The Annie E. Casey Foundation launched the eight-year, six-city demonstration project, Jobs Initiative (JI), in 1995 to provide support and assistance to community groups, employers, foundations, and community colleges helping disadvantaged, low-skilled workers secure family-supporting jobs. JI sites found that even during a time when employers were desperate for workers, race-based discrepancies persisted in the labor market experiences of low-income people of color. The Casey Foundation developed a range of resources on race, work force, and regional labor markets. Employers often used references to black and Latino men's lack of soft skills training as a smoke screen to discriminate. To empower minority males, JI sites focused on building job seekers' strengths, respecting their dignity and talents, and offering them support during and after placement. The JI approach to work force development (WD) and placement emphasized these three key components for an effective program: engaging employers, retention and advancement, and systems reform. These five lessons were learned: the need to be aware of the dynamic of race and ethnicity and how it differs across individual, group, industry, and regional contexts; the impact of the issues of race, ethnicity, language, or culture throughout the WD process; the importance of collaborating and sharing knowledge about race, labor markets, and job readiness; the need for new approaches to WD for low-skilled job seekers; and the importance of vigilance at each step. (Contains 13 resources.) (YLB)