Through the initiative of Commissioner Dorrin Rolle, the Community Workforce Program (CWP) was established and approved by the Board of County Commissioners (BCC) on January 23, 2003. The Program, which was designed to provide job opportunities to local residents of traditionally underserved and underdeveloped neighborhoods, went into affect May 5, 2003. It was amended in November 2003 to provide even more job opportunities to Miami-Dade County residents of Designated Target Areas (DTAs).

Maps of these DTAs are available here in Adobe Acrobat format:  

• Empowerment Zones    (7.7 MB)
• CDBG Eligible Block Group  (1 MB)
• Enterprise Zones  (4.1 MB)
• Focus Areas / Target Urban Areas    (6.5 MB)

If you have a street address for a project, work order, employee or prospective employee you may link to the site below to identify if the address is located in an   Enterprise Zone, Enpowerment Zone or Target Urban Area.

To achieve the objective of the program, all Capital Construction Projects and Work Orders advertised on or after May 5, 2003 are subject to the inclusion of a workforce goal.  This goal is established by MDC Department of Small Business Development (SBD) and is a percentage of labor force that a County awarded contractor/subcontractor must hire from within the DTA in which the construction project/work order is located in accordance with the governing  ordinance 03-237. Not less than 10% of the labor force must come from the DTA in which the public improvement is located.

Contractors may utilize persons from nearby DTAs to meet the workforce goal only after they have proven to The Department of Small Business Development (SBD) with supporting documentation that the person(s) was not available from the respective DTA and did not have the required skills needed the meet the job requirements.

Upon the approval by the Department of Small Business Development (SBD) the contractor may recruit from other nearby DTAs.  Contractors may be given relief or release from a Workforce Goal in whole or in part, contingent upon the submittal of adequate justification in accordance with the governing legislation.
The workforce goal may be applied to capital construction projects entered into and issued by MDC, its departments and agencies, Public Health Trust, or funded in whole or in part by County funds or with private funds on County property for projects and work orders equal or greater than two hundred fifty thousand dollars ($250,000) and located in a DTA.
Contractors/subcontractors may recruit labor force needed to meet an established workforce goal by contacting a Workforce Development Organization (WDO) or Workforce Recruitment Organization (WRO). The organization must be registered as a WDO or WRO with MDC Department of Small Business Development (SBD).

In order to obtain registration as a WDO or WRO the organization must be regularly engaged in business for a minimum of one (1) year in the area of providing construction trades or skills training and/or recruitment/referral and placement of skilled and unskilled laborers for construction work.  The WDO or WRO must also be a business enterprise located in Dade or Broward County.  To register with MDC as a WDO or WRO you may download a registration application at this website by clicking Forms. For a list of registered WDOS and WROs click on  Reports.

The MDC’s Clearinghouse resources are also available for use by the contractors/subcontractors if they desire to self-recruit.  To obtain more information on the Clearinghouse you may contact this department at 305-375-3111.