Expanding Civic Opportunity

Abstract

The authors report on the first year of the 1993 federal Empowerment Zone and Enterprise Communities Program (EZ) and its ability to expand community capacity in the six urban EZ areas. They hypothesize that expanded community capacity depends on the strength of participation and the development of networks. They find variation in capacity levels among sites and limited expansion of community capacity because mayors control the process, community organization roles are limited, and existing networks are reused. They conclude, however, that it is too early to assess the full EZ impact.