With support from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s SNAP Employment & Training Partnership Grant, the National Governors Association (NGA), in partnership with Third Sector, has launched the second cohort of the Policy Academy to Strengthen SNAP Employment & Training (E&T) Delivery. Cross-agency teams from Maryland, North Carolina, Idaho, and South Carolina have been selected to join this national initiative focused on expanding access to SNAP E&T services. Together with NGA and participating states, Third Sector will help advance strategies that improve service coordination and strengthen outcomes for SNAP E&T participants.

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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, multi-state

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.

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.

This month, Third Sector will launch a new project with the National Governors Association (NGA) and Seattle Jobs Initiative (SJI) to identify and address statewide barriers to successfully and equitably implementing Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Employment and Training (SNAP E&T) to increase the number of third-party SNAP E&T providers in 8-10 states. 

SNAP E&T is a federal program each state administers to help SNAP recipients gain skills and find work that moves them toward economic mobility. While every state is required to administer a SNAP E&T Program, they employ many different approaches