News and Insights

The Better Careers Design Group is a multi-year project funded by The James Irvine Foundation focused on developing solutions to local workforce problems elevated through community engagement. The goal of the Design Group initiative is to equitably connect Californians to good jobs with family-sustaining wages and advancement opportunities. Twenty organizations participate in the Design Group, divided into four local teams based on geography: Alameda, Central Coast, Inland Empire and Los Angeles. We’ll be publishing a series of spotlights on each Local Team to highlight these solutions, and the hard work …

The Time for Performance-Based Contracting is Now!With a misdemeanor on her record, Michelle was struggling to maintain stable housing and a job while also raising her two children. She had previously worked in retail but had always had an interest in healthcare. With coaching, tuition assistance,  transportation stipends and milestone-based gift card incentives enabled by the Northern Virginia Team independence (NVTI) program, Michelle was able to complete her GED, train for and pass the Nurse Aide exam and secure a position as a Nurse Assistant immediately after completing the program. …

When we started Third Sector 10 years ago, my co-founder George Overholser and I saw that there was a big disconnect among government-funded human and social service programs, the communities those programs were designed to serve, and the philanthropic efforts designed to address some of the nation’s most persistent challenges, including health, homelessness, education, and workforce development. There’s no doubt that social service delivery is serious, complex, and expensive — but the trillions of dollars being spent by government and philanthropy every year weren’t connected to results, and the government …

Third Sector has partnered with the Connecticut Office of Early Childhood (CT OEC) and Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care (MA EEC) in developing a funding model for allocating federal relief funds, including ARPA, with intentional incentives for advancing equity and quality. State-level early care and education (ECE) agencies are in the midst of allocating billions of dollars in federal relief funding while also continuing systems reforms efforts intended to stabilize providers and improve outcomes for children. Many states are eager to allocate their relief funding, especially from the …

Centering Young Parents While having a child can undoubtedly be a positively life-changing experience, it can also bring a tremendous amount of responsibility and stress in making sure that child is cared for. This stress is amplified for young parents in the foster care system as they run the risk of having their children separated from them if no placement options exist for whole families. They must navigate applying to multiple child care options and making postnatal doctors appointments, all while attending school or keeping up with their employment. As …

Meet a Young Woman we call Rose. Rose is a representative composite of the 4.6 million Americans between 16 and 24 who don’t have full-time employment and are not in school. Like many of her peers, Rose has been juggling several part-time minimum-wage jobs while also serving as the primary caregiver of Samuel, her 2—year-old son. Rose knows that she needs to find a better job – ideally one that leads to a career with benefits and a living wage so that she can adequately care for Samuel. Her old foster …

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, college enrollment is down nationwide, with the National Student Clearinghouse reporting significant declines in both Fall 2020 and Spring 2021. Community colleges have been hit the hardest, with enrollment dropping 9.5% this spring. Black, Latinx, and Native American students have been hit the hardest, (notably reversing a promising trend of enrollment gains for Latina students), and declines have been particularly steep for adult learners over 24. Postsecondary education remains a critical bridge to opportunity, and students are no less committed or enthusiastic than …

Over the last two years, the Colorado Department of Higher Education (CDHE) and the Ohio Department of Higher Education (ODHE) have worked alongside Third Sector to develop projects that finance evidence-based services to improve student outcomes to and through college. Collectively, these efforts are known as the Partnerships to Achieve Student Success (PASS) initiative and have been philanthropically supported by the ECMC Foundation and the Kresge Foundation. PASS aims to launch two pilot pay for success (PFS) projects that will forge direct funding relationships between public systems of higher education …

DENVER – April 6, 2021:  The Colorado Department of Higher Education’s (CDHE) Colorado Opportunity Scholarship Initiative (COSI) and One Million Degrees (OMD) today announced the launch of “Finish What You Started,” a two-year pilot program providing wraparound support services for low-income Adams County, Colorado adults, aged 25+, to obtain college credentials or degrees. OMD will work closely with COSI, community-based organizations, and local college partners to recruit and enroll 150-200 students and measure outcomes, persistence towards degree completion, and improved earnings in the workforce.   With $300,000 in funding from COSI’s Pay for Success Community …

