Ariel Foundation (Ariel Job and Business Center) - Developed by JDC and the Argentinean Jewish community at the height of that country’s financial crisis in the early years of this decade, the center has subsequently helped many community members recover their economic footing. Its services have included resume writing, career counseling, job training and placement programs, networking, and the provision of small business loans. It has supported the opening or expansion of a variety of micro-businesses, thereby furnishing community members with earning and employment opportunities throughout this difficult period.

A revolving loan fund established in Argentina by local and North American Jewish community donors as part of JDC’s efforts to help community members recover their economic footing in the wake of that nation’s economic crisis. The Fund has been offering loans to Jewish-owned small and medium-size businesses that agree to fill new job openings through the Ariel Foundation’s Job and Business Center.

Most of the lay and professional Jewish community leaders who have emerged in recent years in Latin America have benefited from the training and counseling programs conducted by JDC through Leatid Latin America.  In addition to specialized workshops, seminars, and follow-up coaching conducted in local communities in response to particular needs, Leatid’s core programs include training for institutional directors and for young communal leaders as well as the Electronic Forum for Jewish Institutional Leadership. Leatid has also conducted programs geared specifically to Jewish community leaders in Central America.

Established by JDC in Argentina during the height of that country’s economic crisis and now receiving strong local community support, the program continues to give Jewish students attending tuition-free state universities much-needed help with their transportation, meal, and book expenses. It also offers these young adults summertime English courses and access to training and counseling at the Ariel Foundation’s Job and Business Center, and it encourages them to get involved in volunteer efforts on behalf of the community.

One of the economic recovery tools that JDC helped the Jewish community develop in Argentina, the Small Business Bureau is part of the Ariel Foundation’s Job and Business Center. It has furnished new and ailing small businesses with consultative services, short-term loans, and help in developing business plans, thereby fostering the creation of new microenterprises with their attendant job opportunities.

To help welfare clients aged 18 to 55 reenter the job market or find better paying jobs, PES was established in Argentina in 2003 as a joint undertaking of JDC and AMIA, in collaboration with the Tzedakah Foundation and various local institutions. The program assesses clients’ skills, gives them a personalized plan of action to upgrade their qualifications, and encourages companies to hire them by offering a temporary 30 percent salary subsidy.