even though we lost the
potential economic engine of the Games, we think we can still be helpful
in providing job training and transitional jobs in industries that are
seeking workers, such as hospitality, health care and [freight]
transportation, distribution and logistics,” said Terry Mazany,
president and chief executive of the Chicago Community Trust, one of the
participating foundations that had pooled money to assist neighborhoods that would have been been affected by the Olympics.

The federal fund offers a four-to-one
match to local funding, so “it’s a huge opportunity to create great
leverage,” Mazany said.

At minimum, the group could seek a match
on $1 million, which could bring in another $4 million. But, the 2016
fund may do a little more fundraising so it could seek a match on $2
million, which would hoist its pot to $10 million, he said.

“There
is great enthusiasm to try to draw more funds for Chicago,” he said.

The
Chicago Workforce Investment Council, a non-profit created last year
and chaired by Mayor Richard M. Daley, will design the spending plans.
It will work with the Chicago Jobs Council, a non-profit group that will
identify where jobs exist and organize the system for training and
placement.

The fund consortium hopes to have dollars in hand this
summer, Mazany said.

The funding would be used primarily for
wage subsidies so that employers could take on workers for short-term
jobs without incurring cost. And participants would gain employment
experience.

For many, “it could be a first item on their resume,”
Mazany said.

The 2016 Olympics Fund is a joint project of the
Chicago Community Trust, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur
Foundation, the McCormick Foundation, the Polk Bros. Foundation, the
Joyce Foundation, the Wiebolt Foundation and Boeing Co.

The group
originally raised $4.72 million, but some of those commitments were
contingent on Chicago landing the 2016 Games, which ultimately went to
Rio de Janeiro. The final figure came in at $3.7 million, and $2 million
was spent during the bid period.

Some of it was spent on
identifying where job opportunities exist, and that research will be
used in this new initiative.

Other funds were spent identifying
minority- and women-owned businesses that were in need of business
investment and help in obtaining certification by the city so they could
compete for city contracts.

“We’ve been meeting with the city to
look at how it can use this information to certify more women-owned and
minority-owned businesses,” Mazany said.

The consortium decided
it did not have adequate funds to attack the business development issue
in a significant way, Mazany said. The group will be able to have a
bigger impact in work force development because of the federal matching
funds available for that purpose, he added.