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

equirements. As part of these efforts, providers collect and report data differently for their various
funding sources and grants, which often require multiple data systems with repetitive data entry.
Despite the efforts to diversify funding to meet the variety of participants and their needs, staff from all
six organizations consistently mentioned funding as one of the top challenges to successfully carrying out
their work and mission. As the funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)
expires, programs face sharply declining funding levels for workforce systems. In fact, recent funding
cuts from most sources—including diminishing WIA funding, shrinking state and city budgets, and
constricted foundation finances—only exacerbate the existing challenges facing organizations who are
already working with much less than their desired levels of funding. One noted,
There are far more people eligible than we have money to serve.
This organization reported they would be significantly downsizing staff the following year due to funding
cuts despite already having an overwhelming case manager-to-participant ratio.
Maintain Core Competencies
The programmatic changes, in terms of services offered and participant populations served, have resulted
from decisions that allowed organizations to focus on their strengths and reflect broader strategic
commitments to serving their core competencies. Given limited resources and organization-specific core
competencies and commitments, they must strategically choose whether or not to engage with various
service delivery options and potential training programs. (For example, they might need to decide whether
or not adding a social enterprise would benefit them.) Generally, organizations have decided to delve
deeper into their core competencies rather than venture into unknown areas where they are inexperienced.
This decision has been influential in their continued success. One organization, for example, reported they
decided to stay away from training in specific industries where they had little expertise or experience, like
information technology or construction. Another organization had previously offered youth programs, but
stopped when they discovered their resources didn’t allow them to commit fully to their youth and adult
programs. Staff at that organization said that focusing on their core competencies is
…part of why we’re strong now…we’ve really, really reorganized almost ruthlessly around what our
core competencies are and [we are] trying to be really tight about what we do.
For them, this meant devoting more resources to training that was customized for their employer partners
and their incumbent workers, rather than youth work. Another organization used similar reasoning to
expand their services by putting their strengths to use. They knew they were “excellent adult educators”
and built off this core competency to develop a program model that served as a bridge between adult
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