Community Workforce Partnerships Grant (Healthcare Pathway) is a grant from Massachusetts Executive Office of Economic Development that funds collaborative workforce training initiatives focused on healthcare career pathways for underserved communities. Organizations receive support to develop and expand employer-driven sector partnerships that recruit, train, and place workers in quality healthcare jobs.

Eligible applicants are collaborative community-based organizations operating in Massachusetts cities and towns. Previous awards have reached up to $150,000. This program supports economic mobility by connecting job seekers facing barriers with living-wage healthcare careers and sustainable employment opportunities.

Workforce Pathways | Third Sector Capital PartnersThird Sector Capital Partners - Transforming public systems to advance improved and equitable outcomes Workforce Pathways | Third Sector Capital Partners Post-Secondary Opportunity Post-Secondary Opportunity Post-Secondary Opportunity Third Sector works with communities and our government agencies to reimagine our workforce systems so they can help people find the careers and lives of their dreams.

Our Approach to Workforce Pathways Most of us believe that everyone deserves the opportunity to build the life of their dreams—no matter what they look like, where they are from, or what their circumstances are.

But for too many of us, our dreams seem out of reach because our nation's system of public benefits and workforce development fails to provide the support and tools for entry into well-paying jobs that will help all workers achieve economic mobility. Our government agencies have created many programs and services, and often work closely with other stakeholders including employers, to better serve America’s working people.

And while these public-private partnerships aim to connect jobseekers with jobs, too often, people are trapped on the sidelines because of a lack of basic economic security and mismatches between available jobs, worker readiness, and jobs that pay a living wage.

As a result, too many workforce development systems struggle to meaningfully recruit, train, and sustain a talent pipeline in the critical industries that need workers and pay living wages.

Ultimately, we believe in a future where a well-integrated and coordinated workforce development system has the tools, resources, and capacity to support all workers with dignity, no matter their race, background, or circumstance, in finding fulfilling work and uplifting careers that pay a living wage and provide opportunities for meaningful advancement.

Workforce Pathways Focus Areas We undertake work in workforce pathways in the following ways Program Improvement and Transformation Transform SNAP E&T, TANF, WIOA, and apprenticeship systems to support individual and whole families' needs, increase retention, and advance long-term economic mobility outcomes, such as placement and retention in quality jobs that pay a living wage.

Workforce System Coordination Collaborate on aligning program requirements, goals, incentives, and service delivery across workforce, education, and support services to improve access and achieve long-term economic mobility outcomes for all people.

High-Quality Career Pathways Partner with employers, workers, government agencies, and philanthropy to build career pathways for people, especially those experiencing the highest barriers, to improve access to and success in quality jobs.

Project Name Scope Location Status Supporting Capacity Building for States to Develop High-Quality Climate and Infrastructure Career Pathways State AZ, MI, MN, NM, Active Third Sector is working with The Families and Workers Fund to support a cohort of four states – Arizona, Michigan, Minnesota, and New Mexico – in designing workforce initiatives to build a pipeline of quality jobs in the climate and infrastructure sectors.

Third Sector's support is part of the Fund’s Powering Climate and Infrastructure Careers Challenge.

Read More Coordinating Employer-Driven Sector Partnerships to Strengthen Early Child Care Employment and Training in Massachusetts State MA Closed Third Sector worked with the City of Boston's Office of Workforce Development, Community Advocates for Young Learners (CAYL) Institute, the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care, training partners, and workforce boards to build and strengthen sector partnerships in the field of early care and education.

This effort helped to identify collaborators to recruit, train, and place teachers in the Greater Boston area to scale up the pipeline to careers in early childhood education. This initiative is one of two projects awarded to Third Sector through the U.S. Department of Commerce's Good Jobs Challenge.

Read More Utilizing Sector Partnerships to Strengthen Workforce Systems and Provide Good Jobs in Rural Central Texas County TX Closed Third Sector is working with Workforce Solutions Rural Capital Area, Workforce Network, Inc., Smithville Workforce Training Center, training partners, and employers to build and strengthen sector partnerships in the skilled trades, health care, finance, and IT sectors.

This effort will recruit, train, and place working people in seven rural counties in central Texas into quality jobs. This initiative is one of two Third Sector projects awarded funding through the U.S. Department of Commerce's Good Jobs Challenge.

