Inside the Black Box - Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago

education or no work experience. Other participants may have criminal backgrounds, be substance
abusers, or be homeless.
I used to say that we know very well the profile of the people…. In the last year and a half it’s
changing and we’ve been having people with bachelor degrees, master’s degrees, coming over to the
organization looking for employment. So that’s sort of the profile. When they come into [our
organization], we talk to them about…thinking about beyond getting a job and actually creating a
master plan and that master plan [is] different from what we used to do a while back. It’s a master
plan that includes a plan on wealth creation, a plan on career goals, and then also a plan on an overall
vision for their life and for their family.
Organizations must demonstrate flexibility in order to properly serve all participants and thus maintain
their success. They can use data about participants’ characteristics, needs, and experiences to best serve
the participants and better allocate resources, including funding and staffing. By using up-to-date
information on who they are serving, their needs, and the needs of the labor market, organizations can be
more flexible in their service delivery. They have developed new components of programs or new
programs altogether in response to a changing labor market, a growing demand for services, and changing
participant characteristics. This has included expanding to add adult education and training and accredited
curriculum in growing sectors (i.e., healthcare), offering programs for dislocated workers or older adult
workers making career changes, providing additional support services (or additional community partners),
as well as adding transitional jobs or opportunities in the organizations’ social enterprise components.
One organization in the study participated in a time-limited transitional jobs program whose success has
them now considering adopting a transitional jobs program as one component of their organization’s
offerings. Several of the organizations now operate social enterprises to help generate revenue and act as
a work-based learning and training outlet for participants with multiple barriers who are difficult to
engage in the workplace, such as those without any prior work experience and ex-offenders.
Programs also exercise creativity in service delivery within existing models in order to best serve their
participants’ needs. For example, the four CWF sites in the study are administered in very different ways.
One keeps CWF as a separate program with different application procedures from its other training
programs. Another has incorporated the CWF into their workforce training program; the two others host
the site alongside their training programs, allowing program participants and the public alike to utilize
CWF services. One organization used their Social Innovation Fund grant money to operate an alternative
school for youth as well as a training and supports program specifically for single Latina mothers. Despite
organizations’ willingness to adapt in order to respond to changes in the economy, program staff noted
that funders have not matched that flexibility in altering their performance requirements. With the recent
economic recession and high unemployment, performance expectations have not been altered to account
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