By Celeste Richie

Along with other critical support services, the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) and its embedded Pay-for-Performance (P4P) provisions are critical to advancing performance-based contracting and improving long-term outcomes for those served by the workforce system. Despite the appetite for a better life for all individuals, many workforce programs today are unable to deliver similar high-quality results across all of their participants. Recent analysis has demonstrated the need to increase equity of outcomes, not just increased access to services, and WIOA P4P could be an active tool in

Across the country, a growing number of governments are contracting for human services on a performance basis. Many are implementing innovative cross-sector models like Pay for Success (PFS), with many more considering the model for services in their own communities. This increased appetite for Pay for Success (PFS) partnerships has redirected taxpayer dollars toward interventions that provide data-driven solutions for social impact.

Because PFS is well suited to complex social challenges, there are situations where it is unrealistic to expect a single service provider or intervention to address the multifaceted

On June 30th, the Department of Labor (DOL) released the Final Rule1 on the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA). As the five workforce boards of Third Sector’s second cohort of Social Innovation Fund sub-grantees are working to leverage the Pay-for-Performance (P4P) provisions of WIOA to better serve youth, this guidance directly informs our efforts. It is also important to note that WIOA requires local areas to shift their focus, spending 75 percent of youth funding on out-of-school youth. The DOL’s Final Rule on WIOA provides the necessary information to

By Joe Gayeski and Mary Beech Pay for Success (PFS) is one way local and state jurisdictions can address pressing social issues in their communities. By integrating data and building rigorous evaluation into government contracting, PFS can reward social services that demonstrate measurable impact. To make this possible, PFS leverages private capital. The model’s innovative [...]

By Priya Shah and Dan Peck In early April, Third Sector was invited to share our approach to performance-based policy at San Francisco State University (SFSU). We shared our expertise in leveraging data to inform social policy to a class of junior and senior sociology students taught by Professor Jason Luger. The highly interactive 90-minute [...]

By Sithara Kodali Last month, the President signed the Evidence-Based Policymaking Commission Act of 2016 into law. Though the law itself is new, the ideas within it are not. The Act is the latest iteration in national trend towards performance-driven policy and practice, the same movement that is driving the pursuit of Pay for Success [...]