Read More Powering Climate & Infrastructure Careers: Three Lessons for a Data-First Approach to Building a Green Workforce in Arizona Powering Climate & Infrastructure Careers: Three Lessons for a Data-First Approach to Building a Green Workforce in Arizona In Arizona, the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) serves as the state’s central authority for labor market information, providing the data and analysis that inform critical workforce and economic development decisions.

As Arizona’s economy continues to grow and diversify, the state has a unique opportunity to shape its future workforce by aligning data, policy, and… Powering Climate & Infrastructure Careers: Accelerating Systemic Success in Minnesota Powering Climate & Infrastructure Careers: Accelerating Systemic Success in Minnesota Minnesota leads the U.S. in addressing climate change, with the goal of achieving 100% carbon-free electricity by 2040, in alignment with the state's comprehensive Climate Action Framework, its strategy for addressing and preparing for climate change.

Minnesota leaders view addressing climate change as an opportunity to bolster the economy and foster a more inclusive state.

… Powering Climate & Infrastructure Careers: Reframing Job Quality as a Business Solution in Michigan Powering Climate & Infrastructure Careers: Reframing Job Quality as a Business Solution in Michigan Michigan is actively pursuing a clean energy future, and like many states, faces the critical challenge of not just creating new jobs, but establishing high-quality, family-sustaining careers to attract, cultivate, and retain a skilled workforce.

The Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity (LEO) sits at the center of this effort, connecting residents with employment… Powering Climate & Infrastructure Careers: Advancing Sector Strategies in New Mexico Powering Climate & Infrastructure Careers: Advancing Sector Strategies in New Mexico New Mexico is currently undergoing an energy transition away from legacy fossil fuel industries, such as oil, gas, and coal, toward a green economy, which requires a skilled workforce for emerging jobs in these industries.

Executive Order 2024-152 and New Mexico's Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) state plan mandate the state to train 2,000… Powering Climate & Infrastructure Careers: A National Imperative for Tomorrow’s Economy Powering Climate & Infrastructure Careers: A National Imperative for Tomorrow’s Economy The United States' transition to a clean economy is one of the greatest opportunities of our generation.

This shift enables us to not only build sustainable infrastructure that powers our homes and transports us safely from one town to the next, but also has the potential to create thousands of quality jobs that strengthen economic… Four States Join Second Cohort to Expand Access to SNAP Employment & Training Four States Join Second Cohort to Expand Access to SNAP Employment & Training With support from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's SNAP Employment & Training Partnership Grant, the National Governors Association (NGA), in partnership with Third Sector, has launched the second cohort of the Policy Academy to Strengthen SNAP Employment & Training (E&T) Delivery.

Cross-agency teams from Maryland, North Carolina, Idaho, and South Carolina have been selected to… Reimagining SNAP E&T: Lessons Learned from Third Sector and NGA Building Bridges Across the Workforce Ecosystem Reimagining SNAP E&T: Lessons Learned from Third Sector and NGA Building Bridges Across the Workforce Ecosystem Across the country, SNAP Employment & Training (E&T) and other workforce development programs often operate in silos.

Each aims to support economic mobility but does so through disconnected strategies, funding streams, and eligibility requirements.

This fragmentation makes it harder for job seekers, especially those relying on SNAP, to access coordinated, high-quality services that lead to… Third Sector to Support Four-State Cohort Building Inclusive Climate Workforce Initiatives Third Sector to Support Four-State Cohort Building Inclusive Climate Workforce Initiatives Third Sector, in partnership with the Families and Workers Fund, announced that it will support over the next 11 months a cohort of four states - Arizona, Michigan, Minnesota, and New Mexico - in designing workforce initiatives to build a pipeline of quality jobs in the climate and infrastructure sectors.

Third Sector's support is part… Third Sector and National Governors Association Select Four States to Expand SNAP E&T Programs Third Sector and National Governors Association Select Four States to Expand SNAP E&T Programs This month, Third Sector and The National Governors Association (NGA) have selected cross-sector teams from Idaho, Indiana, Minnesota, and North Carolina to participate in a project focused on helping governors expand employment and training opportunities in their states.