500% increase in workforce enrollment and program completion for previously underserved youth in a workforce development program in Virginia 33% reduction in psychiatric emergency room visits by chronically homeless  in California 50% fewer days in jail and 61% fewer arrests for high-risk, high-need criminal offenders in Utah 22% improvement in speedy access to mental health and case management services for underserved clients in Oregon When state and local government agencies have the necessary knowledge, resources and support to change the way they design, deliver and assess human services, people served …

The Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission has released a progress report on California’s Multi-County Full Service Partnership Innovation Project designed to improve delivery of services to people with the most severe and often co-occurring mental health needs. Funded by the Mental Health Services Act, full service partnership (FSP) programs are designed to apply a “whatever it takes” approach to partnering with individuals on their path to wellness and recovery. Currently, more than 60,000 individuals are enrolled in  FSP programs across the state, representing nearly a $1 billion annual …

On his first day in office, President Joe Biden signed an executive order that called for a “comprehensive approach to advancing equity for all, including people of color and others who have been historically underserved, marginalized, and adversely affected by persistent poverty and inequality”.   Federal agencies, guided by the Office of Management and Budget are now busy implementing the executive order which includes conducting agency-wide equity assessments and developing plans to address equity barriers. Based on Third Sector’s experience providing technical assistance, training, coaching, and thought partnership to over 50 …

Third Sector and the Harvard University’s Center for Education Policy Research (CEPR) collaborated to lead an Outcomes-Based Contracting (OBC) Summit, a four-workshop virtual series exploring outcomes contracting in K-12 math instruction. The OBC Summit was funded by Schmidt Futures.   Summit participants learned about the nuances of outcomes-based contracting and defined an approach for their organization. Over 55 participants from seven school districts and eight tutoring providers across the country gathered in pursuit of three goals: Bring together schools and tutoring providers to find new ways of improving core academic outcomes …

Third Sector Capital Partners (Third Sector) is excited to be part of a team working to expand the reach, quality and equity of U.S Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) SNAP Employment & Training (E&T) program by connecting the program to Department of Labor’s (DOL) workforce development system through workforce development boards (WDBs). Third Sector, a non-profit consultancy with a mission to transform public sector programs for improved outcomes and racial equity, is part of a team that has recently been awarded a USDA National Partnership Grant from the USDA’s Food and …

Governments are struggling to do more with less–that’s the key message we took away from our conversations with leaders in social service agencies across the country.

America’s need for government agility has become increasingly urgent in 2020. As most of us are reminded by our daily realities, this year has brought fresh examples of the horrors and costs of systemic racism, devastating natural disasters, and a global pandemic accompanied by employment and financial crises. However, amidst the outrage and fear about these events and their disproportionate impacts on people of color, low-income individuals, and members of other commonly marginalized communities, there is increasing pressure and will for change. One example is the way in which these …

In a series of workshops held in partnership with MassHire Workforce Boards and Career Centers, Third Sector worked with MassHire partners to share initial steps participants could take to make their services more outcomes-oriented, thus improving outcomes for jobseekers and employers in their communities.  MassHire partners were interested in learning these initial steps they could take, given their capacity constraints.  Through the workshop series, the participants were able to examine their data to identify priority populations to focus on, stakeholders to collaborate with, and began to implement more outcomes-oriented processes.  …

Third Sector partnered with Austin Workforce Solutions (WFS), the Ray Marshall Center at the University of Texas (RMC) and the Travis County Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to facilitate a series of three workshops for 40 Austin area workforce leaders, including community-based organizations and community colleges. The workshops, funded by the Prudential Foundation, built on the Austin Community Workforce Master Plan (MCWP or Master Plan), which has an overall goal of 10,000 residents living at or below 200% of poverty securing middle-skill jobs by 2021. The workshops focused …

Third Sector Capital Partners (Third Sector), a consultancy collaborating with government agencies to develop innovative contracts that align policy, dollars, data, and services around improved social outcomes, has been awarded $500,000 by ECMC Foundation to support on-going efforts in Colorado and Ohio to increase college enrollment and graduation rates for specific student populations and to expand these efforts to other states.

At the recent ASU+GSV Summit, Third Sector joined Jobs for the Future for a special panel discussing the trends in addressing student debt through innovative finance models. Third Sector Director H. Kay Howard joined David Soo, Chief of Staff, Jobs for the Future, Lexi Barrett, Associate Vice President, Jobs for the Future, and Brooke Valle, Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer, San Diego Workforce Partnership in “Lions and Tigers and Debt, Oh My! Trends in Innovative Finance.”