Federal Reserve Bank of Boston President Eric Rosengren said new community development initiatives to spur cooperation between cities and businesses can go beyond monetary easing as a way to support lower-income Americans amid an economic recovery that’s still incomplete.

The Boston bank’s Working Cities Challenge, a program to support lower-income residents in small Massachusetts towns, helps the economy in ways the “blunt tool” of monetary policy can’t, Rosengren said in an interview broadcast on Bloomberg Radio’s First Word.

“We haven’t fully recovered and many of these cities are far from being fully recovered,” Rosengren said. “There’s broad support within the Fed for thinking about alternative models that can help make sure that low and moderate income individuals enjoy the same prosperity as everyone else.”

Rosengren is pushing for new types of civic leadership he says are needed to help declining industrial cities get their economies back on track and support a broader recovery. He said Boston Fed research shows communities can turn themselves around by using a “more collaborative vision” such as Working Cities, which uses state and foundation funding to bring together government, businesses and non-profit agencies.

Massachusetts cities are eligible to participate in the collaborative leadership program if their family incomes fall below the national median and their poverty rate exceeds the median. The program began with 20 cities competing for $1.8 million, and was narrowed down in January to six winners: Lawrence, Fitchburg, Holyoke, Chelsea, Somerville and Salem.

`Particularly Promising'

“If you want the state of Massachusetts, or other states, to have a lower unemployment rate as we get to full employment, then that has to occur not only in the cities like Boston but also the cities like Lawrence and Fitchburg,” Rosengren said. “Many of these cities also have a large immigrant population and English is a second language for a large percentage of the population. The unemployment rates tend to be much higher than the national average.”

Funding comes from sources including the Ford Foundation, Living Cities Inc., the Massachusetts Competitive Partnership and the state government. The Boston Fed provides management and staff support. It does not provide funding.

Chair Janet Yellen cited the program in a March 31 speech to a Fed community development conference in Chicago, saying it’s among the central bank’s community development initiatives that she finds “particularly promising.”

Rosengren, 57, has been a consistent supporter of Fed stimulus. He joined the bank as an economist in 1985 and became president in 2007. He next has a vote on policy in 2016. The Boston Fed district includes Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont and almost all of Connecticut.