Specifically, these four states will receive expert support and technical assistance to help them identify and address… Launching and Maintaining Rural Sector Partnerships Launching and Maintaining Rural Sector Partnerships The six key lessons learned below come from 14 Rural Sector Partnership Leaders across 12 organizations and 26 rural sector partnerships in six states (CO, PA, WY, TX, LA, NC) as well as Third Sector’s own experiences and work to stand up these partnerships in Rural Central Texas.

All Workforce Pathways Projects Supporting Capacity Building for States to Develop High-Quality Climate and Infrastructure Career Pathways Project Stage: Feasibility/Technical Assistance, Social Innovation Fund Issue Area: Child Welfare, Health Third Sector is working with The Families and Workers Fund to support a cohort of four states – Arizona, Michigan, Minnesota, and New Mexico – in designing workforce initiatives to build a pipeline of quality jobs in the climate and infrastructure sectors.

Third Sector's support is part of the Fund’s Powering Climate and Infrastructure Careers Challenge.

Coordinating Employer-Driven Sector Partnerships to Strengthen Early Child Care Employment and Training in Massachusetts Project Stage: Feasibility/Technical Assistance, Social Innovation Fund Issue Area: Child Welfare, Health Third Sector worked with the City of Boston's Office of Workforce Development, Community Advocates for Young Learners (CAYL) Institute, the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care, training partners, and workforce boards to build and strengthen sector partnerships in the field of early care and education.

This effort helped to identify collaborators to recruit, train, and place teachers in the Greater Boston area to scale up the pipeline to careers in early childhood education. This initiative is one of two projects awarded to Third Sector through the U.S. Department of Commerce's Good Jobs Challenge.

Utilizing Sector Partnerships to Strengthen Workforce Systems and Provide Good Jobs in Rural Central Texas Project Stage: Feasibility/Technical Assistance, Social Innovation Fund Issue Area: Child Welfare, Health Third Sector is working with Workforce Solutions Rural Capital Area, Workforce Network, Inc., Smithville Workforce Training Center, training partners, and employers to build and strengthen sector partnerships in the skilled trades, health care, finance, and IT sectors.

This effort will recruit, train, and place working people in seven rural counties in central Texas into quality jobs. This initiative is one of two Third Sector projects awarded funding through the U.S. Department of Commerce's Good Jobs Challenge.

Better Careers Design Group: Using Human-Centered Design to Advance Equitable Economic Outcomes in California Project Stage: Feasibility/Technical Assistance, Social Innovation Fund Issue Area: Child Welfare, Health The Better Careers Design Group was a multi-year initiative across four California counties that brought together government agencies, nonprofits, and local community members to design human-centered and outcomes-oriented solutions for systemic workforce challenges and to advance the equitable economic outcomes in California.

Third Sector led the group of 20 participating organizations through each phase of the human-centered design process so that local teams could apply lessons learned to engaging members of their local community.

Creating More Equitable Pathways to Well-Paying Health Care Jobs in Marin County Project Stage: Feasibility/Technical Assistance, Social Innovation Fund Issue Area: Child Welfare, Health Third Sector facilitated a design process with the Healthy Marin Partnership (HMP), a collaborative of Marin Country health care stakeholders, and training partners to develop an action plan for workforce system improvements.

Through this initiative, the HMP and training partners will investigate challenges in achieving well-paying health care jobs and design solutions in collaboration with jobseekers and workers.

MassHire Workforce Board Cohort Project Stage: Feasibility/Technical Assistance, Social Innovation Fund Issue Area: Child Welfare, Health Third Sector lead a series of workshops with the MassHire Learning Community - a cohort of Massachusetts workforce boards - designed to build a greater understanding of outcomes-orientation strategies and identify concrete next steps for implementing components of outcomes-orientation.

NAWB SNAP Employment & Training Cohort Project Stage: Feasibility/Technical Assistance, Social Innovation Fund Issue Area: Child Welfare, Health Over the course of three years, Third Sector and Seattle Jobs Initiative partnered with the National Association of Workforce Boards to provide multi-faceted technical assistance to workforce development boards across the country looking to become third-party SNAP Employment & Training intermediaries or providers and deliver high-quality, impactful, and equitable services to help program participants achieve economic mobility.

