MODEL provides services in three main areas. The first is Local Economic Development. In this area, we specialize in mobilizing broad-based support from among all three sectors -- public, private and NGO – to plan and implement community economic renewal strategies. By using a combination of expert research, moderator techniques, and technical assistance, we help local community renewal partnerships:

• Analyze the factors that influence a local economy;

• Understand the major economic renewal principles and analyze how each of these might serve as a basis for improving the local economy;

• Generate specific project ideas that have potential to positively impact community economic renewal;

• Evaluate project ideas for consistency with community development needs and objectives;

• Prioritize select project ideas and assess their feasibility;

• Weave most feasible project ideas into a local economic development action plan;

• Organize project implementation teams and assist them with drafting proposals to mobilize resources to implement projects;

• Access training and tools to ensure successful outcomes;

• Measure and evaluate the results of their projects; and

• Develop and implement plans to sustain the economic renewal processes and projects.

Our vast experience in the development of sustainable economic renewal initiatives, in particular, allows us to analyze and help solve problems that constrain local partners’ development and the success of their projects. Our approach is participatory, practical, and business-driven, resulting in demand responsive and sustainable initiatives.

In the second main area, Dislocated Worker Adjustment, we provide a wide range of services designed to help communities, enterprises and workers cooperatively plan and develop programs that mitigate the negative impact of enterprise restructuring and mass lay-offs, including:

• Early intervention services for workers facing mass layoffs such as job/social counseling, provision of labor market information, aptitude/interest assessment, job search/job club programs, relocation services, and labor exchange and placement services;

• Rapid response and planning services for enterprises undergoing restructuring, such as training in labor-management relations, mediation/arbitration and productivity improvement training; and

• Customized skills training and re-training for workers to better meet employers’ needs; and

• Assistance to local government and community service organizations in designing and providing transitional public works programs for dislocated workers.

• Institutional development support for Romanian Labor Ministry and National Employment Agency, by providing assistance in design and implement programs with international funding resources, staff training and development of specialized taskforces. Based on this experience has been developed Romanian new legal framework on social protection.

In the third main area, Supply-Side Assistance to the Private Sector, we work with local government institutions, NGOs, Regional Development Agencies and other service providers to employ proven strategies and develop programs that help existing businesses expand and foster the creation of new firms, resulting in new jobs for local residents. These strategies include the development of:

• Small Business Assistance Centers which provide legal, marketing, sales, financial and other consulting services to individuals who own or are starting-up small businesses;

• Revolving Loan Funds which provide short-term working capital loans for new and existing businesses; and

• Small Business Incubators which provide facilities, management assistance, and shared support services and equipment for new and early-stage enterprises.

We assist implementing partners with all phases of program development such as feasibility studies, planning, development of operating policies and procedures, and the training of management and staff.

MODEL’s Monitoring and Evaluation Systems are integral to all aspects of our service delivery and are designed to measure and track organizational and program development. Because qualitative data can only describe part of any picture, MODEL’s monitoring and evaluation systems rely heavily on quantitative data collection and analysis to discern real strengths and weaknesses of implementing partners and/or their projects so that work plans can be modified to address needs of highest priority. Additionally, MODEL's monitoring and evaluation systems not only generate evaluative information that permits project monitoring and reporting but also generates information for project beneficiaries and others to improve their activities and performances on an ongoing basis.