MASSCAP

Making the Transition:
A Report on the Workforce Investment Activities & Programs of CAAs in Massachusetts

Communuity Action Agencies provided Workforce Development Services to nearly 8,000 people in 1999.

College access programming, summer youth employment, and ESOL are the largest areas of workforce development programming in Massachusetts.

More than fifty funding sources pay for workforce development services across Massachusetts.

The majority of people served by Massachusetts workforce development programming are female.

Three-quarters of CAAs use computers to assist teaching and learning in their workforce development programs.

CAAs provide many support services to their workforce development program participants including, but not limited to, housing assistance, legal supports, budgeting assistance, child care, referrals to substance abuse treatment or domestic violence intervention, and citizenship assistance.

Some 64% of CAAs are in contact with their local Regional Employment Board at least once a month.

I. Executive Summary

This is a Final Report on the Workforce Development Initiative of the Massachusetts Community Action Program Directors’ Association (MASSCAP). The initiative was implemented from September through December 1999, through three main components:

First, MASSCAP’s Education, Training, Employment, and Workforce Development Committee met several times starting in mid-1999 with a consultant hired to shape and staff the initiative.

Second, three half-day meetings of approximately 20 representatives of interested Community Action Agencies (CAAs) were facilitated by the consultant. A planning meeting was held on September 17, and two substantive meetings were held on October 22 and November 5.

Third, a four-page survey was drafted, reviewed, and revised, and then completed by 23 CAAs and summarized as one component of this report.

Throughout initial discussions and the extended meetings with CAA representatives, attention was focused on developing a strategic agenda for CAAs.

CAA participants agreed that there are critical decisions and balances that CAAs need to strike in workforce development. These five areas are:

Advocacy versus Service Delivery. CAAs need to carefully and continually prioritize across these two areas. Ultimately it is a question of how to carry on both effectively.

Wrap-Around Support Services. Support services are critical to the success of education, training, and employment services. The value of CAAs as major providers of support services is not sufficiently recognized within the workforce development arena.

Paying Attention to WD Customers. Considerable attention was spent in thinking about "who the customer is" for CAAs starting, maintaining, and growing workforce development services.

Strategic Analysis of the WD Landscape. Discussion underscored the need to learn more about the workforce development landscape.

Strategic Analysis of Organizational Issues. Many comments and perspectives were shared as to how CAAs should tackle workforce development.

Through its survey of Massachusetts’ 25 CAAs, MASSCAP’s Workforce Development Initiative developed an initial profile of CAA roles in workforce development. The survey provides new information about adult education and skills training services provided by CAAs, populations served, funding CAAs receive for workforce development, wrap-around support services, and the current connection of CAAs to local workforce development systems. Examples of this new information include:

  • three-fourths of Massachusetts’ CAAs offer adult education services;

  • CAAs receive over $11 million annually to provide workforce development services;

  • two-thirds of CAAs are involved in planning or operating One-Stop Career Centers;

  • two-thirds of CAAs have a member on a Regional Employment Board.

In addition, there is consensus among the CAAs on the need for gaining new resources in five key areas of workforce development services: (1) skills training, (2) education, (3) transportation, (4) case management, (5) child care.

This report concludes recommended action steps and strategies organized under the following five key observations:

  • The state of the labor market matters—perhaps more than any other single factor.

  • Building relationships with employer and jobseeker customers is the most important factor over which CAAs have control.

  • It is essential to be strategic and to align overall organizational objectives and components with the workforce development vision and goals.

  • Both public and private workforce development is a growing business and the focus of much recent attention in legislation and public policy.

  • Each CAA must focus on its own communities, local system and stakeholders, and particular organizational context; but there must also be a statewide platform and strategic agenda in order for CAAs to begin to realize the potential scale and scope of their work in workforce development.

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