Southeastern Cohort on Young Parents and Families Project Stage: Feasibility/Technical Assistance, Social Innovation Fund Issue Area: Child Welfare, Health Third Sector worked with a cohort of states (Georgia, Kentucky, and South Carolina) to provide outcomes-oriented technical assistance to enhance and align each state’s programs, policies, and systems to better support young parents and families.

Learn more The Empowering Families Initiative Project Stage: Feasibility/Technical Assistance, Social Innovation Fund Issue Area: Child Welfare, Health In 2018, Third Sector partnered with six state and local government agencies with the goal of demonstrating how agencies could align social services for parents and social services for children to generate better outcomes using strategies such as innovative contracts and data-sharing agreements.

Project Stage: Feasibility/Technical Assistance, Social Innovation Fund Issue Area: Child Welfare, Health Summer Youth Employment Programs (SYEPs) are an integral part of youth workforce programming for cities across the country. But how do cities ensure SYEP is a meaningful experience that measurably enhances outcomes for the young people engaged?

In the City of Boston, the Mayor’s Office of Workforce Development (OWD) partnered with Third Sector and Northeastern University’s Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy to answer this question.

Through the feasibility process, Third Sector worked with numerous stakeholders, including government agencies, researchers, providers, funders, and employers, to understand Boston SYEP goals and opportunities to integrate an outcomes orientation.

Project Stage: Feasibility/Technical Assistance, Social Innovation Fund Issue Area: Child Welfare, Health Third Sector collaborated with Workforce Solutions Capital Area (Austin, TX) and the project’s Steering Committee to develop a model to better meet the talent pipeline needs of local employers and the workforce training needs of youth in Austin/Travis County.

The project sought to improve education and employment outcomes for 16-to-24-year-olds that are disconnected from both school and work, known as Opportunity Youth. The project evaluated the opportunities and risks of scaling the highly successful Youth Employment Partnership program through a pay for performance contract.

Empowering Families – Massachusetts Project Stage: Feasibility/Technical Assistance, Social Innovation Fund Issue Area: Child Welfare, Health The Learn-to-Earn (LTE) Initiative is a large-scale interagency workgroup that was launched to improve coordination across state agencies and ultimately support individuals and families received public assistance move towards a path to self-sufficiency.

The initiative focuses on five public assistance programs - the Massachusetts Rental Voucher Program, State-Aid Public Housing, Temporary Assistance for Families with Dependent Children (TAFDC), Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and subsidized child care.

While the programs serve many of the same clients, misaligned eligibility requirements and structural disincentives to work limit agencies’ abilities to serve the whole person or family.

Third Sector supported the initiative’s efforts to leverage administrative data to define statewide education, employment, and income outcomes and improve the agencies’ abilities to match individuals and families with the right mix of supports through the development of data use license agreements.

Expanded Subsidized Employment (ESE) Project Project Stage: Feasibility/Technical Assistance, Social Innovation Fund Issue Area: Child Welfare, Health California Department of Social Services (CDSS) aims to help counties improve employment and life outcomes for families through the expanded subsidized employment (ESE) program.

To identify challenges and best practices in implementation of ESE programs, as well as current outcomes, Third Sector interviewed county welfare departments, employers, workforce development boards, and other stakeholders. Third Sector then developed an ESE Toolkit in partnership with CDSS to help counties move programming, contracting, and data practices towards an outcomes orientation.

Project Stage: Feasibility/Technical Assistance, Social Innovation Fund Issue Area: Child Welfare, Health Veterans across the country face numerous barriers as they seek to reenter the workforce. While many supportive services are available to veterans, the process of navigating through a local network can be daunting.

Project (re)Launch will seek to ameliorate this issue by expanding access to 2-1-1 San Diego's Courage to Call (C2C) service offering, a closed-loop case management service that connects veterans to over 1,200 mental health, housing and financial assistance providers in the San Diego area, and coupling the C2C program with the VA's Vocational Rehabilitiation and Employment (VR&E) program.

Third Sector is providing technical assistance/project structuring support to 2-1-1 on the project.

Veterans that are enrolled in the VR&E vocational training program will be assigned a navigator from C2C that will help assess the veteran's needs, refer them to appropriate supportive services, and track their progress towards barrier removal through 2-1-1's Community Information Exchange data platform, a system that allows 2-1-1 to interface with service providers in its network to track participant progress.

