Third Sector News and Updates

July 2019

Third Sector Awarded $2,000,000 to Advance California Workforce Outcomes

Over the next two years, Third Sector will work with up to five nonprofit grantees of The James Irvine Foundation’s Better Careers Initiative and up to ten local government agencies to advance economic opportunity in California through a $2M grant from the Foundation. Third Sector will facilitate partnerships between Better Careers grantees and public service agencies to co-design improvements on California’s public workforce funding system and pursue better outcomes in economic opportunity for the people they serve.

The initiative will culminate in up to five implementation plans developed through an innovative process that combines Third Sector’s framework for outcomes-oriented government funding with human-centered design principles. Throughout this process grantees and local agencies will engage with the people and communities they serve to deeply understand barriers to economic opportunity, create solutions that maximize contributions from the public, private, and nonprofit sectors, and gather feedback from low-income job-seekers to refine their ideas.

To read more about this exciting new work click here.

The Annie E. Casey Foundation & Third Sector Form a Learning Consortium to Scale Innovations in Workforce and Education/Training

Youth & Young Adult Post-Secondary Success Convening in Baltimore
Hosted and supported by the Annie E. Casey Foundation

The Annie E. Casey Foundation and Third Sector staff led a two-day convening on how to align data, public funding, policy, and programs to improve outcomes for 18-24 year-old youth & young adults through community colleges' platforms.

50+ attendees represented state departments of Labor, Education, and Human Services; workforce boards; community and technical colleges; service providers; universities; and state data centers from nine Southern and Southwestern states (AR, KY, MD, MS, NE, NM, RI, TX, & VA).
Each state formed a "team" of experts to work directly with Third Sector staff before and during the convening to learn about the best practices of implementing an outcomes-oriented approach.
State teams worked with Third Sector and The Annie E. Casey Foundation to showcase "Lessons from the Field." Topics included Forming an Outcomes Vision, Funding Career Pathway Programs, Scaling Regional Efforts, and Data Access & Integration.
Third Sector facilitated hours of customized working sessions during the convening with each state team. Each team developed an initial action plan to align funding and data to improve integrated services, and access federal and state outcomes-enabled funding streams.

We learned that state leaders in education, workforce, data, and the community are eager for more opportunities like this. They appreciated the chance to learn from peers and mindfully strategize on how to implement systems change to improve outcomes for youth & young adults. These states will continue to be supported by The Annie E. Casey Foundation's Center for Economic Opportunity (CEO) and Research Evaluation Evidence and Design (REED) units, and their dedicated Third Sector team.

SIPPRA Round 2 Applications
Open this Fall

The $100 million Social Impact Partnerships to Pay for Results Act (SIPPRA) is a federal funding opportunity to scale outcomes-driven solutions that benefit communities across government funding silos. Round 2 Applications to fund Outcomes Implementation Plans will be open during Fall this year.

State and local governments are invited to explore outcomes-oriented readiness through Round 2 funding, which will be used to cover 50% of the cost of an Outcomes Implementation Plan. Third Sector looks forward to supporting communities and is available to partner with agencies to create an Outcomes Implementation Plan in preparation for the SIPPRA NOFA.

Please reference this two-pager and other resources are available to help you determine your readiness for the proposal on our SIPPRA webpage. To learn more about how Third Sector can help your community take advantage of this funding opportunity and move toward an outcomes-oriented approach, please reach out to obenitez@thirdsectorcap.org.