Third Sector is delighted to announce an expansion of our work advancing the adoption of Lifelong Learning Accounts (LiLAs) through a renewed $1 million grant from the Sijbrandij Foundation. This investment deepens the work of our Postsecondary Opportunity Practice Area, positioning LiLAs as a core strategy to support adult learners in accessing flexible, career-connected funding for education, upskilling, and credential attainment. LiLAs are learner-centered savings vehicles that help individuals fund postsecondary education and workforce training, especially outside of traditional degree paths. In this next phase, Third Sector will continue to …

This post is an excerpt from our Changing Systems, Changes Lives Series – Doing “Whatever It Takes” To Improve Mental Health Service Delivery for High-Need Populations: Exploring the Impact of Full Service Partnership Programs In Ventura County, CA.  Mental health conditions are becoming more prevalent throughout the United States, with low-income populations and communities of color facing higher barriers to access and quality care. In the U.S., it is estimated that more than 23 percent of adults, or roughly 1 in 5, live with a mental illness (59.3 million in …

This post is an excerpt from our Changing Systems, Changes Lives Series – Doing “Whatever It Takes” To Improve Mental Health Service Delivery for High-Need Populations: Exploring the Impact of Full Service Partnership Programs In Ventura County, CA.  In 2020, Ventura County Behavioral Health’s (VCBH)  involvement in the Multi-County Full Service Partnership (FSP)  Innovation Project with Third Sector marked an important turning point for the agency. It was the first time VCBH committed substantial time and resources toward clarifying and improving its FSP programs to improve its services and outcomes …

Collaboration between state agencies and local communities is critical in building a sustainable and equitable early childhood education mixed delivery system. A mixed delivery system recognizes that one size “does not fit all” and offers an individualized approach. Families are thus provided with access to early childhood education through a variety of providers, including public schools, private child care centers, Head Start programs, and family child care homes. This approach ensures flexibility and choice, with the goal of equitable access across settings. Over the past year, Third Sector worked closely to …

Everyone can benefit when our government agencies collaborate with community members, local providers, and business leaders to design and deliver services. The programs that help our children learn, prepare us for good jobs, ensure we can get and stay healthy, and keep us safe rely on strong partnerships to succeed. Strong collaborations make our government more efficient and innovative by enabling partners to share resources in ways that make sense, fostering the connections that allow communities to dream big—and to succeed. At Third Sector, we are excited about working with …

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 lasting employment. To address this challenge head-on, the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center), in collaboration with Third Sector, created the Policy Academy to Strengthen SNAP E&T Delivery. Designed as a structured, …

Over the past four years, Third Sector has supported OEC in strategically allocating and managing federal relief funds to meet the needs of providers and families and, this past year, in preparing for the upcoming decline in federal stabilization funding. The COVID-19 pandemic strained an already fragile child care system, worsening the impact of low wages on early childhood educators and high child care costs on families. To stabilize the child care sector, the federal government invested stabilization dollars in states through the CARES Act, Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental …

Continuing in its fashion of forging pathways, our fourth blog explores how the CT OEC is attempting to centralize digital processes for licensing, accreditation, and other documentation to effectively support child care providers.  There is an ever-increasing demand for vital government services to go digital. For everything from voter registration to filing a police report, citizens expect to engage digitally for at least some step in the process. The early childhood education and child care ecosystems in the United States, which employ roughly 500,000 workers nationwide and serve millions of …

Previously, we explored how Connecticut has engaged parents to co-create a stronger statewide ECE system. Now, we’ll look at the other side of the equation—ECE providers—and see how Third Sector and Connecticut are designing new systems to support family child care providers.For the last decade, Connecticut, like most of the United States, has had to address a child care shortage. Connecticut has chosen in recent years to address this shortage by fostering the growth and development of family child care (FCC) providers. Between 2020 and 2022, the number of FCC …

Our first blog in the “Exploring Innovative Early Programs” series focuses on the Parent Cabinet, a pioneering effort designed to ensure parents have a direct voice in shaping the policies that impact their children’s future.In service of its mission to “partner with families of young children to advance equitable early childhood policies,” the Connecticut Department of Early Childhood (OEC) established a statutory statewide advisory committee known as the Connecticut Early Childhood Parent Cabinet. This diverse, parent-led committee meets regularly to elevate the needs of families and advise the agency on …

Welcome to the “Exploring Innovative Early Programs” series, which focuses on our work with the Connecticut Office of Early Childhood. At Third Sector, we believe in a future where all children, no matter their race, background, or circumstances, have guaranteed access to high-quality early education and care programs to support their learning, growth, and development. In a society where early child care and education have historically been undervalued, many government agencies have stepped up to create programs that truly make a difference for children and families. Since 2017, we’ve had the …

Third Sector partnered with California’s Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative (CYBHI), a historic five-year investment that is transforming the way young people in California access behavioral health support. We offer several recommendations for other states looking to design inclusive stakeholder engagement processes and develop resources to address barriers to systems integration.

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 of the Fund’s Powering Climate and Infrastructure Careers Challenge, which will support 14 awardees in total.

For nearly two years, Third Sector advised the California Interagency Council on Homelessness (Cal ICH) on creating a more outcomes-focused culture for its staff and county partners. It is a shift that requires government staff to ask more about what happened after housing services were delivered (who was stably housed, when, and for how long) and which resources could be shared across departments (funding, data, and policies) within a specific time frame to serve constituents seeking services better.

The Opportunity Everyone, no matter their age, race, zip code, or previous educational background deserves to get the education and the career they want. And yet millions of Americans face significant barriers to enrolling, persisting, and completing postsecondary education and obtaining a credential – even as more and more of the best paying jobs require some kind of postsecondary education. At the same time, there are a variety of wraparound student support services and promising practices offered by providers across the country that have demonstrated success in improving outcomes for students …

We need our government to take action to simplify and streamline the structures and tools that help individuals fund lifelong learning. That’s why Third Sector is proposing a SIMPLE framework to help create a more streamlined approach to saving and paying for postsecondary education and job training that can provide clarity and ease for learners, workers, employers, and all those who care about ensuring these opportunities are accessible to everyone.

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 barriers to successfully and equitably implementing Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Employment and Training (SNAP E&T) programs in their states.

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.

Third Sector will launch a year-long project next month to co-design with Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) a county-wide continuum of care for youth (age 12-17) and their families involved with or at-risk of involvement with the Cuyahoga County juvenile justice system. The project builds on previous work that Third Sector, CWRU, and the County have done to improve family wellness and safety through county-wide system improvements and provide college access and success coaching services to National Guard service members in the region. It is a cornerstone of the County’s …

Earlier this month, the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) announced its Health Care Rewards to Achieve Improved Outcomes (HEROES) program, which will distribute $100 million to community stakeholders adopting “radically different approaches” to preventative health care in the United States. ARPA-H is a federal research funding agency that supports transformative biomedical and health breakthroughs in order to provide health solutions for all. Third Sector and Social Finance will utilize their deep experience and expertise in outcomes-based contracting and Pay for Success to provide strategic guidance and technical assistance …