Our theory of change is that if veterans are well-equipped to remove health related barriers as they go through vocational training and the job search process, they will have an easier time achieving desired employment outcomes.

Administrative Data Pilot: Santa Cruz Project Stage: Feasibility/Technical Assistance, Social Innovation Fund Issue Area: Child Welfare, Health Third Sector, in partnership with Stanford’s Center on Poverty and Inequality (CPI), helped Santa Cruz County’s Human Services Department (HSD) to gain access to numerous administrative databases to better understand short- and long-term effects of the County’s subsidized employment program, funded through CalWORKs .

Third Sector and CPI helped to deploy data insights to improve and embed outcomes in the contracts between HSD and the providers of workforce development services, building the outcomes-oriented contracting expertise that will assist in broader agency shifts.

Santa Cruz County’s HSD joined San Diego County’s Health and Human Services Agency and the Washington State Department of Early Learning in Third Sector and CPI's Social Innovation Fund Administrative Data Pilot cohort, which will also include a Learning Community designed to facilitate cross-site collaboration and technical/process trainings around data analysis and deployment.

Project Stage: Feasibility/Technical Assistance, Social Innovation Fund Issue Area: Child Welfare, Health San Diego County had a significant population of justice-involved youth and young adults that are at a high risk of recidivism, and are disconnected from both employment and education due to lack of services from traditional workforce channels.

Second Chance, a local service provider, looked to deliver a program tailored to justice-involved youth that would provide skills training and other wraparound supports that prepare youth to attain and succeed in employment and post-secondary education. Third Sector provided SDWP, the county workforce board that contracts for employment services, with technical advisory in building the project.

SDWP, through this partnership, looked to replicate an outcomes-oriented service model across its county-wide programs, and project involvement from the state level Employment Development Division (EDD) to pave the way for scaling outcomes-orientated services to workforce boards throughout California.

Empowering Families – Iowa Project Stage: Feasibility/Technical Assistance, Social Innovation Fund Issue Area: Child Welfare, Health Third Sector worked with Iowa's Department of Human Rights to move its Family Development and Self Sufficiency program towards an outcomes orientation.

Third Sector conducted work to incorporate family voice into 2-Gen related program changes and to rethink how different TANF systems interact in order to better serve families.

Empowering Families – Colorado Project Stage: Feasibility/Technical Assistance, Social Innovation Fund Issue Area: Child Welfare, Health Colorado Department of Human Services ( CDHS ) administers critical resources and supports to thousands of Coloradans who struggle to afford basic living necessities.

Many of these individuals also face steep barriers in obtaining the skills, training, and employment opportunities needed to achieve long-term self sufficiency and economic stability. Third Sector partnered with CDHS to incorporate outcomes-oriented contracting principles within the Colorado Works Subsidized Training and Employment Program (CW STEP).

Third Sector worked with CDHS and its partners to embed a focus on outcomes and financial incentives into the CW STEP contract and apply lessons learned across other contracts in the agency, with the goal of further enhancing the CDHS' existing culture of performance management and measurably improving long-term outcomes of parents, children, and families served.

Project Stage: Feasibility/Technical Assistance, Social Innovation Fund Issue Area: Child Welfare, Health Year Up received a developmental technical assistance award from Third Sector to explore the PFS feasibility of the Professional Training Corps (PTC) Model for workforce development. The PTC Model was an intensive one-year program for young adults, aged 18 to 24, who have a high school diploma or GED.

PTC participants spent six months learning technical and professional skills in the classroom and then applied those skills during six-month internships at one of Year Up’s 250 employer partners. Year Up presented an opportunity for a provider to scale nationally through PFS.

United Way of the Bay Area Project Stage: Feasibility/Technical Assistance, Social Innovation Fund Issue Area: Child Welfare, Health Third Sector worked with the United Way of the Bay Area on assessing PFS readiness of its programming, specifically in the workforce development sector.

This feasibility work developed PFS value propositions for promoting financial self-sufficiency and analyzed projected impact, necessary fundraising, and the economics of various projects for stakeholders. Managing Director, Workforce Pathways Denver, CO | jpraphath@thirdsectorcap. org For more ways to get in touch...

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