The Working Centre in the downtown core of Kitchener, Ontario, is a widely recognized and successful model for community development. Begun from scratch in 1982, it is now a vast network of practical supports for the unemployed, the underemployed, the temporarily employed, and the homeless, populations that collectively constitute up to 30 percent of the labour market both locally and across North America.

"Transition to Common Work" is the essential text about The Working Centre its beginnings thirty years ago, the lessons learned, and the myriad ways in which its strategies and...