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Guidance, Resources, and Tools
This area of the site presents information related to MASSCAP projects, activities, and committee work. Select a topic of interest from the list below.
IT Access & Training Resource Guide
This resource guide is designed to help Community Action Agencies (CAAs) and other community-based organizations (CBOs) develop and enhance information technology (IT) access and training programming as well as incorporate workforce development components and programming. The guide contains important information on the new economy and changes in the workplace, along with new sources of information on the so-called digital divide. It also includes information that MASSCAP obtained from two national surveys of CAAs and other CBOs on their IT access and training efforts. This information gives a more complete picture of these activities within these organizations than any other group has collected.
The resource guide also provides many models of IT access and training programs across the nation as well as information and links to find out more about them. Further, it includes an extensive list of sources of where CAAs and other CBOs can find more information about the new economy, the digital divide, IT access and training efforts, techniques, and approaches that are being used by organizations around the nation. Workforce Development: Report from the Minority-owned Small Business Assistance Project
In 2006 MASSCAP, along with key workforce development partners, collaborated to create the Minority-owned Small Business Assistance (MSBA) Project. The goal of the project was to identify the workforce development needs of employees and owners of minority-owned small businesses in Massachusetts and to build bridges to existing systems, networks, and resources that would provide customized workforce development approaches and opportunities for low-income, minority populations.
The project team, which included MASSCAP and representatives of other organizations, elected to study small businesses in the Hispanic and Brazilian communities in Lowell, Massachusetts. Hispanics are the largest minority group in the United States, and Brazilians are among the fastest growing groups in Massachusetts. Both groups have a strong presence in Lowell.
In the study, employers and employees identified several barriers to participating in education and training programs. These barriers prevent them from growing their businesses or obtaining higher-level skills training, education, and support services that could help them to transition to career ladders and higher paying jobs. Workforce Development Resource Guide
To assist Community Action Agencies (CAAs) and other community-based organizations (CBOs) in their quest toward establishing effective workforce development programs, this guide presents ideas, examples, promising practices, and technical information. We recognize that each state, region, city, and neighborhood in which CAAs/CBOs operate is unique and requires customized workforce strategies to best meet identified needs. For this reason, this guide is designed to provide resources to support program efforts. While CAAs operating in Massachusetts represent the primary audience for the guide, our expectation is that the wealth of information provided also will be useful to other CBOs operating in the workforce development arena across the country. Workforce Development Materials: Case Studies
Helping to move low-income individuals
and their families from poverty to economic self-sufficiency presents
continuing challenges. Among policymakers and practitioners, there
is now a growing awareness that what is needed is closer integration
between community-based organizations and the workforce development
system. One approach that shows promise, based on initial research,
is to provide workforce development and other support services
within a broad framework in which attainment of self-sufficiency
is viewed as the ultimate outcome of many incremental steps.
This section of the Web site presents case studies and other materials from a research project focusing on community-based organizations that have experience with this type of approach to workforce development. The project identified key practices, drivers, and challenges in using the “self-sufficiency continuum framework.”
ROMA Guidance
Results-Oriented Management and Accountability (ROMA) involves managing CAA programs to make it easier to conduct quantitative assessments about whether the expenditure of program funding is helping those targeted by the program. This section of the Web site presents information and materials to support CAA boards of directors in assessing and implementing the ROMA approach. IT Guidance/Tools for CAAs
The MASSCAP IT Committee is in the process of creating guidance and tools to support CAAs in making the most of developments in information technology. This area of the Web site presents materials released to date.
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