Rolling Up Our Sleeves and Digging In

Rolling Up Our Sleeves and Digging In

Building Changes’ Economic Opportunities Initiative, a capacity-building program focused on supporting 25 nonprofits throughout Washington State, has been gaining traction since it first kicked off April. Credit goes to the remarkable vision and drive of the participating organizations. Ranging from startup nonprofits with a single staff member to large regional nonprofits, participants are working hard to improve the lives of the neediest members of their communities.

Likewise, Building Changes is working hard to support Initiative participants through a strategic combination of financial assistance, training, and consulting services. Recently, we awarded more than $375,000 in financial assistance grants to 16 participants. The grants help organizations improve employment services and access to public benefits for their homeless and at-risk clients. For example, a grantee in Clark County was awarded funds to develop an in-house employment training program for residents of their transitional and permanent housing programs. By year end, Building Changes will award a total of $600,000 in grant funds to help further the goals of all 25 participants.

Nick Codd, Building Changes' Economic Opportunities Specialist, works with Initiative participants during a training.

Educational trainings are another important tool for building capacity among participants, and we are offering a range of trainings in two formats. Traditional in-person meetings take place quarterly—such as the September training at Central Washington University in Ellensburg, which focused on helping participants get their individual projects off the ground and implemented. Using web-based conferencing broadens our reach and enables us to coach participants on "nuts and bolts" topics such as vocational assessment, employment preparation, and volunteer management.

Finally, through in-depth consulting, each participant organization has the opportunity to work side-by-side with Building Changes staff on specific aspects of their project. And although the long road to completing project work plans is finally behind participants, according to Economic Opportunities Specialist Nick Codd, more interesting challenges are on their way. “Now we are rolling up our sleeves and digging into the work,” Codd says. “We have a lot of work to do, and it’s exciting.”