SkillWorks’ Capacity Building component has had two phases. The first phase provided six community-based organizations with financial, managerial, and technical service resources to: strengthen their organizational structures and systems, reach higher levels of workforce development services; and improve outcomes for their constituents. The grantees were Asian American Civic Association, Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation, La Alianza Hispana, Oficina Hispana, Project Place, Vietnamese American Civic Association. As a result of these first-phase investments, four organizations successfully competed to join Workforce Partnerships.

The second phase of Capacity Building focuses on helping the Workforce Partnerships achieve their two goals: providing career advancement resources to low-income job seekers and workers; and building career ladders for low-skilled workers with employers in specified industries. Activities include cross-site networking, technical assistance consulting, and training workshops on topics that help the partnerships and their service providers reach scale and sustain themselves for the long term.