Third Sector works with communities and our government agencies to reimagine basic needs, education, and training supports and that help people find the careers and lives of their dreams.
Our Approach to Economic Mobility
Most of us believe that everyone deserves the opportunity to build the life of our dreams — no matter what we look like, where we are from, or what our circumstances. But for too many of us, our dreams seem to be out of reach because our nation has created a racial wealth gap and inequitable opportunities to succeed.
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Our government agencies have created many programs and services to help address these problems and dismantle inequities and unjust systems. But despite our best efforts, we've created a complex, often confusing, system of public benefits, postsecondary education, and workforce training programs that fail to consistently deliver the long-term outcomes for individuals and families that will transform their lives for the better.
We envision a future where someone's worth and success in life are rooted in more than just the work that they perform, where we all collectively invest in everyone's aspirations no matter their race, background or circumstance, and everyone has the resources they need to thrive. This is a future where we eliminate racial wealth gaps by building multi-sector partnerships that promote everyone's well-being and ensure accessibility to free or affordable education and training opportunities that support the whole person and lead to jobs and careers that pay a living wage.
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Economic Mobility Focus Areas
We undertake work in economic mobility in the following ways
Featured Projects
| Project Name | Scope | Location | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Better Careers Design Group: Using Human-Centered Design to Advance Equitable Economic Outcomes in California | County | CA | Closed |
| 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 | County | CA | Closed |
| Third Sector is facilitating 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. | |||
| Advancing Economic Mobility for MA DTA Participants | State | MA | Closed |
| Beginning in 2018, Third Sector worked with the Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA) to make large-scale systems changes toward becoming a public agency that invests in family-centered approaches to catalyze economic mobility for TANF recipients in the Commonwealth. Third Sector provided ongoing technical assistance that enabled MA DTA to strengthen its capacity to prioritize and achieve outcomes. | |||
| Supporting States to Direct Public Dollars Toward Evidence-Based Support Services that Address Barriers to Postsecondary Education | Nation | CO, AZ, OH, AL, RI, CT, MI | Active |
| Since 2019, Third Sector has supported two cohorts of the Partnerships to Achieve Student Success (PASS), a group of state systems of higher education that aims to improve student outcomes to and through postsecondary education. Both cohorts focused on facilitating direct, outcomes-based, public funding relationships between state-level higher education partners and higher education access and success programs that would provide greater support in ensuring students enroll, persist and complete postsecondary education and earn a credential. | |||
All Economic Mobility Projects
| Project Name | Scope | Location | Status | |
| Better Careers Design Group: Using Human-Centered Design to Advance Equitable Economic Outcomes in California | County | CA | Closed | |
Description:
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.
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| Creating More Equitable Pathways to Well-Paying Health Care Jobs in Marin County | County | CA | Closed | |
Description:
Third Sector is facilitating 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.
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| Advancing Economic Mobility for MA DTA Participants | State | MA | Closed | |
Description:
Beginning in 2018, Third Sector worked with the Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA) to make large-scale systems changes toward becoming a public agency that invests in family-centered approaches to catalyze economic mobility for TANF recipients in the Commonwealth. Third Sector provided ongoing technical assistance that enabled MA DTA to strengthen its capacity to prioritize and achieve outcomes.
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| Supporting States to Direct Public Dollars Toward Evidence-Based Support Services that Address Barriers to Postsecondary Education | Nation | CO, AZ, OH, AL, RI, CT, MI | Active | |
Description:
Since 2019, Third Sector has supported two cohorts of the Partnerships to Achieve Student Success (PASS), a group of state systems of higher education that aims to improve student outcomes to and through postsecondary education. Both cohorts focused on facilitating direct, outcomes-based, public funding relationships between state-level higher education partners and higher education access and success programs that would provide greater support in ensuring students enroll, persist and complete postsecondary education and earn a credential.
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| The Empowering Families Initiative | State | FL, CO, CT, IA, MA, NC | Closed | |
Description:
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.
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| Casey Foundation: Youth & Young Adult Post-Secondary Success | Nation | National | Active | |
Description:Third Sector and The Annie E. Casey Foundation are working with states in the South and Southwest, among other communities, to address post-secondary education and workforce barriers for youth and young adults. We're working with committees comprised of state government agencies, workforce boards, and community colleges to develop new flexible and sustainable public funding plans for services that result in educational credential attainment, job placement, and/or wage progression for youth and young adults. Third Sector's work will integrate state data and various funding sources to empower state committees and meet community needs while addressing racial inequities and persistent barriers to postsecondary education and workforce services.
Engaged states include: Arkansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Mexico, Ohio, Rhode Island, Texas, and Virginia. The engagement is supported by The Casey Foundation's Center for Economic Opportunity (CEO) and Research Evaluation Evidence and Design (REED).
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| UAspire Pay for Success Project | Nation | National | Closed | |
Description:
Third Sector recently completed a PFS feasibility assessment designed to evaluate the appropriateness of PFS for higher education to help heighten the focus on and attainment of these outcomes. With generous support from the Kresge Foundation, we worked with uAspire, a national provider of college affordability and financial aid counseling serving primarily low-income and first-generation students, to develop a preliminary assessment of PFS in higher education. uAspire’s interest in PFS, as with many service providers, stemmed from a desire to find organizations who might be willing to pay for the delivery of their high-quality, evidence-based programming. — This project closed in 2017.
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| SIF Workforce: Austin | County | Austin/Travis County, TX | Closed | |
Description:
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. — This project closed in 2017.
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| Empowering Families – Massachusetts | State | Massachusetts | Active | |
Description:
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 Childcare. 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 is supporting 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.
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| Expanded Subsidized Employment (ESE) Project | State | California | Active | |
Description:
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.
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| Lumina / Goodwill Excel Center Adult Charter School Feasibility | State | Indiana | Active | |
Description:
The Goodwill Excel Centers (TEC) are a network of tuition-free adult charter schools that gives adult learners the opportunity to earn a high school diploma. TEC's program centers on providing flexibility for students, removing barriers, and supporting student pathways to postsecondary education and the workforce. The program offers childcare, life coaches, career certifications and college credits in order to help students navigate through the issues in their life and prepare them for successful careers or continued education. Since its inception in 2010, TEC has expanded from one school in Indiana to 18 across five states. Third Sector is working the TEC to assess the feasibility of leveraging PFS and outcomes-oriented contracting strategies to help TEC effectively and sustainably scale its impact and acclerate its expansion goals into multiple communities.
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| Empowering Families – Iowa | State | Iowa | Active | |
Description:
Third Sector is working with Iowa's Department of Human Rights to move its Family Development and Self Sufficiency program towards an outcomes orientation. Work is being done to incorporate family voice into 2Gen related program changes and to rethink how different TANF systems interacte in order to better serve families.
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| Empowering Families – Colorado | City | Denver, CO | Active | |
Description:
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 is partnering with CDHS to incorporate outcomes-oriented contracting principles within the Colorado Works Subsidized Training and Employment Program (CW STEP). Third Sector will work 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.
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Get in touch
Jess Praphath
Managing Director, Economic Mobility
San Francisco, CA | jpraphath@thirdsectorcap.org