Implementing the Stimulus: A Case for Intermediaries and the Nonprofit Sector

By The Seedco Policy Center for Work Wonk

March 12, 2009

 

As the Obama Administration invests in human capital initiatives that will stimulate economic recovery, careful attention should be paid to program implementation. Investments should target intermediaries and faith-based and community organizations in order to quickly and effectively reach communities in need while ensuring effective and transparent management of public funds.

 

From Intent to Implementation
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act includes two broad categories of human capital investments. One allocates significant funds to job creation, promising to jump-start the national economy in the short-term by putting people to work and to build the foundation for longer-term growth by investing in future productivity and innovation. Another component focuses on enhancing and expanding the range of public benefits and supports available to working families and low-income people, to ensure that those hardest hit by the recession will have access to a minimum of health and welfare supports.

 

These initiatives have the potential to deliver valuable assistance to individuals and communities in need, but investments must be executed with an eye toward quick and effective implementation. It is not enough to simply make jobs available—experts have cautioned that the majority of the jobs will be accessed by workers with higher education and skill levels. And it is not enough to simply expand and enhance work supports—without investments for outreach and engagement, many benefits programs will remain underutilized by eligible individuals.

 

In order to deliver these services at the local level, governments will likely turn to human services providers with experience managing large government contracts. To achieve the greatest impact and benefit, these providers must deliver services at a large scale and in a way that is accessible to a wide range of individuals in a short amount of time.

 

Swift, Scalable and Broad-Reaching Implementation
Intermediaries and faith-based and community organizations (FBCOs) offer a service-delivery model that can quickly achieve scale and depth in neighborhoods across the country, combining the strength of localized services with accountable centralized management.

 

FBCO-Intermediary Model: FBCOs are skilled providers of a wide range of human services. Through close connections to neighborhoods, they can reach out to and engage a range of populations, including the historically unemployed and underemployed and individuals with barriers to employment. They offer strong partnerships with other service organizations, and can connect clients to needed supportive services.

 

Intermediaries harness and enhance the strengths of FBCOs. By supporting the back-office side of the business, providing IT systems, data collection, performance analysis, program tools, partnerships with employers and community colleges, and technical assistance, intermediaries allow FBCOs to maintain their focus on high-quality service delivery. Together, the model offers consistent implementation, transparent use of funds, and strong outcomes across a city, county, or region-wide area.

 

The FBCO-Intermediary Model in Practice: Seedco, a national nonprofit intermediary, has successfully implemented the FBCO-Intermediary model in New York City, Memphis, Atlanta, and Baltimore. Seedco acts as the fiscal agent for government contracts and uses subcontracts to pay its FCBO partners for their work. Seedco provides much of the management infrastructure, and the network of FBCOs delivers a range of services helping low-income people achieve greater economic security. Together, Seedco and its FBCO partners have placed about 30,000 people into jobs and connected 42,000 people to public benefits over the last five years. Since 2005, Seedco has partnered with the U.S. Department of Labor to demonstrate that the model is replicable, helping One-Stop Centers in five states to formally partner with FBCOs to provide supportive and employment-related services for One-Stop customers.

 

Recommendations
The Obama administration should utilize the lessons learned from the experiences of human services intermediaries. New projects will require entities on the ground to connect workers to jobs, training providers, safety net supports, and supportive services. These initiatives should be carefully implemented to ensure that funding is spent wisely and investments have maximum impact on disadvantaged communities and individuals.

 

Recruit Intermediaries
Launching new and ambitious national programming can take years to achieve on-the-ground results. By harnessing the existing strengths of FBCOs and intermediaries in neighborhoods around the country, public dollars can go to work immediately while sparing government responsibility for onerous oversight. The Federal government should encourage state and local governments administering funds to utilize intermediaries, and should offer guidance on how to locate and vet local groups.

 

Invest in Implementation
It is critical that resources be invested in sound program management. Activities such as engagement and training of job seekers, collaboration with employers and contractors, and outreach and assistance to individuals applying for benefits will be essential to the success of new initiatives. In order to ensure programs are executed effectively and efficiently, funds must be provided for the roles played by intermediaries, including technology tools, fiscal management systems, technical assistance provision, and relationship management and coordination.

 

Target a Variety of Populations
New investments should be accessible to the wide range of workers in need during this recession. The administration should channel job creation funds to a wide variety of projects, and should focus on including help for those with barriers to employment, such as those in poverty, with criminal backgrounds, former welfare recipients, and immigrants facing cultural and language barriers. The administration should also channel funds for outreach to and enrollment of individuals in public benefits.

 

Be Flexible
New programming will, inevitably, stumble along the way. Policymakers should facilitate the exchange of knowledge and best practices among local partnerships, and should fund the provision of technical assistance to developing partnerships, while still holding local groups accountable for performance through rigorous outcome measurements and reporting requirements.