More than a half a billion dollars has been allocated by the U.S. government since 1994 to stimulate development in urban communities through national empowerment zones. On Thursday, Sept. 24, 65 experts from across the country will gather at DePaul University to discuss what went right, what could have been done better and how this new attempt at community development should be evaluated.

The conference is a joint venture between DePaul’s Egan Urban Center and the University of Illinois’ Great Cities Institute, which has tracked the zones since their inception through a study called the National Empowerment Zone Action Research Project. Attendees will include participants from Chicago, Atlanta, Baltimore, Camden, N.J., Cleveland, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York City and Philadelphia, all of whom launched empowerment zones.

In addition to tax incentives, these cities were to receive $100 million to help community organizations build the social infrastructure necessary to attract business to their neighborhoods. A conference panel beginning at 8:45 a.m. will discuss best practices from across the nation, with emphasis on job training in Detroit, community participation in Baltimore, a cultural development strategy in Chicago and business development strategies in New York.

A 10:25 a.m. panel will address perspectives from various partners who worked on the zones, including the federal government, city-level implementers, academics and community practitioners to determine the most important outcomes of comprehensive community development initiatives and how they should be measured.

The lunch panel at noon will discuss the merits of participatory evaluations and the major challenges of this approach, led by those directly involved in designing and implementing participatory evaluations.

The wrap-up session begins at 2:15 p.m. with a look forward at what comes next for empowerment zones, with specific attention given to evaluating comprehensive community development activities and outcomes, and the implications they have for the zones.

Groups to be represented at the conference include the Vice President’s Community Empowerment Board, MacArther Foundation, Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone Development Corp., Empower Baltimore Management Corp., Detroit Hispanic Development Corp., Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, Humboldt Park Empowerment Partnership, and several local and national universities.

The conference will be held at DePaul Center, 1 E. Jackson, Room 8005. For more information call the Egan Center at 312/362-6000.