ACF Communities Empowering Youth Demonstration Program
University of Massachusetts Donahue Institute
Compassion Massachusetts Sub Award Plan

1) Overview: The University of Massachusetts Donahue Institute (The University) Compassion Massachusetts is a comprehensive, organizational development initiative that targets small faith-based and community organizations (FBCOs) in the rural counties of Berkshire (western MA) and Barnstable (southeastern MA). The project will focus on programs which serve at-risk youth, and low income and families in transition, which may pose additional risks to youth. The primary goals of the Initiative are to: expand the capacity of FBCO’s to deliver social services and increase sustainability by enhancing an organization’s ability to compete for federal and non-federal funds in the future.

Compassion Massachusetts is planned and implemented through a partnership among the following organizations:

• University of Massachusetts, Donahue Institute, which provides organizational and development training services to public agencies and private and non-profit FBCO’s.
• Berkshire Youth Development Project comprised of three regional partners - Northern Berkshire Community Coalition, Pittsfield Prevention Partnership and South Berkshire Youth Coalition).
• Cape Cod Justice for Youth Collaborative comprised of approximately 40 organizations.
• New England Network for Child, Youth and Family Services, which provides organizational development and capacity building training and technical assistance to youth and family services organizations and research and policy development.

Compassion Massachusetts will support capacity building activities in five critical areas of development:

• Leadership (board and professional staff development and training).
• Organizational (organizational status, mission, vision, assessment, strategic planning, fiscal management, volunteer and staff  development, annual performance reviews and increasing computer/soft-war proficiency, and record-keeping).
• Program  (develop/implement plans that increase scope of services and/or number of clients, new approaches, quality/effectiveness of services, client data, feedback and evaluation, services assessments, and organizational outcomes evaluation).
• Revenue (creating a fundraising plan, increasing number and sources of  funding applications, hiring a grant writer/consultant to train staff, identifying and pursuing new sources of  non/government funds and/or in-kind donations).
• Community Engagement (creating/updating website, developing/distributing written materials, engaging in partnerships with other FBCO’s, advertising, activities that increasing understanding of community and service area needs).

Compassion Massachusetts capacity building activities will be directed to agencies whose core purpose is to promote pro social skills among youth aged 14-24, or provide services to youth and their families. The targeted youth among this age group are “at-risk” by their behaviors such as drug use, delinquency, school dropout, teen pregnancy and violent behavior. A secondary target is people receiving services in organizations designed to help low-income families and/or families in transition (homelessness, employment, or from an institution -incarceration or rehabilitation).

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