In 2001, a group of community-based non-profit agency executives and program administrators came together around the growing employment disparity of Empowerment Zone (EZ) residents. 42% of EZ residents were not in the labor force compared with 27% for the City Columbus and 15% for Franklin County. According to research conducted by the Columbus Compact Corporation, residents in the Columbus EZ fall behind the surrounding metropolitan area on every indicator of socioeconomic well being including income and employment, housing, number of female-headed households, education, teen births, and infant mortality.1

This group of administrators acknowledged that efforts to help residents could be more successful if area agencies worked together to define employment-related problems and to administer services. They designed a new strategy to pool all of their resources to make a broader array of employment and supportive services available to a greater number of low-income residents.

In January of 2003, the group formally established the Columbus Workforce Alliance, which operates as the "coordinating umbrella" for member agencies' efforts. The initial funding to support this multi-agency initiative was received from the Columbus Compact Corporation.